The Sudanese Doctors Union of Ireland Warns: El Fasher on the Verge of a Mass Grave and Calls for Urgent International Action
Dublin, Ireland – 21 August 2025
The Sudanese Doctors Union of Ireland (SDUI) voices its deepest anguish and moral outrage at the unimaginable human suffering unfolding in El Fasher, the very heart of North Darfur. This city, which once represented a final sanctuary for countless families fleeing violence, has been transformed into a landscape of despair. The city is on the brink of a mass massacre due to the siege imposed by the Rapid Support Forces Militia since May 2024. This suffocating siege has turned the city into an open prison where more than 300,000 civilians inside face death by starvation, disease, and violence, amidst a worrying international silence.
The Silent Annihilation of a Civilian Population
The sustained blockade has methodically dismantled all mechanisms of survival, creating conditions that have been formally classified as famine by international observers. Shocking data indicate over 60 deaths from malnutrition in a single week. With infrastructure completely collapsed and no access to electricity or food, civilians have been reduced to eating raw grains and animal feed to survive.
Collapse of the Healthcare System and Targeted Attacks
Repeated and deliberate attacks have utterly decimated the healthcare system. The bombing of the Saudi Maternity Hospital in January 2025 killed approximately 70 people and destroyed the only dedicated facility for maternal care, a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. Most hospitals have been bombed, forced to close, or have exhausted all medical supplies and medications. Amid this collapse, a cholera epidemic is raging across Darfur, infecting over 2,140 people and claiming dozens of lives, threatening a far wider health catastrophe.
Deliberate Targeting of Non-Combatants:
Recent atrocities confirm that civilians are not collateral damage but are instead being systematically targeted. The attack on the Abu Shouk camp on August 11, 2025, resulted in approximately 40 casualties, following previous assaults on the Zamzam camp that killed hundreds. These are not military engagements but executions of the undefended.
Children: The Primary Victims of Hunger and Disease:
Children are bearing the brunt of this crisis. In El Fasher, the rate of severe acute malnutrition among children under five has reached a staggering 40%, with 10% in critical condition. In the first half of 2025 alone, over 239 children in the city died from hunger. Nationwide, famine has claimed the lives of an estimated 522,000 children since the conflict began, with another 700,000 at immediate risk of death. Immunization rates have plummeted below 50%, leaving 838,000 children without vital vaccines—the third-highest number of unvaccinated children in the world.
An Urgent Appeal for Action:
Confronted with these horrifying facts, the Sudanese Doctors Union of Ireland (SDUI) issues an urgent appeal to the international community, including all humanitarian and human rights organisations: We demand immediate and unconditional action to establish secure humanitarian corridors to ensure the delivery of food, water, and critical medical aid to the besieged population of El Fasher. We demand an immediate end to the deliberate targeting of civilians, displacement camps, and medical facilities by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. We demand that the perpetrators of these crimes, specifically the RSF militia, be held fully accountable under international law.
The continued silence of the international community in the face of the RSF’s atrocities is complicity. It will turn El Fasher into a mass grave. The world must uphold its moral and legal responsibilities now—before it is too late.
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