Harrowing Beyond Description: Dozens Killed at Prayer in Sudan
- The New York Times
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
By Declan Walsh
A doctor who spoke with The Times last week was among those killed when a missile hit a mosque on Friday as paramilitaries stepped up their brutal siege of the city of El Fasher.
Dozens of people were killed in the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher early Friday when paramilitary forces fired a missile into a mosque during morning prayers, local medics and aid workers said.
The strike was among the deadliest in months in El Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, where the paramilitaries have intensified a brutal, nearly 18-month siege by bombing neighborhoods where tens of thousands of hunger-stricken civilians are sheltering.
At least 84 bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the mosque, including several women and children, said Suleman, a senior doctor at the nearby Al Saudi hospital, who spoke by phone after visiting the site. Minni Minnawi, the regional governor of Darfur whose troops are fighting in the conflict, put the toll at “over 60.”
“The scene was harrowing beyond description,” said Suleman, who asked to be identified by one name to protect his family from reprisals.
A missile hit the Al Jamia mosque during early morning prayers, when it was packed with worshipers, the doctor said. Videos circulating on social media of the aftermath, showing bloodied bodies trapped under rubble and steel girders, were accurate, he said.
“I saw all of this and more,” he said.
Among the dead was Omar Selik, a doctor who spoke with The New York Times last week about the dire conditions for an estimated 260,000 civilians trapped in El Fasher, trying to survive bombardment in a city with vanishingly little food. His death was confirmed on Friday by a relative and by Suleman.
The siege is led by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group fighting Sudan’s military since the country was engulfed by civil war in April 2023. After being ejected from the capital, Khartoum, in March, the R.S.F. has fallen back on its stronghold of Darfur, where many of its fighters come from.
El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, is its last hurdle to complete control of the region.
After the Times story published on Monday, Dr. Selik sent a text message to say that R.S.F. bombing had intensified around his home, which is situated less than a mile from an embattled contingent of Sudanese military forces and allied fighters. “Now we are under attack again,” he wrote. “Too much killing of people.”
In May, R.S.F. fighters began to build an earthen wall around the city that is now 20 miles long, and partially encircles it. They have prevented food and medicine from entering El Fasher and beaten or shot dead some civilians who tried to flee.
Colombian mercenaries are fighting alongside the R.S.F. in El Fasher, according to videos posted to social media and the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. “They are specters of death,” he said in a social media post last month.
Earlier this month, U.N. human rights investigators said that R.S.F. atrocities in El Fasher amounted to crimes against humanity. In a statement on Friday, Denise Brown, the top U.N. official in Sudan, called the mosque attack a potential war crime, and called for the perpetrators to be brought to account.
The R.S.F. recently announced that it had formed its own government in Nyala, 110 miles south of El Fasher, led by its leader Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan. The paramilitaries did not respond to questions for this article.
Satellite photos and other evidence indicate that the R.S.F. now controls most of El Fasher, the Yale School of Public Health reported on Thursday. A battle was raging around a former U.N. peacekeeping base where ethnic militias fighting alongside Sudan’s military had established a base, researchers said.
The R.S.F. offensive is being backed by advanced Chinese-made armed drones, some of which appeared to be captured in satellite images taken over El Fasher on Thursday.
Citing witnesses, Suleman of the Al Saudi hospital said an R.S.F. drone had fired on the mosque on Friday morning. “Right now, the drone is still moving in the sky,” he said. “I can see it.”
The United Arab Emirates, the main foreign backer of the R.S.F., has supplied its fighters with artillery, medical care and Chinese-made drones, some of which have been used in the siege of El Fasher, The Times has reported. Sudan’s government has accused the U.A.E. of hiring the Colombian mercenaries fighting alongside the R.S.F. in El Fasher.
In an email, the U.A.E. denied backing either side in the war, and said it supported international efforts to broker peace “and ensure accountability for violations committed by all warring parties.”
Last week the Emirates signed a joint statement with the United States, Egypt and Saudi Arabia calling for a three-month truce in the war, followed by transition toward an “independent, civilian-led government.”
To many in El Fasher, though, with little to eat as bombs continued to fall, international diplomacy seemed a distant prospect.
“Those thugs have declared repeatedly that they intend to wipe us out,” Taha Khater, an aid worker, said in a text message on Friday, referring to the R.S.F.
He added: “Please, we are dying before the eyes of the whole world and no one is speaking up.”
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