HomeTop Stories130 people die in Sudan hospital during the siege of the city

130 people die in Sudan hospital during the siege of the city

More than 130 people have died in a single hospital in the besieged town of El Fasher, in the Darfur region, according to the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Fighting between rival groups in Sudan’s civil war over control of the city has intensified recently.

The situation was “terrible”, one resident told the BBC, with hospitals and markets facing “violent artillery shelling”.

El Fasher is the last major urban center in Darfur still in the hands of the Sudanese army.

The army has been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in a civil war that has killed thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

The military continues to maintain control of El Fasher. The city has become a haven for people displaced by fighting in other areas.

On May 10, the RSF intensified their attack on the city, in what UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called “an alarming new chapter” in the conflict in Sudan.

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Doctors Without Borders said one of its hospitals was struggling to cope with the increased number of victims.

South Hospital had treated 979 victims in just over two weeks, the charity said on Sunday. There had been 134 deaths, “a sign of the violent intensity of the fighting”, it added.

Supplies at the hospital are running low and will barely last a week, the UN said.

On Friday, Doctors Without Borders reported that more than 700 people had died across the city in the past ten days.

The medical director of the government-run Saudi hospital of El Fasher told the BBC that the situation was “terrible”.

“Since early morning, the RSF began violent artillery shelling on the city, targeting residential areas, markets and hospitals,” Modther Ibrahim Suliman said.

The Saudi and Southern hospitals are the last functioning ones in the region. The Saudi hospital was previously closed due to the violence, but partially reopened to treat emergencies.

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Residents of El Fasher say access to food and water has become increasingly difficult. The RSF attacked the city from three sides and blocked all supply routes.

Despite the hardship, many city residents are not leaving their homes because of the fighting, even for emergency medical care.

Journalist Mohamed Zakaria said he had no plans to flee. “There is no place to go… the road is very difficult and dangerous at the moment.”

Earlier this week, a UN expert warned that civilians in El Fasher were being targeted because of their ethnicity.

Special Advisor Alice Wairimu Nderitu added that the Darfur region as a whole faced a growing risk of genocide as the world’s attention remained focused on conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

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