A drone strike on a key hospital in Sudan’s conflict-ravaged Darfur region has intensified the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country, leaving dozens dead and further crippling the region’s healthcare system.
A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region killed 30 people and injured dozens, it was reported Saturday.
The bombing of the Saudi Hospital on Friday evening “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s emergency building, a medical source told French news agency AFP.
It was not immediately clear which of Sudan’s warring sides had launched the attack.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.
They have besieged El-Fasher – the state capital of North Darfur – since May, but have not managed to claim the city, where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.
Last week, they issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and allies leave the city by this coming 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.
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