BBC Investigation: Sudan's RSF Fighters Deliberately Targeted Hospitals in el-Fasher
A BBC investigation finds that Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces systematically destroyed el-Fasher's healthcare system during the siege of the city. The RSF rejects the findings, while the UN human rights chief calls them deeply disturbing.
A BBC investigation published a year after the fall of el-Fasher, a city in Sudan's Darfur region, concludes that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) systematically destroyed its healthcare system during the siege and subsequent takeover. UN human rights chief Volker Türk called the findings "deeply disturbing" and said the attacks on civilian infrastructure, including health facilities, were serious violations of international humanitarian law that may amount to war crimes. The RSF rejects the findings.
What the investigation found
Using sources who were on the ground in el-Fasher, the BBC documented at least 43 separate attacks on hospitals and healthcare sites between May 2024 and October 2025, with some hit more than once. Between April 2023 and October 2025, 120 medical workers were injured, 55 killed and 10 forcibly disappeared or abducted. Attacking health facilities or their staff during conflict is illegal under international law.
Surgeon Muhamed Suliman, who worked in the city during the siege, described the attacks as deliberate and planned. South Hospital, the only working hospital providing surgery, was shelled in late May and early June 2024, and RSF fighters raided it on 8 June. Its director general, Izzeldin Ahmed Dawaud Asow, says he was beaten and survived by pretending to be dead. Saudi Hospital was later struck repeatedly, on some days up to 25 times, with shelling and drones. By the time the RSF seized the city in October 2025, it was the only functioning health facility left.
RSF response
The health minister of the RSF-backed civilian government, Dr Alaa Eldin Nugud, called the allegations propaganda and said South Hospital was used as a military base. The BBC found no independent evidence for this claim. He also denied that doctors were abducted.
On 25 October 2025 the RSF stormed Saudi Hospital amid allegations of a massacre that killed more than 460 patients and their companions. The RSF denies it, but the World Health Organization condemned the reported killings.
Sudan's civil war between the RSF and the army began in April 2023, and both sides have been accused of attacking health facilities.
