According to a medical source, a paramilitary drone attack in the state capital of North Darfur demolished the hospital’s emergency building and killed multiple individuals, including critical care patients.
According to the UN, 70 people, including critically ill patients, were killed in a paramilitary raid on a hospital in El-Fasher, in the western Darfur region of Sudan.
“The attack on the only operational hospital in El-Fasher, which was allegedly carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is a shocking violation of international humanitarian law”, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator and resident in Sudan, stated on Sunday.
In a statement, the highest ranking UN official in the Sudan declared that “the alarming disregard for human life is unacceptable”.
She went on to say ” the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure needs to cease immediately and those responsible must be held accountable”.
According to a medical source who spoke to AFP, the hospital’s emergency building was destroyed in Friday night’s drone attack in the capital of North Darfur state.
Eighty percent of hospitals are closed.
A bloody conflict between army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan and his former deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has gripped Sudan since April 2023.
With the exception of El-Fasher, which they have been besieging since May, the paramilitaries have taken control of all the state capitals in the large western region of Darfur.
According to government statistics, the war has severely damaged Sudan’s already precarious healthcare sector, forcing up to 80% of hospitals in combat areas to close.
“The hospital was packed with patients receiving care” at the time of the “appalling ” attack, according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization.
“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 said on the social networking site X.
The incident was denounced as a “violation of international law and international humanitarian law” by Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
It advocated for “self-restraint”, “protection of medical and humanitarian workers”, and “avoidance of targeting civilians”.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, nearly 12 million have been displaced, and million are in danger of mass hunger nationwide as a result of the war.
According to a UN-backed assessment, starvation has already spread to three displacement camps in the El-Fasher area: Zamzam, Abu Shouk, and Al-Salam. By May, it is predicted to spread to five more places, including the city itself.
