RSF shelling on El Fasher hospital, shelter leaves over 60 casualties

October 8, 2025 (EL FASHER) – Successive shellings by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a hospital and a displacement shelter in El Fasher over two days have killed and wounded more than 60 people, doctors and medical sources said on Wednesday, amid a fierce campaign to capture the North Darfur capital.

The most recent attack on Wednesday saw RSF artillery strike a crowded displacement shelter inside the ancient mosque in the Abushouk al-Hilla neighbourhood. Doctors reported that at least 35 people were killed and injured in the shelling, causing large numbers of displaced people to flee the centre in terror.

The assault followed a separate attack on Tuesday evening, when the RSF shelled the Saudi Hospital for Women and Maternity, the last functioning medical facility in the city. The Sudan Doctors’ Network said that attack killed at least 12 people and wounded 17 others, including patients and medical staff.

The doctors’ group called the hospital attack a “full-fledged war crime” and held the RSF fully responsible. Local sources say the paramilitary force has recently resorted to targeting civilian gathering places in an attempt to forcibly empty the city of its residents.

El Fasher is the last major city in the five-state Darfur region not under RSF control. The paramilitary force has besieged the city since April and escalated its attacks in September in a bid to seize it from the army.

The blockade prevents relief, goods, and medicine from reaching the city, pushing the health system to the brink of collapse. The doctors’ network said the repeatedly targeted Saudi Hospital is suffering from severe shortages of supplies and staff, limiting it to handling only emergency childbirths and first aid for shelling victims.

In a statement, the network urged the international community to take immediate action to protect civilians, adding that “international silence on this continuous bloodshed is a deliberate complicity.”