The last functioning hospital in El Fasher, Darfur, in western Sudan, has been closed after an attack by paramilitaries trying to seize the key city, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said.
War has raged for more than a year between the regular military under the army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
El Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur state, is the only state capital in the vast western region not under RSF control, and a key humanitarian hub for a region on the brink of famine.
“On Saturday, MSF and the ministry of health suspended all activities in South Hospital, El Fasher, North Darfur, after RSF soldiers stormed the facility, opened fire and looted it, including stealing an MSF ambulance,” said MSF in a statement posted late on Sunday on X.
There have been sporadic clashes in El Fasher since war broke out in April 2023, but fierce fighting reignited on 10 May in what the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has called “an alarming new chapter” in the conflict.
Since then, “at least 192 people have been killed and more than 1,230 wounded” in the city, according to a conservative estimate by the medical charity.
MSF said “intensified fighting” around the hospital earlier this week had triggered its evacuation, and by the time of the paramilitary attack “there were only 10 patients and a reduced medical team” there.
“Most patients and the remaining medical team … were able to flee the RSF shooting,” MSF added. It noted that “due to the chaos, our team was unable to verify if there were any killed or wounded” in the latest attack.
Michel-Olivier Lacharité, the head of emergencies at MSF, said it was “outrageous that the RSF opened fire inside the hospital”.
“Warring parties must halt attacks on medical care,” he added. “Hospitals are closing. Remaining facilities can’t handle mass casualties.”
The war across Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in a single West Darfur town, UN experts say. Nearly 9 million people have been forced from their homes.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes including deliberately targeting civilians, the indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and blocking humanitarian aid. Rights groups and the US have also accused the paramilitaries of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
