Sudanese paramilitaries have attacked the city of el-Fasher killing at least 38 people, according to local activists, while international rights groups accuse the fighters of widespread sexual violence.
The local resistance committee, a volunteer group coordinating aid in el-Fasher, said on Sunday that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted the centre of the capital of North Darfur state “with four high-explosive missiles”.
The massacre followed an earlier drone attack on the city’s Saudi Hospital on Friday, which killed nine people and wounded 20, forcing doctors to halt operations.
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described attacks on healthcare facilities across Sudan as “deplorable” in a post on X on Saturday.
The RSF and Sudan’s army have been locked in a power struggle since mid-April 2023, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises, with tens of thousands killed and more than 11 million displaced.
Nearly all of Darfur is now controlled by the RSF, which has also taken over swaths of the South Kordofan region and central Sudan, while the army holds the north and east.
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Rights groups accuse both sides of targeting civilians.
‘Epidemic of sexual violence’
On Monday, rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted widespread sexual violence in the conflict, accusing the RSF and its allied groups fighting the army of “heinous” acts that could potentially constitute “war crimes”.
HRW documented dozens of cases of sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual slavery, targeting women and girls aged between seven and 50 in South Kordofan state since September 2023.
According to the report, many of the victims were gang-raped at their or their neighbours’ homes, often in front of families while some were abducted and held in conditions of enslavement.
One survivor, a 35-year-old Nuba woman, described being gang-raped by six RSF fighters who stormed her family compound and killed her husband and son when they tried to intervene.
“They kept raping me, all six of them,” she said.
“This research highlights what we have been hearing for some time now about the magnitude of sexual violence in Sudan, with the RSF coming into homes and raping women and girls time and again,” said Belkis Wille, HRW’s associate crisis and conflict director.
Another survivor, aged 18, recounted being taken with 17 others to a base where they joined 33 detained women and girls and were raped and beaten on a daily basis for three months.
The UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned last month about an “epidemic of sexual violence” against women in Sudan, saying the world “must do better”.
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In November, HRW relayed its findings to RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, but received no response.
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