BBC Investigation Documents Systematic Targeting of Hospitals by Sudan’s RSF Fighters

The assaults peaked with an RSF raid on 8 June. Hospital staff were caught off guard, many fleeing over the back wall as paramilitaries entered the facility, according to Dr Mustafa Ahmed, a pharmaceutical specialist.

However, the hospital’s director general, surgeon Izzeldin Ahmed Dawaud Asow, came face-to-face with a group of paramilitaries outside his office.

They were unaware he was a physician, he noted, yet subjected him to ethnic slurs.

He recalled them declaring, “There are no citizens here. You are Falangi,” a slur suggesting non-Arab Sudanese are foreigners.

Dr Asow recounted being struck with rifle butts and losing consciousness at one stage. To survive, he pretended to be dead.

“They placed a hand on my chest, and I ceased breathing. Then they said: ‘Leave him, leave him. The rubbish has died. Leave him.’ They walked away,” he recalled.

On the same day, RSF forces were pushed out by the Sudanese military and its allies, allowing Dr Asow to return. He discovered the bodies of several patients and thoroughly destroyed surgical equipment in his operating room, he stated.

The facility was subsequently shut and later seized by the RSF as the army withdrew.

Dr Alaa Eldin Nugud, a prominent Sudanese surgeon serving as health minister in the RSF-backed civilian government, insisted the South Hospital was being used as a military base.

Under international law, hospitals lose protected status if used by a conflict party to commit acts harmful to the enemy.

In a BBC interview, Dr Nugud asserted that missile launchers were installed on the hospital grounds and shared footage of weapon remains filmed over a year after the facility closed, supporting his assertion.

He also presented maps, which he claimed, showed landmines planted around the Teaching Hospital, situated adjacent to Sudanese military headquarters.

Physicians told the BBC the hospital was not integrated into the military base and that they visited to retrieve medical equipment during the conflict.

The BBC found no independent evidence corroborating Dr Nugud’s claims. The Darfur regional government likewise categorically rejected the allegations.

Following the South Hospital’s closure, its staff and remaining equipment were relocated to the Saudi Maternity Hospital in the city’s west, where the army maintained its primary bases.

Within days, the attack frequency on the facility increased. Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) then raised the alarm.

“We do not know if hospitals are being intentionally targeted, but… belligerents are not taking precautions to spare them,” MSF stated.

During our investigation, six doctors described a pattern of systematic targeting.

They described Saudi Hospital being repeatedly struck—up to 25 times on some days—a mix of shelling and drones, including precision-guided “intelligent rockets.”

Smaller medical facilities also came under fire. The BBC’s timeline documents the steady closure of private hospitals and neighborhood clinics.

Additionally, when some healthcare facilities relocated, their new venues were also attacked.

The Specialised Children’s Hospital, which closed at the war’s outset alongside the Teaching Hospital, relocated twice; both new locations were shelled and forced to close.

Similarly, the main dialysis centre was struck, and attacked again after it relocated.

Source link