WHO urges ceasefire as hundreds killed in Sudan hospital massacre after El-Fasher falls to paramilitaries

WHO urges Sudan ceasefire after alleged massacres in El-Fasher

Sudan's warring factions should halt fighting in which hundreds of civilians have been reported killed, including 460 in a hospital, since paramilitaries captured El-Fasher, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged Wednesday.

The Sudanese army-aligned government, meanwhile, accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of targeting mosques and Red Crescent aid workers in the city, where Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab said satellite images showed evidence of "continuing mass killing".

The WHO said it "is appalled and deeply shocked by reports of the tragic killing of more than 460 patients and companions at Saudi Maternity Hospital in El-Fasher... following recent attacks and the abduction of health workers," its chief, Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, posted on X.

"Ceasefire!" Tedros urged.

"Civilians and all those who no longer take part in the hostilities must be treated in accordance with international humanitarian law," the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement Wednesday.

The capture of El-Fasher after a brutal 18-month siege marked by starvation and bombardment has solidified the RSF's control over Darfur, sparking fears of ethnically motivated violence reminiscent of the region's darkest days.

El-Fasher was the last of Darfur's five state capitals to fall to the paramilitaries, led by General Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, who have been at war with the regular army for more than two years.

"More than 2,000 civilians were killed during the militia's invasion of El-Fasher, targeting volunteers in mosques and the Red Crescent," Mona Nour Al-Daem, humanitarian aid officer for the army-aligned government, said on Wednesday at a press conference in Port Sudan.

She added that the Adre border pass between Sudan and Chad has been "used to introduce weapons and equipment for the militias".

Yale's HRL said late on Tuesday that "mass killing events include corroboration of alleged executions around Saudi Hospital and a previously unreported potential mass killing at an RSF detention site at the former Children's Hospital in eastern El-Fasher".

It added that there was also ongoing "systematic killing" at one location outside the city.

Truce talks stalled

El-Fasher had been the last holdout in Darfur of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's forces, and its fall has left the paramilitaries in control of a vast region covering a third of Sudan, with fighting now concentrated in the Kordofan region.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday that five Sudanese volunteers were killed in Bara, a city in Kordofan captured by the RSF on Saturday.

Three more Red Crescent volunteers remain missing from Bara.

Since EL-Fasher was captured by the RSF -- descended from the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago -- the group has again been accused of carrying out atrocities against civilians, with graphic videos circulating on social media.

The United Nations has warned of "ethnically motivated violations and atrocities" while the African Union condemned "escalating violence" and "alleged war crimes".

"Civilians being targeted based on their ethnicity underscores the brutality of the Rapid Support Force," the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a statement on Wednesday.

Since Sunday, more than 33,000 people have fled El-Fasher for the town of Tawila, about 70 kilometres (40 miles) to the west, which has already welcomed more than 650,000 displaced people, the UN says.

Around 177,000 people remain in El-Fasher, which had a population of more than one million before the war, according to the latest figures from the world body.

Satellite-based communications with the city remain cut off -- though not for the RSF, which controls the Starlink network there -- as are access routes to the city despite calls for humanitarian corridors.

AFP images from Tawila showed displaced people, some of them with bandages, carrying their belongings and setting up temporary shelters.

WFP ousted

Sudan's long-running war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis, with both sides accused of widespread atrocities.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday that its two top staff in Sudan had been "designated as persona non grata" and given three days to leave the country by the foreign ministry.

WFP and senior UN officials were engaging with Sudanese authorities to protest the decision, which came "at a pivotal time", it said, noting humanitarian needs "have never been greater".

The so-called Quad group -- comprising the United States, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia -- has held talks over several months towards securing a truce.

But those talks have reached an impasse, an official close to the negotiations said, adding that their proposals are facing "continued obstructionism" from the army-aligned government.