Sudan conflict: Thousands detained by RSF in South Darfur
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The head of the World Health Organisation has called for the immediate and unconditional release of health workers who are believed to be detained in south- western Sudan. The Sudanese Doctors Network fears about 19,000 people could be held by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Nyala, South Darfur. We hear from a journalist there about the situation. Also in the programme: The Secret trial of a Chinese General who defied orders to crush the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square; and Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet on his latest film.
(Photograph: Darfuri children in Tine refugee camp. Credit: Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour. |
| 0:11.7 | It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. |
| 0:15.6 | I'm Tim Franks. |
| 0:17.3 | We're going to begin the programme in the south-west of Sudan, |
| 0:20.6 | because it's there in the city of Niala, the capital of South Darfur State, that it seems more than 70 healthcare workers are being forcibly detained, along with 5,000, at least 5,000 civilians. That's prompted public concern from the head of the UN's World Health Organization, Tedros Adanam Gavryesos, and a call for their unconditional release. |
| 0:41.4 | I mentioned that Niala is the capital of South Darfur State. It's also the unofficial capital of the paramilitary rapid support forces. |
| 0:48.3 | They've held the city for more than two years, and it's their headquarters in the rolling battles against the Sudanese armed forces |
| 0:55.2 | in the civil war which has spread such misery across his vast country. |
| 0:59.6 | Indeed, turned the place through brutality and siege, killing and displacement, |
| 1:03.5 | into the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. |
| 1:07.0 | Earlier today, we managed to receive a voice note from one resident of Niala. |
| 1:10.8 | At his request, we're withholding his identity, and a translation of his words, |
| 1:15.3 | is voiced by one of the NewsHour team. |
| 1:18.0 | Last Thursday, the recruits and the injured of the rapid support forces stomped the mobile phone mall in the big market, |
| 1:25.7 | deluded and kidnapped traders and left. |
| 1:29.1 | Subsequently, people found out that these soldiers were being directed by officers in the |
| 1:33.4 | RSF. Their issue was wages. They had not been paid for a while. They were supposed to be |
| 1:39.1 | paid at the front, but they refused. They were being encouraged by an officer who had told them they have to |
| 1:45.8 | fight for their rights and wages and that led to the commotion. As for the statement by the |
| 1:51.5 | WHO, it is actually true. There are many detainees, the majority of them have been brought from |
| 1:58.2 | Elfasha. A few weeks ago, they detained the director of the Turkish hospital. |
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