The World Health Organization has announced a new humanitarian tragedy in Sudan, where 64 people, including 13 children, were killed and dozens more injured in a violent attack on a hospital in the Darfur region. This incident underscores once again the heavy human cost of the ongoing conflict and the urgent need to ensure the protection of civilians and health and humanitarian workers.
Details of the bloody attack on Al-Daein Hospital
In an official post on the X platform, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that the organization had verified a new attack targeting healthcare facilities in Sudan. He explained that the attack this time targeted Al-Daein Teaching Hospital, located in the capital of East Darfur State. This direct attack resulted in the deaths of at least 64 people, including 13 children, two nurses, and one doctor, in addition to a number of patients receiving treatment. The WHO indicated that the attack was “violent” and involved the use of “heavy weapons,” which damaged a secondary healthcare facility and destroyed vital medical supplies and warehouses.
General context: The collapse of the health sector and the war in Sudan
Since mid-April 2023, Sudan has been embroiled in a brutal and ongoing war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). These battles have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands and the displacement of at least 11 million people, creating a famine and displacement crisis that the United Nations considers the worst in the world today. Amid this conflict, the RSF controls large parts of the Darfur region in the west of the country, while the army controls most of the east, center, and south.
Historically, Darfur has suffered from bloody armed conflicts since 2003, leaving its infrastructure, particularly its health sector, extremely fragile. With the outbreak of the current war, a significant number of hospitals in conflict zones have been rendered completely inoperable due to bombing, staff shortages, or the disruption of supplies and medicines. Targeting the few remaining hospitals is tantamount to a death sentence for thousands of defenseless civilians.
Local, regional and international repercussions
Locally, the destruction of Al-Daein Hospital represents a devastating blow to thousands of sick and injured people in East Darfur, who are deprived of basic medical care, which threatens to increase mortality rates from preventable diseases and exacerbate the suffering of pregnant women and children.
Regionally, such horrific attacks are driving more civilians to flee to neighboring countries, particularly Chad and South Sudan, increasing the economic and security pressure on those countries which are already facing internal challenges, and widening the humanitarian crisis to encompass the entire region.
Internationally, targeting hospitals and medical personnel is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan expressed its deep dismay at this attack, noting that 89 people were injured in addition to those killed, and calling for urgent international intervention to stop these violations.
Urgent calls for the protection of civilians
Ghebreyesus condemned the continued bloodshed and suffering in Sudan, urgently calling on the international community and the warring parties to de-escalate the conflict and ensure the protection of civilians and health and humanitarian workers. While the World Health Organization documents these attacks through its monitoring system for attacks on health facilities, it maintains its neutrality and does not assign blame to any party, emphasizing that its role is purely humanitarian and not that of a criminal investigator.
