A BBC investigation has found evidence that fighters from Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) systematically dismantled the healthcare system of el-Fasher during their long siege and eventual takeover of the Darfur city a year ago. Drawing on sources inside the city, the investigation documents at least 43 separate attacks on hospitals and health sites between May 2024 and October 2025, with some facilities hit more than once, the BBC reported.

Source: BBC investigation (via Zot News)

The toll on medical staff was severe: the BBC's data records 55 medical workers killed, 120 injured and 10 abducted or forcibly disappeared between April 2023 and October 2025. Private hospitals and neighbourhood clinics closed one by one, relocated facilities were hit as well, and by the time the RSF seized the city, the Saudi Hospital was the only health facility still working, according to the investigation.

Source: BBC investigation (via Zot News)

43attacks on hospitals and health sites in el-Fasher documented by the BBC, May 2024–October 2025
55medical workers killed (BBC data, April 2023–October 2025)
120medical workers injured, with 10 more abducted or forcibly disappeared

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called the findings 'deeply disturbing', saying multiple attacks by the RSF on civilian infrastructure, including health facilities, were serious violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes. The World Health Organization said el-Fasher represents 'one of the clearest and most severe examples of the wider impact of the conflict on health care in Sudan', the BBC reported. A surgeon who worked in el-Fasher during the siege told the BBC the attacks were deliberate, describing the health system as the cornerstone that holds a city together.

Source: BBC investigation (via Zot News)

The BBC traced the collapse step by step: after the civil war erupted in April 2023, the city's Teaching Hospital closed and services moved to South Hospital, which was shelled several times in late May and early June 2024 and then raided on 8 June 2024, when its director general said he was beaten by fighters and survived only by pretending to be dead. Teams then moved to the Saudi Maternity Hospital, which was struck repeatedly, a children's hospital was shelled at two successive relocation sites, and a dialysis centre was hit again after it moved, according to the investigation.

Source: World Right Now (BBC report)

What is solid

  • The BBC investigation documents at least 43 attacks on hospitals and health sites in el-Fasher between May 2024 and October 2025, some hit repeatedly (BBC).
  • The BBC's data records 55 medical workers killed, 120 injured and 10 abducted or forcibly disappeared between April 2023 and October 2025 (BBC).
  • UN rights chief Volker Türk said the findings are 'deeply disturbing' and that the attacks may amount to war crimes; the WHO called el-Fasher one of the clearest and most severe examples of the war's impact on health care in Sudan (BBC).
  • When the RSF seized el-Fasher a year ago, the Saudi Hospital was the only health facility still working (BBC).

What is only claimed

  • The RSF has rejected the investigation: its health minister, Dr Alaa Eldin Nugud, called the allegations propaganda and claimed South Hospital was being used as a military base with missile launchers on its grounds — the BBC said it found no independent evidence for that claim, doctors who worked there denied it, and the Darfur regional government categorically rejected it (BBC).
  • Reports that more than 460 patients and companions were killed when RSF fighters stormed the Saudi Hospital on 25 October 2025 are reported accounts which the RSF has denied; the WHO condemned the reported killings (BBC via World Right Now).