A Sudanese hospital where scores were killed last weekend was allegedly hit by three rockets fired by a drone, with the third one impacting when rescue workers were trying to help victims at the site, local officials claimed.
The officials aligned with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said the attack in the city of Al Dain in East Darfur was carried out by the army and has put it out of service, with most patients sent to private hospitals in the area to complete their treatment.
The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that 70 people were killed and 146 injured in the attack on the hospital, which acted as a referral for more than two million people.
The officials said some of those injured were in serious condition and appealed to international aid agencies to repair the two-storey building and provide equipment and medicines.
The Sudanese Armed Forces, blamed by the RSF for the attack, has made no public comment on the incident in keeping with its standing policy since its war with the paramilitary began in April 2023 to remain publicly silent on violent incidents involving civilians for which it is held responsible.
The National could not verify details of the attack from survivors or witnesses.
“The first rocket hit the main structure. The second one hit the maternity ward and the third impacted when rescue workers and ordinary people were trying to help victims at the site,” said Alaa Nuqd, the health chief of the RSF-aligned, Darfur-based government.
“The hospital has been put out of service and patients have been transferred to private hospitals in the area,” he added.
Writing on X last week, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the attack killed at least 64 people, including 13 children, two female nurses, one male doctor and several patients.
The WHO did not give a new breakdown of the fatalities in its updated toll on Tuesday, and has not attributed blame for the attack.
“As a result of this tragedy, the total number of fatalities linked to attacks on health facilities during Sudan’s war has now surpassed 2,000. Over the nearly three-year conflict, WHO has confirmed that 2,036 people have been killed in 213 attacks on health care,” Dr Tedros said.
The RSF controls the entire western region of Darfur and parts of neighbouring Kordofan. The SAF has the capital Khartoum and the nation's eastern, northern and central regions. Most of the fighting has shifted to Kordofan after the army in October lost the Darfur city of El Fasher, the army's last foothold there.
According to Mr Nuqd, Al Dain currently has a population of more than 500,000, in addition to about 240,000 displaced Sudanese.
“It was the only fully operational hospital in East Darfur,” said Al Dain resident Ahmed Younis. “Some of its patients were taken to schools and a few died while being transferred there or to private hospitals.”
Mr Nuqd and the head of Al Dain's local government Mohammed Osman said a drone attacked a bus, killing 23 of its passengers as it travelled outside Al Dain the day after the March 20 hospital attack.
The RSF accused the army of another attack that killed 17 people and hit a residential neighbourhood in the city of Lagawa, West Kordofan State, on Monday.
The National could not independently verify the claims about the two attacks.
Both sides in Sudan's civil war have been accused of war crimes. The conflict, which broke out in April 2023, is widely seen as a struggle for control between SAF chief and Sudan's unofficial leader Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former ally Gen Mohamed Dagalo, commander of the RSF.
The war has killed tens of thousands and created the world's largest displacement and humanitarian crises. At least 12 million have fled their homes to escape the fighting, while half the population, or about 25 million, face hunger.
Al Shafie Ahmed contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda
