64 killed in attack on Sudan healthcare facility: WHO

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KHARTOUM, Sudan -- A strike on a hospital in Sudan killed 64 people and wounded 89 others, the World Health Organization said Saturday, with 13 children counted among the dead.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the attack on Friday hit El-Daein Teaching Hospital in the state capital of East Darfur, adding that “enough blood has been spilled” and it was time to stop the nearly three-year conflict ravaging Sudan.

The hospital “was struck, killing at least 64 people, including 13 children, two female nurses, one male doctor, and multiple patients”, he announced on X.

Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers reported that the hospital was hit by an army drone strike.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces dominate the vast Darfur region in western Sudan, while Sudan’s army is in control of the east, centre and north.

Tedros said eight health staff were among the wounded in Friday’s attack, which damaged the hospital’s paediatric, maternity and emergency departments.

The hospital is now non-functional “due to the extensive damage”, he said, which resulted in a “critical interruption of essential medical services”.

Tedros said the WHO was supporting local health partners to help fill urgent gaps by scaling up capacity at other health facilities, including by increasing capacity to treat the injured, and deploying trauma care supplies and essential medicines.

‘Devastating human toll’

RSF-controlled El-Daein has been regularly attacked by the Sudanese army, which is trying to push the paramilitaries back towards its Darfur strongholds and away from Sudan’s central corridor.

Its most recent strike on the city’s market earlier this month set fire to oil barrels that burned for hours.

The WHO’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA) counts and verifies such attacks, but it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigative agency.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office in Sudan said it was “appalled by the attack”.

To the repeated condemnation of the UN, hospitals have been a regular target throughout the war, which erupted in April 2023.

As a result of Friday’s tragedy, the total number of people killed in attacks on health care in the conflict has now passed 2,000.

The WHO’s SSA site showed 2,036 people have now been killed in 213 such attacks.

“Beyond the devastating human toll, attacks on health care have immediate and long-term consequences for communities already in desperate need of both emergency and routine medical services,” said Tedros.

“Health care should never be a target. Peace is the best medicine,” he said.

The SSA figures show attacks on health care in Sudan are growing deadlier by the year.

In 2023, 64 attacks caused 38 deaths, and the following year, 72 attacks led to 200 deaths.

In 2025, 65 attacks caused 1,620 deaths -- 82 percent of reported deaths from attacks on health care worldwide.

‘Enough suffering’

The WHO’s SSA said Friday’s strike involved “violence with heavy weapons” and affected not just the hospital, staff and patients but also supplies and storage.

Near-daily drone strikes are now a hallmark of Sudan’s brutal war, killing dozens at a time, mostly in the southern Kordofan region.

UN rights chief Volker Turk this month said he was “appalled” after more than 200 civilians were reported killed by drone attacks within an eight-day period.

“Parties to the conflict in Sudan continue to use increasingly powerful drones to deploy explosive weapons with wide-area impacts in populated areas,” he said.

Across the country, the war has killed tens of thousands and driven more than 11 million people from their homes.

It has fuelled what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises, with more than 33 million people in need of humanitarian aid.

“Enough blood has been spilled. Enough suffering has been inflicted,” said Tedros.

“The time has come to de-escalate the conflict in Sudan and ensure the protection of civilians, health workers, and humanitarians.”

Robin Millard, AFP