The World Health Organization (WHO) called for a "ceasefire" in Sudan on Wednesday, October 29, after reports of the killing of more than 460 people in a maternity hospital in El-Fasher, a city in Darfur taken by paramilitaries on Sunday.

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https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2025/10/29/a-el-fasher-au-soudan-l-oms-evoque-plus-de-460-personnes-tuees-dans-une-maternite_6650192_3212.html

The WHO is "appalled and deeply shocked by reports of the tragic killing of more than 460 patients and their companions at the Saudi Arabian maternity hospital in El-Fasher, Sudan, following recent attacks and the abduction of health workers," said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement. "Ceasefire!" he added.

According to the WHO, this maternity hospital was the only one still partially operational in the city. On Sunday, it was attacked "for the fourth time in a month," with the assailants killing a nurse and wounding three other healthcare workers, the organization said. On Tuesday, in addition to the 460 people killed, six healthcare workers were abducted, the WHO added.

“This tragedy is taking place against the backdrop of a rapidly escalating crisis in El-Fasher, North Darfur, where escalating violence, siege conditions, and rising hunger and disease are killing civilians, including children, and causing an already fragile health system to collapse.” “WHO condemns in the strongest possible terms these horrific attacks on the health system and calls for respect for the sanctity of healthcare,” the organization added.

Fears of a return to massacres

Following the capture of El-Fasher from the army of General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Burhan, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries now control all of Darfur, a vast region in western Sudan covering a third of the country. Commanded by General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as "Hemetti," the RSF, which has established a parallel administration in Darfur, controls western Sudan and parts of the south, along with its allies.

The army controls the north, east, and center of the country, ravaged by more than two years of war. Experts fear both a new partition of Sudan and a return of the massacres that bloodied Darfur in the 2000s, at the heart of clashes between the government and militias.

For its part, the WHO points to the rise in malnutrition, which weakens the immune system and makes people more vulnerable to diseases such as cholera and malaria. Cholera is spreading particularly rapidly due to a lack of access to clean water, according to the organization. This year, 32 people have died from the disease in El-Fasher out of 272 reported cases, the organization warned.

"All attacks on health facilities must cease immediately and unconditionally. All patients, health workers and health facilities must be protected under international humanitarian law," urged the WHO chief.

Not counting the attack on the maternity ward, the WHO had already recorded 185 attacks on health facilities since the start of the conflict in April 2023, resulting in 1,204 deaths and 416 injuries. Forty-nine of these attacks occurred in 2025, causing 966 deaths.