The armed group shot and looted the last functioning hospital in West Darfur, forcing its closure.
Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries in Sudan have attacked the last functioning hospital in the Darfur region, an international aid group said.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, reported on Sunday night that the RSF had attacked the Southern Hospital in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, the previous day. The armed group opened fire on medical staff and patients while looting the site, forcing the facility to close.
“It is outrageous that the RSF opened fire inside the hospital. This is not an isolated incident, as staff and patients have suffered attacks from all sides in the facility for weeks, but opening fire inside a hospital crosses the line,” said Michel Lacharite, MSF’s head of emergency operations.
Breaking: On Saturday, MSF and the Ministry of Health suspended all activities at the South Hospital, Al Fasher, North Darfur, after RSF soldiers stormed the facility, opened fire and looted it, including stealing an MSF ambulance. 1/8
— MSF Sudan (@MSF_Sudan) June 9, 2024
War broke out in Sudan in mid-April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis and killing at least 15,500 people, according to United Nations estimates.
El-Fasher is the SAF’s last stronghold in Darfur and an important humanitarian hub for a region on the brink of famine. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering there, forced to survive without basic supplies, due to fears that the ongoing fighting around the city – which has been occurring irregularly since April 2023 – will turn into an all-out battle for control.
At the time of the attack on the city’s hospital, there were 10 patients and a skeleton medical team on duty, and the Sudanese Ministry of Health had already begun evacuation procedures, MSF said.
Most of the remaining patients and medical staff managed to flee the gunfire, the NGO said. However, he added that “due to the chaos, our team was unable to verify whether there were any deaths or injuries”.
The attack on the hospital came as the RSF has intensified its operations around el-Fasher in recent weeks. Increased fighting has killed more than 120 people.
People in the town call it “hell on Earth, where they could lose their lives any day,” Toby Harward, the UN deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, told Al Jazeera last month.
Between May 25 and June 3, the hospital was hit three times by mortar shells and bullets, killing two people and injuring 14, MSF said.
According to the UN, the war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in a single town in West Darfur, since hostilities reignited 14 months ago. Almost nine million people were forced to flee their homes.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including deliberate attacks on civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and blocking humanitarian aid.
Widespread sexual violence has also been reported, which amounts to crimes against humanity, according to the UN.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
