Drone attack on Sudan hospital kills 70, injures dozens
A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region has killed 70 people and injured dozens, the chief of the World Health Organization said on Sunday.
The bombing of the Saudi Hospital late on Friday had “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s emergency building, an anonymous source told AFP.
“As the only functional hospital in El Fasher, the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital provides services which include gyn-obstetrics, internal medicine, surgery and paediatrics, along with a nutrition stabilisation centre,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X.
“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.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for strikes on health care to end. (AP: Johanna Geron, file)
Darfur Governor Mini Minnawi said on X that a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drone had struck the emergency department of the hospital in the capital of North Darfur, killing patients, including women and children.
AFP could not independently verify which of Sudan’s warring sides had launched the attack.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary RSF, who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.
Last week, the RSF issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and allies leave the city by Wednesday afternoon in advance of an expected offensive.
Local activists have reported intermittent fighting since, including repeated artillery fire from the RSF on the famine-hit Abu Shouk displacement camp.
On Friday morning alone, heavy shelling killed eight people in the camp, according to civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees.
RSF drones
According to the medical source, the Saudi Hospital’s emergency building had been hit by an RSF drone “a few weeks ago”.
Between December 9 and January 14, Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab observed three advanced drones at the RSF-controlled Nyala Airport, 200 kilometres south.
In its report, it said the Chinese-made drones have “significant electronic surveillance and warfare capabilities and can be equipped with air-to-ground munitions”, but could not verify which countries had purchased them.
The United Arab Emirates has been repeatedly accused of funnelling weapons, including drones, to the RSF.
United Nations experts determined in December 2023 the allegations were “credible”, but Abu Dhabi has issued repeated denials in the face of mounting international criticism.
In December, it assured the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden that it was “not now transferring any weapons” to the RSF.
But on Friday, two US politicians said the UAE had violated its promises to Washington and was “continuing to provide weapons” to the RSF — who the US concluded earlier this month had committed “genocide” in Darfur.
Army gains
The RSF’s latest attempt to consolidate its hold on war-ravaged Darfur — a region about the size of France and home to a quarter of Sudan’s population — comes as the army claims significant victories elsewhere.
About 850 kilometres east, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Saturday toured the Jaili oil refinery, the country’s largest, a day after his forces reclaimed it.
In a statement, his ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council said Burhan “pledged to rebuild what the militia had destroyed” and rehabilitate a key economic resource.
A Sudanese army soldier stands watch on a vehicle after the army’s liberation of an oil refinery in North Bahri. (Reuters: El Tayeb Siddig )
The military on Friday also broke a paramilitary siege on its Khartoum headquarters, which the RSF had encircled since the war began in April 2023.
Earlier this month, the army successfully wrested control of key state capital Wad Madani, just south of Khartoum, from the RSF.
Since the war began, both the army and the RSF have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
Before leaving office on Monday, the Biden administration sanctioned Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals and using food deprivation as a weapon of war.
Up to 80 per cent of the country’s healthcare facilities have been forced out of service, according to official figures.
The war has so far killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and brought millions to the brink of mass starvation.
Reuters/AFP
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