WHO condemns killing of patients and civilians amid escalating violence in El Fasher, Sudan

The World Health Organization (WHO) condemns the reported killing of more than 460 patients and their attendants, as well as the kidnapping of six health workers, on October 28 from the Saudi maternity hospital in El Fasher.

This latest tragedy unfolds in a rapidly worsening crisis in El Fasher, North Darfur, where escalating violence, siege conditions and growing hunger and disease are killing civilians, including children, and collapsing an already fragile health system.

On October 26, the Saudi Maternity Hospital, the only partially functional hospital in El Fasher, was attacked for the fourth time in a month, killing one nurse and injuring three other health workers. On October 28, six health workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist were kidnapped. On the same day, more than 460 patients and their companions were allegedly shot dead in the hospital.
Since the start of the conflict, 46 health workers have been killed in El Fasher – among them the director of primary health care at the state health ministry – and another 48 have been injured. The status of staff working in the three NGOs in El Fasher remains unknown. The WHO strongly condemns these horrific attacks on health care and calls for respect for the sanctity of health care under international humanitarian law.

More than 260,000 people remain trapped in El Fasher with almost no access to food, clean water or medical care. Escalating violence has forced around 28,000 people to flee the city of El Fasher in recent days, 26,000 of them to the rural areas of El Fasher and up to 2,000 to Tawil. More than 100,000 people are expected to move to Tawila in the coming days and weeks, adding to the 575,000 already displaced from El Fasher who have taken refuge there and in other areas. Many of the displaced are unaccompanied women and children facing acute shortages of shelter, protection, food, water and healthcare.

In addition to the violence and lack of basic necessities for life and health, cholera continues to spread rapidly in El Fasher because people do not have access to safe water. Disease surveillance and response activities have been reduced due to the deteriorating security situation. This year alone, El Fasher has reported 272 suspected cholera cases and 32 deaths, an alarming death rate of nearly 12%. Across Darfur, 18,468 cases and 662 deaths were reported in 40 locations.
El Fasher has been cut off from humanitarian aid since February 2025, and malnutrition is soaring, especially among children and pregnant women, weakening immunity and increasing vulnerability to cholera, malaria and other infectious diseases. Many families have run out of food supplies or lost access to markets.
Despite the restrictions on access to El Fasher, WHO teams are working around the clock to keep health services running wherever possible, particularly in areas where people displaced by insecurity are arriving. Twenty metric tons of WHO emergency medicine and kits, including cholera supplies and treatment for severe acute malnutrition with medical complications, are being moved from Nyala to Tawila to support medical and rapid response teams providing care to displaced people. Medical supplies delivered to partners in Abeche, Chad, are being fast-tracked for delivery to Tawil and other assembly points.

WHO is coordinating with health partners at reception sites in Korma, located between El Fasher and Tawila, to stabilize critically ill and injured people and facilitate referral to Tawila. WHO is also preparing to deploy rapid response teams within Tawila and surrounding areas to address the urgent health needs of those arriving from El Fasher. WHO trucks are on standby in Darfur to join a UN aid convoy bringing food, medicine and life-saving medical supplies to El Fasher as soon as access opens.

WHO calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in El Fasher and all of Sudan; for the protection of civilians, humanitarian workers and health care; and safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access to deliver life-saving aid.