<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Groups of gunmen who reportedly killed at least 460 people at a hospital in Sudan attacked in several waves, abducting doctors and nurses, then gunning down staff, patients and people sheltering there, the World Health Organisation said Friday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The attack Tuesday in the country’s Darfur region was part of a reported rampage by the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group, as it captured the key city of el-Fasher after besieging it for 18 months.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Witnesses have reported fighters going house-to-house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Many details of the hospital attack and other violence in the city have been slow to emerge, and the total death toll remains unknown.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The fall of el-Fasher heralds a new phase of the brutal, two-year war between the RSF and the military in Africa’s third-largest country.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher. The war has displaced more than 14 million people and fuelled outbreaks of diseases believed to have killed thousands.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Famine has been declared in parts of Darfur, a region the size of Spain, and other parts of the country.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/militia-attack-on-hospital-in-darfur-came-in-waves-who-says/f3a03c9f-3484-45a9-8fd2-d0034020d251" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Escaping el-Fasher</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Communications are down in el-Fasher, located deep in a semi-desert region some 800 kilometres southwest of Khartoum, the capital.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Aid groups that had been operating there have largely been forced out.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some survivors have staggered into a refugee camp about 64 kilometres away in the town of Tawila.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than 62,000 people are believed to have fled el-Fasher between Sunday and Wednesday, the UN migration agency said. But far fewer have made it to Tawila.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/south-australia-whyalla-veterinarian-andrew-melville-smith-car-hit-by-a-suspected-meteorite-port-august-highway/3132693d-6f34-478c-bd92-0f630a5ff6b3" target="_blank"><strong><span>Man's new Tesla struck by suspected meteorite on remote Aussie highway</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the camp, put the number at around 5000 people, raising fears over the fate of tens of thousands.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Fatima Abdulrahim, 70, fled el-Fasher with her grandchildren a few days before it was captured to escape the siege.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She described to The Associated Press a harrowing five-day journey to reach Tawila, hiding in trenches, dodging bullets and gunmen behind walls and empty buildings.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“We ran on the streets, hiding for ten minutes behind the berm, then charging out, running until we made it out,” she said, adding that she kept falling and getting up amid gunfire and shelling.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Her companions carried her at times, she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“Thirst almost killed us,” she said, describing picking grass to eat from the side of the road.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Along the way, she said she also witnessed militiamen shoot and kill young men trying to bring food into the city.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“The people dead on the streets were countless,” she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I kept covering the eyes of the little ones so they don’t see. Some were injured and beaten and could not move. We pulled some to the paved road, hoping a car would come and take them.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She said some fighters stopped her and the group she was travelling with, took all their belongings and beat the children.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At least 450 people have been admitted to the hospital in Tawila, some suffering from severe malnutrition and sexual violence, said Adam Rojal, spokesperson for a local group that works with displaced people in Darfur.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Norwegian Refugee Council said people were arriving at the camp with broken limbs and other wounds, and some with injuries sustained months ago.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Many children arrived at the camp who had lost their parents in the fighting.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Of the 70 children younger than 5 that arrived in Tawila on Monday, 40 were severely malnourished, according to Doctors Without Borders.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Hospital attack</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman, provided new details about the killings at el-Fasher’s Saudi Hospital, which had been the only hospital in the city still providing limited services during the siege.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gunmen returned to the facility at least three times, Lindmeier told a UN press briefing in Geneva.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At first, the fighters came and abducted several doctors and nurses, and at least six are still being held, he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They later returned and “started killing,” he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/woman-dead-struck-by-lightning-cooroy-sunshine-coast/5eaa05cc-3c34-42b0-8ae6-348d6abd594c" target="_blank"><strong><span>'Taken in a minute': Tributes for woman killed in freak lightning strike</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They came a third time and “finished off what was still standing, including other people sheltering in the hospital,” Lindmeier said, without specifying who the attackers were.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A number of grisly videos from the hospital have circulated online showing bodies and at least one fighter shooting a man.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify the details of the assault.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The RSF denied committing killings at the hospital.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On Thursday, it posted on social media a video filmed at the hospital, showing what it said were some patients at the facility.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A person speaking in the video said RSF fighters were caring for the patients, offering them change of wounds and food.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At least one wounded man spoke to the reporter.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was not immediately clear when the video was filmed, although a timestamp stated it was Thursday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dr Teresa Zakaria, WHO’s unit head for humanitarian operations, told the briefing that the hospital was offering “limited service” now.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But he said that since el-Fasher’s seizure on Sunday, “there is no longer any humanitarian health presence in the city, and access has remained blocked.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Militia accused of repeated mass killings</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>El-Fasher was the Sudanese military’s last stronghold in Darfur, and its fall secures the RSF’s hold over most of the large western region.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That raises fears of a new split in Sudan, with the military holding Khartoum and the country’s north and east.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The RSF and its allied militias have been accused of repeated mass killings and rapes when it controlled the capital Khartoum, and as it has seized towns across Darfur and further south over the past two years – mostly targeting civilians of Central and East African ethnicities.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/australian-youtube-family-announces-move-to-the-uk-to-avoid-upcoming-social-media-ban/fb06c972-d4fb-415b-87ea-6f932443961f" target="_blank"><strong><span>Australian YouTube family moves to UK to avoid upcoming social media ban</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The RSF is largely made up of fighters from the Arab Janjaweed militia, which is accused of carrying out a government-backed genocidal campaign in Darfur in the 2000s in which some 300,000 people were killed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Janjaweed were initially recruited by the military to fight Darfur insurgents, who were rebelling against power concentrated in the north. The militia was later reorganised into the RSF as an official force.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The military and the RSF were briefly allied in ruling Sudan following popular protests that ousted longtime leader Omar al-Bashir. They had a falling out in 2023 in a power struggle.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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