In brief
BBC investigators have found clear evidence that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) deliberately targeted and destroyed hospital infrastructure in el‑Fasher from May 2024 to October 2025, with at least 43 separate attacks on medical sites. The assaults caused the deaths and injuries of medical staff, patients and civilians, and violated international humanitarian law that protects healthcare facilities. International organisations including the UN and WHO have condemned the attacks as war crimes, while RSF and the working government deny the allegations. The continuing assault on healthcare has left the city’s remaining hospitals operating under extreme shortages and insecurity. The crisis illustrates the wider devastation of Sudan’s civil war, impacting thousands of civilians still trapped in conflict zones.
A BBC investigative team has revealed that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a Sudanese paramilitary group, deliberately targeted the healthcare system in el‑Fasher during its siege and takeover of the city between May 2024 and October 2025. Over that period, at least 43 separate attacks on hospitals and clinics were carried out, including shelling, drone strikes and led‑to‑loss – leaving 120 medical workers wounded, 55 killed and 10 abducted.
International humanitarian law prohibits attacks on medical facilities, yet the RSF’s actions violated those rules, a fact that the UN’s Volker Türk has called "deeply disturbing" and may constitute war crimes. The RSF and the RSF‑backed civilian government dismissed the allegations as propaganda, but WHO officials described the bombing of al‑Daein hospital and other attacks as an example of wider humanitarian violence in Sudan.
Within el‑Fasher, the Teaching Hospital was shut down and its equipment moved to the South Hospital, only for it to be shelled repeatedly. Doctors interviewed by the BBC reported being beaten, threatened and forced to flee; the RSF claimed the site was a military base and allegedly used it to store missile launchers and landmines.
The only functioning health facility after the siege was the Saudi Hospital, which operated with makeshift shelters, sandbags and underground bunkers amid constant shelling. Surgeons such as Dr Izzeldin Asow and Dr Muhamed Suliman described how they performed surgeries under explosions and how drones tracked patient movements, striking the very moments medical teams reached the ward doors.
Following the RSF’s capture of the city in October 2025, the remaining hospitals came under RSF control, with the government releasing videos of supposed reopenings. However, Mr. Dr Alaa Eldin Nugud, a prominent surgeon and RSF health minister, denied any forced abductions and claimed relatives were freed. Humanitarian groups remain concerned that the targeting of hospitals will continue to compound the suffering of civilians in Sudan’s ongoing civil war.
