UN says 70 killed in attack on western Sudan hospital

Port Sudan, Sudan: The United Nations said Sunday a paramilitary attack on a hospital in El-Fasher, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, had killed 70 people including patients receiving critical care.

“The attack, reportedly carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the only functional hospital in El-Fasher, is a shocking violation of international humanitarian law,” said the UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami.

The UN’s most senior official in Sudan said in a statement that “the alarming disregard for human life is unacceptable”.

She added that “the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure needs to cease immediately and those responsible must be held accountable.”

The drone attack in the North Darfur state capital occurred on Friday evening, destroying the hospital’s emergency building, a medical source told AFP.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The paramilitaries have captured every state capital in the vast western region of Darfur except for El-Fasher, which they have besieged since May.

The war has decimated Sudan’s already fragile health care system, pushing up to 80 percent of hospitals in conflict zones out of service, according to official figures.

Head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the “appalling” attack took place while “the hospital was packed with patients receiving care”.

“We continue to call for a cessation of all attacks on health care in Sudan, and to allow full access for the swift restoration of the facilities that have been damaged,” he wrote on social media site X.

Saudi Arabia also condemned on Sunday the attack as a “violation of international law and international humanitarian law”.

It called for “protection of medical and humanitarian workers”, practice of “self-restraint” and avoidance of “targeting civilians”.

The war has so far killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted over 12 million and threatened millions across the country with mass starvation.

In the area around El-Fasher, famine has already taken hold in three displacement camps -- Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam -- and is expected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May, according to a UN-backed assessment.