Attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities in conflict-ravaged Sudan have killed more than 1,600 people so far this year, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday, underscoring the scale of devastation caused by the war.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency has recorded 65 assaults on health centers since January, which have also left at least 276 people injured.
The latest incident occurred Sunday, when a drone struck a military hospital in Diling, the capital of South Kordofan province — an area that has emerged as a major battleground between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). According to Tedros, the attack killed nine people and wounded 17.
“Each attack further denies people access to health care and essential medicines,” he said in a post on X, adding that medical needs persist even as damaged facilities await repair and services struggle to resume.
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The Sudan Doctors Network, a group of medical professionals monitoring the conflict, accused the RSF of carrying out the drone strike on the hospital in Diling.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the casualties in Diling were part of a wider toll of at least 104 people killed in attacks across the Kordofan region since Dec. 4.
Health facilities have increasingly been caught in the crossfire. In October, an RSF assault on the Saudi Hospital in the Darfur city of el-Fasher left at least 460 people dead, according to the WHO. The agency said armed fighters also abducted doctors and nurses during the attack.
Sudan descended into violence in April 2023 after a power struggle between the military and the RSF erupted into open warfare in Khartoum and rapidly spread nationwide.
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Now in its third year, the conflict has claimed more than 40,000 lives, according to U.N. estimates, though humanitarian groups warn the actual toll is likely far higher. The war has also triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 14 million people and fueling disease outbreaks and famine in several regions.
Source: AP