BBC Investigation: Sudan RSF Systematically Destroyed El-Fasher Healthcare System
Sudanese paramilitary fighters systematically destroyed the healthcare system in El-Fasher during a brutal siege and subsequent takeover, according to an investigation by BBC News. The resulting collapse of medical infrastructure left injured civilians without surgical care, killed dozens of healthcare workers, and prompted UN human rights chief Volker Türk to warn that the deliberate attacks on health facilities may amount to war crimes under international humanitarian law.
Systematic Destruction of El-Fasher Healthcare Infrastructure
The investigation reveals a detailed chronology of at least 43 separate attacks on hospitals and healthcare sites in El-Fasher from May 2024 to October 2025, with several facilities struck multiple times. Civil war erupted across Sudan in April 2023 between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the national military, quickly turning the western Darfur city into a primary conflict zone. Within weeks of the fighting starting, the city’s main Teaching Hospital was forced to close due to its location in the middle of the active combat area. Medical operations subsequently relocated to El-Fasher’s South Hospital, where staff continued to treat patients despite severe power cuts and dwindling supplies.
The situation deteriorated sharply when the RSF mounted its siege of El-Fasher in late May and early June 2024. Paramilitary fighters pushing forward from positions in the east shelled the South Hospital multiple times. Dr Muhamed Suliman, a surgeon based in the city during the siege, told the BBC that the first bombing struck a very crowded area surrounding the only functioning surgical hospital in the city. Medical staff operated on 16 injured patients that same day. The bombardment culminated in an RSF raid on June 8, 2024, which caught hospital staff by surprise. While many workers escaped over the back wall, pharmaceutical specialist Dr Mustafa Ahmed recounted that the hospital’s director general, surgeon Izzeldin Ahmed Dawaud Asow, encountered the paramilitaries outside his office.
The Toll on Medical Personnel and Civilian Life
Data compiled by the BBC covering the period from April 2023 to October 2025 records a devastating human toll among medical workers in El-Fasher: 55 were killed, 120 were injured, and 10 were forcibly abducted or disappeared. Dr Suliman stated that the paramilitary strategy aimed to force hospitals out of service to deprive citizens of any reason to stay, describing the campaign as intense, deliberate, and planned.
UN investigators reported that the fighting in El-Fasher bore the hallmarks of genocide, as historical ethnic animosities saw Arab militias forming the backbone of RSF forces target non-Arab groups populating the city. Volker Türk described the findings as deeply disturbing, emphasizing that targeting civilian infrastructure and health facilities constitutes serious violations of international humanitarian law.
RSF Rejects Findings as Both Sides Attack Hospitals
The Rapid Support Forces rejected the findings entirely. The paramilitary group’s health minister dismissed the allegations as propaganda and a deliberate attempt by the national army and its allies to smear the reputation of the RSF.
Both sides in Sudan’s civil war have faced accusations of attacking health facilities. In March 2026, the World Health Organization condemned the bombing of al-Daein hospital in RSF-held eastern Darfur, an attack that killed dozens and forced the facility to close. While Sudan’s military is believed to have carried out those drone strikes, it has denied responsibility. The World Health Organization characterized the events in El-Fasher as one of the clearest and most severe examples of the wider impact of the conflict on health care in Sudan.
Military Commanders Evade Accountability for Medical Site Attacks
Questions remain regarding the full accountability of military commanders and militia leaders operating in Darfur, as international bodies continue to document violations without immediate enforcement mechanisms to halt attacks on protected medical sites. The exact whereabouts of medical personnel who were forcibly disappeared remain unconfirmed.