The teaching hospital in East Darfur’s capital, Al Deain, was hit late Friday, a new low point in the brutal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which broke out in April 2023.
According to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), the death toll has risen to 70, including seven women and 13 children, following the search effort.
Health workers – a doctor and two nurses – were also among those killed, while injuries have risen to 146 people, including patients and family members accompanying them.
Healthcare a frequent target
Since the start of the conflict, the total number of people killed in attacks on health facilities has exceeded 2,000, according to the WHO.
“An attack on a hospital is not just an attack on a building, it is an attack on people seeking care, on health workers who risk their lives to save others, and on the very possibility of survival in times of crisis,” said WHO Deputy Representative in Sudan, Dr. Hala Khudari.
“Sudan is approaching its third year of armed conflict, but attacks on health care continue,” she lamented, stressing that health facilities, ambulances, health workers and patients have been “repeatedly targeted.”
The attack on the teaching hospital has effectively closed it and patients “may have to travel over 100 miles to reach the next referral hospital, which for patients who need specialized services is very difficult”, the UN health agency said.
She emphasized that Al Deain served as a referral hospital for over two million people in the city as well as nine other locations in East Darfur State.
Criminal hunt
Asked who was responsible for the Al Deain attack, UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokesperson Marta Hurtado said that although the perpetrators have not been identified, drones are widely used by both sides in the conflict.
“Our call is for both parties to immediately stop using this type of weapon,” she said.
Ms Hurtado warned of an increase in the use of drones to carry out airstrikes this year in Sudan, which “underscores the devastating impact of high-tech and relatively cheap weapons in populated areas”.
More than 500 civilians were killed in such attacks from January 1 to March 15, she said, the vast majority in three states in the Kordofan region.
The deadly attacks continued in the past week, culminating in the Al Deain attack as the month of Ramadan ended on Eid Al-Fitr.
Chad strike condemned
The spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office also said that “expanded drone strikes are spiraling around Sudan[’s] borders with serious risk of further escalation with regional consequences”.
She cited deadly drone strikes last week on the town of At Tina close to the Sudan-Chad border and in the border area of Tine in Chad “following earlier ground violations by the RSF”.
“Continued patterns of such attacks targeting civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure raise serious concerns about compliance with international humanitarian law, basic principles of distinction, proportionality and prudence, and may constitute war crimes,” Hurtado concluded, calling for an end to “arms transfers that fuel the conflict.”
