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

The Sudan Doctors Network says the military’s use of the hospital is a ‘gross violation of the sanctity of medical institutions’.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have converted a large part of al-Nuhud hospital in West Kordofan in war-torn Sudan’s south into a military command center and barracks, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, since capturing the city more than five months ago.

The RSF, a rival of the government-backed Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in a brutal three-year civil war, is preventing the hospital from fulfilling its essential role in providing health care to the population, the NGO said on Friday.

“This military use of a health facility is a gross violation of the sanctity of medical institutions and undermines the right of civilians to access treatment,” the statement on Facebook said. It said some medical workers in the city had been accused of collaborating with the military before fleeing the city.

“As a result, the hospital is suffering from an acute shortage of health personnel, leaving remaining medical services extremely limited and unable to meet the needs of patients,” it said.

Since April 2023, the SAF and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediation has failed to end.

Thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the conflict, which the United Nations calls the world’s largest humanitarian disaster.

Fleeing the horrors of Al-Fashar

Hundreds of Sudanese children have arrived without their parents in the town of Tawila in Sudan’s West Darfur region after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of the town of al-Fashar last month, a humanitarian group says.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Thursday that at least 400 unaccompanied children had reached Tavilah, but the actual number was likely much higher.

The RSF captured El-Fashar, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, on 26 October after an 18-month siege that deprived residents of food, medicine and other vital supplies.

The paramilitary group has been accused of mass killings, kidnappings and widespread acts of sexual violence during its capture of the city. The Sudanese military has also been accused of committing atrocities during the war.

Washington’s armistice proposal

The United States recently proposed a ceasefire to Sudan’s warring parties, but neither side has formally accepted it.

The RSF announced a unilateral cessation of hostilities on Monday in accordance with the wishes of the US.

But on Tuesday, the SAF said it had repelled an attack on a base in Babanusa in West Kordofan state, the war’s newest front line.

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to bring peace to the country.

Sudan’s de facto leader wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal, “The Sudanese people are now looking to Washington to take the next step: build on the integrity of the U.S. president and work with us – and those who truly want peace in the region – to end this war.”

Efforts to broker peace between Burhan and his one-time deputy, RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, have repeatedly failed during the war, which has killed thousands, displaced 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.

Trump showed public interest in the war for the first time last week after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged him to get involved and promised he would end it.