- Several patients, two female nurses, a male doctor among the dead.
- 89 people, including eight health workers, injured.
- Attacks damage the hospital’s children’s, maternity and emergency departments.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that a strike at a hospital in East Darfur, Sudan, killed at least 64 people, including children, medical staff and patients, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.
The WHO said Friday’s attack on the Al Deain Teaching Hospital has rendered the facility non-functional and cut off essential medical services in the city.
In a post on social media, Ghebreyesus said several patients, two female nurses and a male doctor were also among those killed in the attack on the Al Deain Teaching Hospital in Al Deain, the capital of East Darfur state, on Friday night.
Another 89 people, including eight health workers, were injured, he added.
The attack damaged the hospital’s children’s, maternity and emergency departments, rendering the facility non-functional and cutting off essential medical services in the city.
“As a result of this tragedy, the total number of deaths linked to attacks on health facilities during Sudan’s war has now exceeded 2,000,” Tedros said, adding that during the nearly three-year conflict between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), WHO had confirmed the killing of 2,036 people in health care.
There was no immediate information on who was behind the attack.
The war between the army and the RSF broke out in mid-April 2023, triggering a wave of violence that has led to one of the world’s fastest-growing man-made humanitarian crises, with tens of thousands of people killed and more than 12 million forced from their homes.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while RSF has been implicated in atrocities in Darfur that UN experts say bear the hallmarks of genocide.
“Enough blood has been spilled. Enough suffering has been inflicted,” Tedros said. “The time has come to de-escalate the conflict in Sudan and ensure the protection of civilians, health workers and humanitarians.”
