RSF converts hospital in Sudan’s West Kordofan into military base

Since their invasion of the city more than five months ago, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have transformed a significant portion of Al-Nuhud Hospital in the wartorn south of Sudan into a military command center and barracks.

The RSF, the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) bitter rival in the brutal three-year civil war, has been preventing the hospital from fulfilling its crucial role in providing healthcare to the population, according to the nongovernmental organization on Friday.

According to the Facebook statement, “This military use of the health facility constitutes a flagrant violation of the sanctity of medical institutions and undermines civilians’ right to access treatment,” adding that some of the city’s doctors have been accused of working with the military before fleeing.

The hospital now has a “severe shortage of healthcare workers,” it continued, “making the remaining medical services extremely limited and unable to meet patients’ needs.”

The SAF and the RSF have been locked in a conflict that has not been resolved by regional and international mediation since April 2023.

The conflict, which the UN describes as the largest humanitarian disaster in the world, has resulted in the displacement of millions of people and the deaths of thousands of people.

escaping the el-Fasher’s horrors

Since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city of El-Fasher last month, hundreds of Sudanese children have been arriving without their parents in the town of Tawila in western Sudan, according to a humanitarian organization.

At least 400 unaccompanied children had arrived in Tawila, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), but that number is likely much higher than that.

After an 18-month siege that had prevented residents of El-Fasher, Sudan’s capital, from receiving food, medicine, and other essential supplies, the RSF seized control of the city on October 26.

In its takeover of the city, the paramilitary group is accused of carrying out numerous sexual assaults, kidnappings, and mass murders. Sudan’s army is also accused of carrying out atrocities during the conflict.

Washington’s call for a truce

No one side has formally agreed to a ceasefire proposal the United States has recently made to Sudan’s conflicting parties.

In accordance with US wishes, the RSF unilaterally ended hostilities on Monday.

The SAF, however, announced on Tuesday that it had resisted an attack on Babnusa, West Kordofan state’s newest front line, on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan demanded that US President Donald Trump intervene.

Sudan’s de facto leader wrote in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal that “the Sudanese people now look to Washington to take the next step: to build on the US president’s sincerity and work with us and those in the region who genuinely seek peace.”

Over the course of the conflict, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million, and caused the largest hunger and displacement crises in the world, Burhan and his one-time deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, have repeatedly failed.