RSF accused of seizing hospitals, denying care in Sudan’s Omdurman amid cholera fears
RSF artillery and drone strikes targeted residential areas in Omdurman, early Sunday, March 23, 2025
April 28, 2025 (KHARTOUM) – Activists accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Monday of occupying healthcare facilities in Omdurman’s Al-Salha neighbourhoods and preventing civilians from receiving treatment.
The move comes a day after RSF fighters reportedly killed dozens of civilians in Al-Salha, south of Omdurman. The RSF also allegedly prevented victims’ families from recovering or burying the dead, while imposing a strict curfew restricting access to food and water, according to activists and local reports.
The Al-Salha Resistance Committees, in a statement received by Sudan Tribune, confirmed that “the Rapid Support Forces have occupied all health facilities and converted them into military hospitals to treat their wounded.”
The committees stated the RSF barred residents from entering the medical centres or receiving treatment, denying thousands their fundamental right to healthcare.
The statement revealed four deaths from cholera and warned that the number could rise significantly due to the absence of medical and humanitarian interventions.
It said the area faces a rapidly spreading cholera epidemic amid a complete lack of medicine, with pharmacies closed due to fear of looting and attacks.
Infections are rising daily, the statement noted, while residents cannot leave home “fearing the brutality of the RSF, which does not hesitate to kill civilians in cold blood.” It cited an incident on Sunday outside Al-Wisal school where “innocents were executed in front of everyone.”
The committees appealed to the United Nations, its agencies, and international organizations for “immediate and urgent intervention to save the lives of thousands of besieged civilians threatened with mass death” from disease and “militia brutality.”
They urged the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to “fulfil their constitutional responsibilities by taking swift action to rescue civilians,” secure aid access, and lift the siege on Al-Salha “before it turns into a mass grave.”
Al-Salha is considered the RSF’s last main stronghold in the Omdurman locality.