‘There existed a climate of fear’: Sudanese medical staff recounts escape ahead of purported massacre

A man who fled the last operating hospital in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher before a reported massacre carried out by paramilitary forces claims he has lost all sense of hope and joy.

“I have lost my coworkers,” Abdu-Rabbu Ahmed, a lab technician at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, shared with the BBC.

“I have lost the familiar faces that used to bring smiles… It feels like losing a significant part of your body or your spirit.”

He communicated from a displaced persons camp in Tawila, located around 70km (43 miles) to the west of el-Fasher, which was overtaken by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the final week of October after enduring an 18-month siege.

The RSF has been engaging in conflict with the Sudanese army since April 2023, sparked by a power struggle among their leaders that escalated into a civil war.

The reported deaths of at least 460 patients and their companions at the Saudi Hospital rank among the most shocking in a litany of reports of atrocities – some documented by RSF fighters and shared on social media.

In a statement of condemnation, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed being “appalled and deeply shocked” by the alleged shootings and the abduction of six medical workers – which included four doctors, a nurse, and a pharmacist.

The RSF has rejected these allegations as propaganda, insisting that all hospitals in el-Fasher had been vacated. They countered the claims by releasing a video filmed inside the hospital premises showing female volunteers caring for patients.

A freelancer situated in Tawila collected interviews for the BBC.

Mr. Ahmed recounted that he had continued working at the Saudi Hospital since the onset of the conflict, despite frequent shelling from artillery, tanks, and drones, which led to structural damage and injuries among doctors, nurses, and patients.

Medical staff often shared the scarce food supplies as the RSF blockade intensified, he remarked, occasionally going without breakfast or lunch.

Most of them escaped when the paramilitary forces initiated their final offensive.

“The shelling commenced around six in the morning,” Mr Ahmed recounted.

“All civilians and soldiers moved towards the southern region. It was a scene of panic, and as we navigated, drones were attacking us. Additionally, there was heavy artillery – I witnessed many people die instantaneously, with no one able to assist them.”

Mr Ahmed mentioned that some of the medical personnel who fled arrived with him in Tawila, but many were captured in areas northwest of the city, including the Garni section, the villages of Turra and Hilla al-Sheikh, and the town of Korma.

Some were relocated to Nyala, which he described as the RSF’s de facto capital in South Darfur.

“This is the information I acquired from colleagues we trust,” he reported to the BBC, noting that he later learned that medical staff who remained at the hospital were executed.

Mr Ahmed also suffered tremendous loss within his family: a sister and two brothers were killed that day, and his parents are unaccounted for.

“I am extremely anxious about the situation of those in el-Fasher,” he expressed.

“They could be murdered. And they might be used as human shields against the [Sudanese air force] airstrikes.”

Reports of the alleged hospital massacre have been documented by two Sudanese doctors’ associations, referring to sources on the ground, alongside an activist network from el-Fasher.

The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University indicated that satellite imagery supported the claims, seemingly revealing blood on the ground along with white clustered objects resembling bodies in the hospital compound.

In a satellite image from 1 November, the white objects appear to have been placed in a dug area within the hospital compound. In a follow-up image dated 6 November, these objects appear burnt with smoke still emanating from the area.

BBC Verify has authenticated footage captured at the nearby University of El-Fasher’s Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, revealing bodies on the floor and an RSF combatant fatally shooting one of the surviving men.

A representative for the Sudan Doctors Network, Dr Mohamed Elsheikh, informed the BBC that this building served as an extension to the Saudi hospital for additional wards and patients.

He further explained that the RSF has been demanding ransoms for the release of the abducted medical personnel.

“One of the six abducted doctors or medical staff had his family pay a ransom amounting to $30,000 [£23,000], and he safely arrived in Tawila,” stated Dr Elsheikh, who is now employed by the NHS in the UK.

“The other suffered execution,” he continued, indicating that the group lacks information on the situation of the remaining four.

In Tawila, Mohamed Abdu-Teia, formerly a patient at the Saudi Hospital when the RSF encircled the area, can do little besides lie on the ground with his leg in a worn cast.

It was fractured during a shelling attack, he informs the BBC, but he managed to flee the city on foot during the morning of the final RSF offensive.

Like several other individuals thought to be soldiers, Mr Abdu-Teia was halted at the Garni checkpoint and interrogated, as he explains. The two men accompanying him were taken, yet the RSF permitted him to depart.

“They did not administer any beatings, but they asked me numerous questions, likely due to my injury. They remarked: ‘We are aware you are a soldier, but your time is up – you will perish on the road. So just leave.’

Mr Abdu-Teia reported that the RSF provided some medicine at Garni, but “the number of injuries was overwhelming – two or three people perished every hour.”

“The same day we arrived, vehicles came and transported individuals to unidentified destinations. Any young man who appeared physically fit was taken.”

He managed to catch a ride to Tawila from “people who had cars.” They charged passengers 500,000 Sudanese pounds ($830, £630) and switched on wi-fi hotspots so they could contact their families to send money, he explained. “We departed with them – we had nothing, not even plans.”

Many children arrived at the Tawila camps without guardians. Fifteen-year-old Eman was one of them.

Her father was killed in a drone strike in el-Fasher, she revealed to the BBC, and her mother and brother were apprehended by the RSF as they escaped.

“Those who weren’t killed, [the RSF] ran them over with vehicles,” she said. “They seized our possessions and declared that we were all soldiers. They beat my brother and choked him with a chain.

“They attempted to assault my mother. She urged us: ‘Go, I will find you.’ We boarded a vehicle and departed. They did not permit my brother to enter the vehicle. We left them behind.”

Eman evaded capture but witnessed other girls and women who did not.

“They abducted some women. They took them in their vehicles and stabbed certain ones with knives. Some were taken while their mothers could do nothing.”

Survivors have shared gruesome accounts of gang rapes and the kidnapping of young girls.

Another solitary teenager, 14-year-old Samar, reported losing her mother amidst the turmoil at the Garni checkpoint, while her father was arrested.

She was informed he had been taken to the Children’s Hospital in el-Fasher.

That facility had allegedly been functioning as an RSF detention center, which is also where Yale researchers claimed that satellite images indicated evidence of killings: visible clusters of bodies paired with earth excavations that could represent a mass grave.

The RSF has shared videos to counter these claims, asserting that the Children’s Hospital in el-Fasher is prepared to receive patients.

One shows a man in a blazer standing at its entrance with a group of apparent doctors in hospital attire.

“These medical personnel and staff are not hostages,” the man in the blazer states. “We are not retaining them as war hostages. They are free. They are free to practice medicine.”

Another individual in the video, introducing himself as Dr Ishaq Abdul Mahmoud, associate professor of pediatrics and child health at el-Fasher University, mentions: “We are here to assist anyone in need of medical attention.”

“We have distanced ourselves from politics. Regardless if individuals are soldiers or [civilians], we are prepared to aid them.”

Dr Elsheikh of the Sudan Doctors Network categorically dismisses the RSF videos as propaganda.

And Mr Ahmed, the lab technician from the Saudi Hospital in Tawila, is aware of the reality he has witnessed, and he feels he has seen far too much.

“I have no expectation of going back to el-Fasher,” he states.

“After everything that has transpired and all that I have observed. Even if there was a shred of hope, I can recall what took place before my eyes.”

Mohamed Zakaria is a freelance journalist from Darfur based in Kampala

Additional reporting by BBC Verify’s Peter Mwai