Geneva, Switzerland

Friday, October 31, 2025

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization condemned the killing of more than 460 people in a maternity hospital in El-Facher, the last partially functioning hospital in this Sudanese city, which was taken over by paramilitaries at the end of last week.

The WHO “is appalled and deeply shocked by reports of the tragic killing of more than 460 patients and their companions at the Saudi maternity hospital in El-Facher, Sudan, following recent attacks and the abduction of health workers,” said its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a statement.

“Cease fire!” he added.

According to the WHO, this maternity hospital was the only hospital still partially operational in the city.

On Sunday, it was attacked “for the fourth time in a month,” killing one nurse and injuring three other health workers, the organization said.

On Tuesday, “more than 460 patients and their companions were shot dead in the hospital,” the WHO said, adding that six health workers had also been abducted.

“This tragedy is part of a rapidly worsening crisis in El Fasher, North Darfur, where escalating violence, siege conditions, and increased hunger and disease are killing civilians, including children, and collapsing an already fragile health system.

“The WHO condemns these horrific attacks on the health system in the strongest possible terms and calls for respect for the sanctity of healthcare,” the organization added.

After taking El-Facher on Sunday from its rivals, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s army, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) now control the whole of Darfur, a vast region in western Sudan covering a third of the country.

Commanded by General Mohamed Daglo, the RSF, which has set up a parallel administration in Darfur, controls western Sudan and parts of the south, along with its allies. The army controls the north, east, and center of the country, which has been ravaged by more than two years of war.

Experts fear both a new partition of Sudan and a return to the massacres that bloodied Darfur in the 2000s between the government and militias.

For its part, the WHO points to the rise in malnutrition, which weakens the immune system and makes people more vulnerable to diseases such as cholera and malaria.

Cholera is spreading particularly rapidly due to the lack of access to safe drinking water, according to the organization. This year, 32 people have died from the disease in El Fasher out of 272 reported cases, the WHO warned.

“All attacks on health facilities must cease immediately and unconditionally. All patients, health workers, and health facilities must be protected under international humanitarian law,” demanded the WHO chief.

Not counting the attack on the maternity hospital, the WHO had recorded 185 attacks on health facilities since the start of the conflict in April 2023, resulting in 1,204 deaths and 416 injuries.

Forty-nine of these attacks took place this year alone, killing 966 people.

Humaniterre with AFP