The World Health Organization said it had received reports that more than 450 people were massacred on Tuesday in the last functioning hospital in the Sudanese city of El Fasher.
Although the W.H.O. did not specify who was responsible for the killings, it said they occurred a few days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F., seized control of El Fasher, a major battleground in the western region of Darfur, forcing Sudanese troops stationed there to flee.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the W.H.O., said the organization was “appalled and deeply shocked by reports of the tragic killing of more than 460 patients and companions” at the Al Saudi hospital in El Fasher.
Minni Minawi, the governor of Darfur whose troops are fighting alongside the military in Sudan’s civil war, also said 460 had been killed, and called on the United Arab Emirates, the R.S.F.’s main foreign backer, to disavow the group.
There was no immediate response from the Rapid Support Forces.
The Emirati government has said repeatedly that it does not support any of the warring parties in Sudan. It has also publicly condemned atrocities by both the R.S.F. and Sudan’s military.
A more detailed statement by the W.H.O., issued separately from the remarks by its leader, said the massacre had occurred on Tuesday. Six health workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist were also abducted by fighters, it said.
A spokesman for the W.H.O said it was able to confirm the death toll through multiple sources, including witness accounts, officials inside Sudan, photos, videos and local media accounts.
The Saudi hospital was the last refuge for many starving or injured civilians in El Fasher, where 260,000 people had been trapped in recent weeks as the R.S.F. began its final assault in a city after over 18 months of brutal siege.
The paramilitary group built an earthen wall around the city in recent months, preventing food and medical supplies from entering.
Since the fighters captured El Fasher last weekend, rights groups including Human Rights Watch have accused R.S.F. fighters of shooting dead civilians as they tried to flee. But no massacre has been reported on such a huge scale in the battle for El Fasher, or even since Sudan’s civil war started in April 2023.
Declan Walsh is the chief Africa correspondent for The Times based in Nairobi, Kenya. He previously reported from Cairo, covering the Middle East, and Islamabad, Pakistan.
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