Despair and Destruction: Insights from a Sudanese Hospital Worker Amidst Atrocities

Tue Nov 11 2025 22:42:06 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Abdu-Rabbu Ahmed, a laboratory technician in el-Fasher, shares harrowing details of the massacre that occurred at his hospital as paramilitary forces took control, leaving survivors in fear and mourning.

In the conflict-torn city of el-Fasher, Sudan, hospital worker Abdu-Rabbu Ahmed recounts the tragic events leading up to a reported massacre at the facility where he worked. After fleeing to a refugee camp in Tawila, Ahmed reveals the profound loss of his colleagues and family, painting a grim picture of the humanitarian crisis as paramilitary forces reportedly executed patients during their siege. The World Health Organization has condemned the violence as international outrage grows.

A man who escaped the last functioning hospital in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher before a reported massacre by paramilitary troops says he has lost all hope and happiness.

I have lost my colleagues, Abdu-Rabbu Ahmed, a laboratory technician at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, has told the BBC.

I have lost the people whose faces I used to see smiling... It feels as if you lost a big part of your body or your soul.

He has been speaking to us from a displaced persons camp in Tawila some 70km (43 miles) to the west of el-Fasher, the regional hub which was taken over by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the last week of October after an 18-month siege.

The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese army since April 2023, when a power struggle between their leaders erupted into a civil war.

The alleged killings of at least 460 patients and their companions at the Saudi Hospital were one of the most shocking among widespread accounts of atrocities - some of them filmed by RSF fighters and posted to social media.

In a statement of condemnation, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was appalled and deeply shocked by the reported shootings, and by the abductions of six health workers - four doctors, a nurse, and a pharmacist.

The RSF has dismissed the accusations as disinformation, declaring that all of el-Fasher's hospitals had been abandoned. It disputed the claims by filming a video inside the hospital grounds showing female volunteers tending to patients.

A freelancer based in Tawila gathered interviews for the BBC.

Ahmed told him he had carried on working at Saudi Hospital since the beginning of the war, despite regular shelling by artillery, tanks and drones - which destroyed parts of the buildings and injured doctors and nurses as well as patients.

Medical staff shared what little food was available as the RSF blockade tightened, he said, sometimes working without breakfast or lunch. Most of them fled when the paramilitary fighters launched their final assault.

The shelling started around six in the morning, Ahmed said. All civilians and soldiers headed out towards the southern side. There was a state of terror, and as we walked, drones were bombing us. And heavy artillery too - I saw many people die on the spot, there was no one who could save them.

Ahmed said some of the fleeing medical workers arrived with him in Tawila, but many were detained in locations north-west of the city. He lost much of his family: a sister and two brothers were killed that day, and his parents are missing.

Ahmed's heartbreaking narrative underscores the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Sudan as communities endure violence and fear amidst a lethal conflict.