At least 64 people, including 13 children, have been killed in an attack on a hospital in Sudan’s Darfur region, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on social media that the attack took place on Friday night at Al Deain Teaching Hospital, in Al Deain, the capital of East Darfur.
The report said the dead included patients, two female nurses and one doctor, while 89 others were injured, including eight health workers.
The attack severely damaged the hospital’s pediatric, maternal and newborn wards and emergency department, causing it to be completely out of service and disrupting vital health services that the local population relies on.
Tedros noted that the total number of people killed in attacks on health facilities since the outbreak of the war in Sudan has now exceeded 2,000. The WHO has confirmed that 2,036 people have been killed in 213 attacks on health facilities during the nearly three-year conflict. It is still unclear who was behind the attacks.
The Sudanese civil war erupted in mid-April 2023, following clashes between government forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. The conflict has caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with tens of thousands of people killed and more than 12 million displaced.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes and violations against humanity, with the RSF particularly accused of atrocities in Darfur, which UN experts have described as amounting to genocide.
Finally, Tedros called for an immediate end to the conflict, saying that “much blood has been shed, much suffering has been caused,” and that civilians, health workers, and humanitarian aid workers need to be protected.
