The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed 64 lives extinguished and 89 wounded in a recent strike impacting Al Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur, Sudan. The facility, now declared non-operational, bore witness to this devastation on Friday, coinciding with the Eid festival. Among the dead were 13 children, two nurses, and one doctor. This incident pushes the total number of individuals killed in attacks on medical facilities since the conflict's commencement beyond 2,000.
The 'Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) have pointed fingers at the Sudanese military, attributing the strike to an army drone. Conversely, reports from groups like the 'Emergency Lawyers' also suggest army drone involvement. The WHO, while meticulously documenting these attacks and verifying their occurrence, explicitly states it does not assign blame, citing its non-investigative mandate.
The hospital's destruction renders it useless, a stark indicator of the conflict's broader toll on essential services. The area of East Darfur, bordering the Kordofan region, has become a recent flashpoint, experiencing frequent drone activity. The WHO's own records indicate that this year alone has seen 12 documented attacks on healthcare in Sudan, resulting in 178 deaths and 237 injuries.
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"WHO has verified yet another attack on health care in #Sudan," the organization stated, highlighting the Al Deain Teaching Hospital incident.
Shifting Frontlines and Disputed Responsibility
The ongoing war pits the Sudanese army against the paramilitary RSF, controlling different swaths of the country. The RSF largely commands the western Darfur region, while the army holds sway in the east, center, and north. The proximity of East Darfur to the Kordofan region, a newer theater of conflict marked by daily drone strikes, underscores the escalating nature of the hostilities and the widening geographic scope of violence.
"The time has come to de-escalate the conflict in Sudan,” declared WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus, adding a call for an end to the bloodshed.
The total number of people killed in attacks on health care throughout the conflict, as per WHO figures, now stands at 2,036, cataloged across 213 such incidents.
