el-Fasher hospital employee describes ‘state of terror’ earlier than fleeing alleged bloodbath

[ad_1] Barbara Plett Usher, Africa correspondent and

Mohamed Zakaria

WATCH: Abdu-Rabbu Ahmed, who labored on the Saudi Hospital all through the battle, says he has no hope of returning to el-Fasher

A person who escaped the final functioning hospital within the Sudanese metropolis of el-Fasher earlier than a reported bloodbath by paramilitary troops says he has misplaced all hope and happiness.

"I've misplaced my colleagues," Abdu-Rabbu Ahmed, a laboratory technician on the Saudi Maternity Hospital, instructed the BBC.

"I've misplaced the folks whose faces I used to see smiling... It feels as in case you misplaced a giant a part of your physique or your soul."

He was talking to us from a displaced individuals camp in Tawila some 70km (43 miles) to the west of el-Fasher, the regional hub which was taken over by paramilitary Fast Assist Forces (RSF) within the final week of October after an 18-month siege.

The RSF has been preventing the Sudanese military since April 2023, when an influence wrestle between their leaders erupted right into a civil struggle.

The alleged killings of not less than 460 sufferers and their companions on the Saudi Hospital have been probably the most surprising amongst widespread accounts of atrocities - a few of them filmed by RSF fighters and posted to social media.

In a press release of condemnation, the World Well being Group (WHO) mentioned it was "appalled and deeply shocked" by the reported shootings, and by the abductions of six well being staff - 4 docs, a nurse and a pharmacist.

The RSF has dismissed the accusations as disinformation, declaring that each one of el-Fasher's hospitals had been deserted. It disputed the claims by filming a video contained in the hospital grounds exhibiting feminine volunteers tending to sufferers.

A freelancer based mostly in Tawila gathered interviews for the BBC.

Mr Ahmed instructed him he had carried on working at Saudi Hospital because the starting of the struggle, regardless of common shelling by artillery, tanks and drones - which destroyed components of the buildings and injured docs and nurses in addition to sufferers.

Medical workers used to share what little meals was out there because the RSF blockade tightened, he mentioned, generally working with out breakfast or lunch.

Most of them fled when the paramilitary fighters launched their last assault.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/cda4/live/a4fde840-bf14-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/cda4/live/a4fde840-bf14-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/cda4/live/a4fde840-bf14-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/cda4/live/a4fde840-bf14-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/cda4/live/a4fde840-bf14-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/cda4/live/a4fde840-bf14-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/cda4/live/a4fde840-bf14-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/cda4/live/a4fde840-bf14-11f0-8456-eff94716b162.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="AFP via Getty Images Two women stand in front of their makeshift shelter in the Um Yanqur camp, located on the southwestern edge of Tawila." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> AFP by way of Getty Photos The few who escape alive to Tawila reside in makeshift tents and uncertainty

"The shelling began round six within the morning," Mr Ahmed mentioned.

"All civilians and troopers headed out in the direction of the southern facet. There was a state of terror, and as we walked, drones have been bombing us. And heavy artillery too - I noticed many individuals die on the spot, there was no-one who may save them."

Mr Ahmed mentioned a few of the fleeing medical staff arrived with him in Tawila, however many have been detained in places north-west of town, naming the Garni space, the villages of Turra and Hilla al-Sheikh and the city of Korma.

Some have been transferred to Nyala, he mentioned, the RSF's de facto capital in South Darfur.

"That is the data I obtained from colleagues we all know," he instructed the BBC, saying that he later heard medical workers who remained on the hospital have been executed.

Mr Ahmed additionally misplaced a lot of his household: a sister and two brothers have been killed that day, and his dad and mom are lacking.

"I'm very fearful concerning the destiny of the folks inside el-Fasher," he added.

"They could be killed. They usually could also be used as human shields towards the [Sudanese air force] airstrikes."

Accounts of the alleged hospital bloodbath have been reported by two Sudanese docs' teams, citing sources on the bottom, and an el-Fasher activist community.

Yale College's Humanitarian Analysis Lab mentioned satellite tv for pc imagery corroborated the studies, apparently exhibiting blood on the bottom and white grouped objects that regarded like our bodies within the hospital compound.

In a satellite tv for pc picture from 1 November, the white objects are seen being positioned at an space that had been dug inside the compound of the hospital. In a subsequent one, taken on 6 November, these objects are seen charred and with smoke nonetheless rising from the realm.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/3d64/live/38c79dc0-bef0-11f0-8669-5560f5c90fbe.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/3d64/live/38c79dc0-bef0-11f0-8669-5560f5c90fbe.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/3d64/live/38c79dc0-bef0-11f0-8669-5560f5c90fbe.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/3d64/live/38c79dc0-bef0-11f0-8669-5560f5c90fbe.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/3d64/live/38c79dc0-bef0-11f0-8669-5560f5c90fbe.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/3d64/live/38c79dc0-bef0-11f0-8669-5560f5c90fbe.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/3d64/live/38c79dc0-bef0-11f0-8669-5560f5c90fbe.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/3d64/live/38c79dc0-bef0-11f0-8669-5560f5c90fbe.png.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Satellite images taken by 31 October, 1 November and 6 November that appear to show that white objects - believed to be bodies - being placed in an area that had been dug within the compound of Saudi Hospital and then set alight." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> BBC Confirm has authenticated footage filmed on the close by College of El-Fasher's College of Medical Laboratory Sciences: it exhibits our bodies mendacity on the ground and an RSF fighter capturing one of many males nonetheless alive.

