Sudan Doctors Network: Rapid Support Forces militia detain 20 doctors, including 4 female doctors, in Al Fasher
Al Fasher – Nile Post
A report prepared by a team from the Sudan Doctors Network on the situation in El Fasher, North Darfur, covering the period from January to April, that is six months after it was overrun by the Rapid Support Forces, has revealed extremely dire humanitarian and health conditions in the city, and the detention of hundreds of civilians, children and women, including doctors, where the Rapid Support Forces practice major violations inside its detention facilities that amount to killing during torture and interrogation operations and killing on an ethnic basis.
The military operations that accompanied the storming of the city led to the fall of large numbers of victims among civilians as a result of indiscriminate shelling and the direct targeting of residential neighborhoods, which led to large-scale massacres after control of the city was taken. This resulted in a rise in the numbers of the seriously injured amid a near-total collapse of health services and the inability of medical facilities to respond, as conditions worsened inside detention centers that were established or used after control of the city, in which hundreds of civilians and military personnel were detained in harsh conditions.
The network said in a press statement today, Monday, that it had obtained detailed data on the detainees held by the Rapid Support Forces up to today, and they are (907) military prisoners and about (1,470) civilian detainees, among them (426) children, (370) women, who have been distributed across several detention sites including Shala Prison, and service facilities such as the Children’s Hospital, and the land port, in addition to others detained inside containers.
According to survivors’ testimonies to the network’s team, detainees are subjected to grave violations that included field liquidation, where killings were carried out against (16) civilians inside the Al-Rasheed dormitories at the University of El Fasher on an ethnic basis in February last, after accusing them of belonging to the regular forces, and some on an ethnic basis. The majority of detainees also suffer from injuries resulting from shelling without receiving the necessary medical care.
The network said that on the health front, detention centers have witnessed a widespread spread of the cholera epidemic since the beginning of February, amid the absence of means of prevention and treatment, which led to weekly deaths ranging between (5 to 10) cases, and the total number of deaths rising to more than (300) cases in two months. Deteriorating environmental conditions, lack of clean water, and malnutrition also contributed to the spread of diseases and the festering of wounds. According to the report, bodies are left inside detention places for periods before being forcibly buried by detainees.
The network says the health sector suffers from an acute shortage of cadres, as the Rapid Support Forces militia is detaining (22) doctors, including (4) female doctors, in extremely complex conditions with a large shortage of medical supplies. Detainees also face an acute shortage of food and drinking water, with daily deaths being recorded.
The network affirms that the report reflects a clear link between the violence that accompanied the storming of the city, and the subsequent collapse in humanitarian and health conditions, as the massacres and direct targeting of civilians led to waves of widespread arrests and inhumane detention conditions, which exacerbated the scale of the health disaster inside the city, which indicates a critical humanitarian situation in El Fasher that requires urgent intervention to stop violations and release innocent civilian detainees and provide basic health services and ensure protection for those inside the city.
The Rapid Support Forces militia and allied groups had overrun El Fasher in October of the year 2025 after a siege lasting more than 18 months and committed during the storming crimes described by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk as atrocities, which were revealed in El Fasher as “they were predictable and could have been prevented, but they were not prevented,” adding that they constitute “the gravest crimes.”
The High Commissioner said that his office issued repeated warnings regarding the situation in the capital of North Darfur during the past year, “so none of us should be surprised by reports that since the Rapid Support Forces took control of El Fasher, there have been mass killings of civilians, targeted tribal executions, sexual violence including gang rape, kidnappings for ransom, widespread arbitrary arrests, and attacks on health facilities and medical staff and humanitarian workers, and other horrific atrocities” according to the UN News website in November of 2025.
The Council formed a fact-finding committee that issued a shocking report in February 2026 in which the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan summarized what happened in El Fasher by saying “Evidence in El Fasher reveals the occurrence of a genocidal campaign targeting non-Arab communities.”
A report published by the BBC linked what happened in El Fasher with the deployment of Colombian mercenaries brought in by the United Arab Emirates to tighten the noose on El Fasher, after tracking mobile devices used by the mercenaries brought in by the Emirates. Both the United States of America and the United Kingdom had previously imposed sanctions on a group of individuals and companies based in the United Arab Emirates that pushed mercenaries to assist the militias in Darfur and Sudan in general.
