PORT SUDAN: A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region has killed 67 people and injured dozens, local activists and a medical source said Saturday, updating an earlier toll.
“Thirty-seven of those injured in the drone strike yesterday died today, bringing the number of victims up to 67,” the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.
He added that a number of those injured were still being treated, but could not give an exact figure.
The bombing of the Saudi Hospital late Friday had “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s emergency building, the source said.
AFP could not independently verify 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.
Since May they have besieged El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, but have not managed to claim the city where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.
Last week, the RSF issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and allies leave the city by 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.
The United Nations has voiced alarm, calling on both parties to ensure the protection of the city’s civilian population — some two million people.
“The people of El-Fasher have suffered so much already,” Seif Magango, spokesman of the UN rights office, said Wednesday.