A spokesman for the Sudan Docs Community, Dr Mohamed Elsheikh, instructed the BBC this constructing was getting used as an extension to the Saudi hospital for wards and sufferers.

He went on to elucidate that the RSF had been demanding ransoms for the discharge of the kidnapped well being staff.

"The six kidnapped docs or medical workers, one in every of them, his household, managed to pay the ransom equal to $30,000 [£23,000], and he arrived safely to Tawila city," mentioned Dr Elsheikh, now working for the NHS within the UK.

"The opposite was executed," he added, saying the group has no info on the destiny of the remaining 4.

Again in Tawila, Mohamed Abdu-Teia, who had been a affected person on the Saudi Hospital when the RSF closed in, can do little else however lay on the bottom along with his leg in a tattered forged.

It was damaged in a shelling assault, he tells the BBC, however he managed to flee town on foot the morning of the ultimate RSF assault.

Like many different males suspected of being troopers, Mr Abdu-Teia was stopped on the Garni checkpoint and interrogated, he says. The 2 males with him have been taken, however the RSF let him go.

"They did not beat me, however they questioned me so much, due to my damage, I feel. They mentioned: 'We all know you're a soldier, however you are completed - you'll die on the street. So simply go."

Mr Abdu-Teia says the RSF introduced some medication to Garni however "the accidents have been too many - two or three folks died each hour.

"The identical day we arrived, automobiles got here and took folks to unknown locations. Any younger man who regarded bodily OK was taken."

He managed to get a elevate to Tawila from "individuals who had automobiles". They charged passengers 500,000 Sudanese kilos ($830, £630) and turned on wi-fi hotspots so they might name their households to switch cash, he mentioned. "We left with them - we had nothing, not even plans."

Many youngsters arrived on the Tawila camps with out dad and mom. Fifteen-year-old Eman was one in every of them.

Her father was killed in a drone strike in el-Fasher, she instructed the BBC, and her mom and brother have been detained by the RSF as they fled.

"Whoever didn't die, [the RSF] ran them over with automobiles," she mentioned. "They took our belongings and instructed us all of you might be troopers. They beat my brother and choked him with a sequence.

"They wished to beat my mom. She instructed us: 'Go, I'll come to you.' We bought right into a car and left. They didn't enable my brother to get into the car. We left them behind."

Eman escaped however noticed different women and girls who didn't.

"They took some girls. They took them of their automobiles and stabbed a few of them with knives. Some have been taken whereas their moms could not do something."

Feminine survivors have instructed horrific tales of gang rapes and the kidnapping of younger women.

One other teenager on her personal, 14-year-old Samar, mentioned she had misplaced her mom within the chaos on the Garni checkpoint, and her father was arrested.

She was instructed he was taken to the Kids's Hospital in el-Fasher.

That constructing had reportedly been serving as an RSF detention centre, and it's the place the Yale researchers additionally mentioned satellite tv for pc pictures confirmed proof of killings: obvious clusters of our bodies in addition to earth excavations that might have been a mass grave.

The RSF has issued movies to counter these allegations, declaring that the Kids's Hospital in el-Fasher is able to obtain sufferers.

One exhibits a person wearing a blazer standing outdoors its gate with a gaggle of what seem like docs in hospital scrubs.

"These medical personnel and cadres, they aren't hostages," the person within the blazer says. "We're not taking them as struggle hostages. They're free. They're free to practise medication."

One other man within the video, who introduces himself as Dr Ishaq Abdul Mahmoud, affiliate professor of paediatrics and youngster well being at el-Fasher College, says: "We're right here to assist any particular person in want of medical service.

"We're out of politics. Whether or not troopers or [civilians] we're prepared to assist them."

Dr Elsheikh of the Sudan Docs Community dismisses the RSF movies as propaganda.

And Mr Ahmed, the Saudi Hospital laboratory technician in Tawila, is aware of what he has seen, and he has seen an excessive amount of.

"I would not have any hope of returning to el-Fasher," he says.

"After the whole lot that occurred and the whole lot I noticed. Even when there was a small hope, I bear in mind what occurred in entrance of me."

Mohamed Zakaria is a contract journalist from Darfur based mostly in Kampala

Further reporting by BBC Confirm's Peter Mwai

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/03e8/live/984fb100-bb2c-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/03e8/live/984fb100-bb2c-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/03e8/live/984fb100-bb2c-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/03e8/live/984fb100-bb2c-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/03e8/live/984fb100-bb2c-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/03e8/live/984fb100-bb2c-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/03e8/live/984fb100-bb2c-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/03e8/live/984fb100-bb2c-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.png.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Map of Sudan showing territorial control as of 28 October 2025. Areas controlled by the army and allied groups are marked in red, RSF and allied groups in blue, and other armed groups in yellow. Key cities such as Khartoum, el-Fasher and Kadugli are labelled . The Nile River is also depicted. Source: Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Extra BBC tales on the Sudan disaster:

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images/BBC A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News Africa" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Photos/BBC [ad_2] Source link