The African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) continues to record the increasing violence in El-Fashir, North Darfur State, since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of the city.
On October 26, 2025, the RSF conducted a raid on El-Fashir New Saudi Hospital, resulting in at least 470 deaths among patients and companions, according to medical sources. This hospital, the only functional health facility in El-Fashir until that date, was run by both civilian and military medical teams. Before the attack, it operated from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, offering free services to the community.
The Children’s Hospital has now been converted into an RSF detention facility.
On October 26, 2025, over 4,000 civilians attempted to evacuate from El-Fashir seeking safety after the RSF announced control of the city. The civilians marched to the Garni area, the northern exit leading to safe zones like Tawilla, Turah, and Malite. As sunset approached, RSF members and allied militias converged and found large trucks, including Hino ZS and Toyota Canters, in the Garni area. The RSF told the civilians that these trucks would transport them to Tawilla. However, the convoy turned back, returning to El-Fashir and stopping at the Children's Hospital, located near the Money Stook building in the city's west. This group of civilians was held at the Children’s hospital overnight, and the following day, around 1,000 more civilians were brought in, and another 1,300 joined the next day, bringing the total detainees to at least 7,300 people. Inside the hospital, at least 27 medical personnel were present.
Living conditions at the detention facility.
Upon the group's arrival at the detention facility, the RSF fighters subjected the detainees to various forms of torture, including the use of wooden sticks, lashes, gun butts, as well as hands and feet. They also engaged in verbal abuse, employing terms such as "Falangaya," "Slaves," "mother fuckers," and "Awlad Haram," the latter loosely translated as “born outside wedlock.”
On the initial day of detention, a detainee was suspected of being a member of the SAF and was consequently shot in the presence of the other detainees. Additionally, when food items were being received, an automatic weapon belonging to an RSF member unintentionally fell and discharged, resulting in the death of two detainees and injuries to three others.
During the initial three days, no drinking water was available, and the only provisions were dry foods like wheat flour and sugar. It wasn't until the fourth day that people began drinking from the sewage.
On the fifth day, cholera cases started to appear, beginning with three and increasing to 52, with daily growth. Over two weeks, the total number of cases reached 358, resulting in 250 deaths. Among these, 198 individuals were identified, and 52 remained unidentified.
The RSF instructed the medical team to provide treatment to individuals suffering from cholera and the injured detainees. They were supplied with medical provisions including saline and two varieties of intravenous fluids, namely glucose and antibiotics. Medical personnel informed ACJPS that they had not encountered this type of medication previously in El-Fashir, especially given the city's siege conditions.
By the end of the first week, detainees received wheat flour and sugar twice daily. On the tenth day, cooking oil was added, and inmates cooked collectively, eating freely.
By the start of the third week, they had added rice, powdered milk, and biscuits. However, the current status of the detainees is still unknown.
Burial procedures for detainees who succumbed to cholera
The cholera death toll reached at least 250, with 52 unidentified bodies. The RSF instructed detainees to handle the burials. Initially, bodies were buried in the children's cemetery near the hospital, but later they were moved to a mass grave with new cases. This grave is located east of the mountains, near the first checkpoint on the highway leading west into the city from Omdurman.
The status of detained medical personnel
During the third week, following an intervention by the doctor overseeing the RSF medical team in El-Fashir, the medical personnel were segregated and accommodated at a guest house situated in the Draj Awla neighborhood, approximately four plots away from Al-Saudi Hospital. The team comprised five physicians and twelve medical assistants, including nurses, drivers, and first-aid providers. Additionally, they discovered a female specialist doctor who had been previously abducted and subsequently brought to the guest house.
There are six additional guest houses that accommodate medical personnel who have been brought to El-Fashir, abducted from Aldain, Unkadadah, and Nyala in South Darfur. All of these individuals are employed at Al-Saudi Hospital. It is noteworthy that the medical director at the Saudi Hospital is a physician originally from Sraf Omrah.
Conditions at the guest house
ACJPS was reliably informed that the situation at the guest house is improved relative to that at the detention centers, particularly concerning the provision of quality food, including meat on a daily basis. Although there was an initial shortage of water, the RSF subsequently commenced delivering water via tankers. Furthermore, the guest house comprises several rooms, and occupants were provided with mattresses placed on the ground without bed sheets.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Extra-Judicial Killing
On October 26, 2025, RSF fighters in the Garni area shot and killed Dr. Adam, a male medical worker, while he was fleeing from El-Fashir in a government vehicle. Upon reaching Garni, they demanded he return with them to El-Fashir. He refused, after which they accused him of supporting SAF before killing him.
On November 6, 2025, a soldier belonging to the joint forces, who was unable to flee due to a gunshot wound to his foot, tragically passed away. A dependable medical source informed Acjps that they discovered him in the emergency department upon returning to the hospital after their release from the Children's Hospital detention center. He was in urgent need of a blood transfusion; however, the RSF fighters, who entered the hospital twice in the subsequent days, discharged shots at his injured foot on both occasions.
Kidnappings and Ransom Demands
Two medical professionals endured severe torture before fleeing to the Tawilla region, following a ransom payment of 10,000,000 Sudanese Pounds. The ransom was transferred via mobile transaction. Upon receipt of the payment, the RSF escorted the detainees to the Garni area en route to Tawilla, where they were subsequently released.
Background
The El-Fashir New Saudi Hospital was initially raided and attacked on April 15, 2023, by RSF troops. The seventeen doctors on duty sought refuge in a private ultrasound room. Armed RSF members threatened other hospital staff, insinuating that they might harm doctors who had previously been abducted. After evacuating all medical supplies into their vehicles, one midwife managed to send a message to the doctors in hiding. Two male doctors volunteered to emerge but were compelled to treat the injured RSF commander, Major General Jedo Hamdan Abu Shok, who sustained wounds to his left hand, side, and foot. They were coerced into assisting him at the female doctors' guest house near the hospital.