KHARTOUM: Around 1,000 critically ill patients in Sudan’s Darfur region are nearly without drinking water after artillery fire destroyed a water tanker at a hospital, UNICEF said on Wednesday.

The tanker was stationed at the Saudi hospital, one of the few still operational in El-Fasher, a city in North Darfur with a population of around two million.

The city is the only state capital among Darfur’s five states to remain outside the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but has been under siege by the paramilitary group since May 2024.

“Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water truck in the Saudi hospital compound, El-Fasher, was destroyed by artillery fire, disrupting access to safe water for an estimated 1,000 severely ill patients,” the UN agency said.

“UNICEF continues to call on all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and end all attacks on or near critical civilian infrastructure,” it added.

The war in Sudan, now in its third year, has pitted the armed forces led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against the RSF headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The conflict has effectively split the country in two, with the army controlling the north, east, and center, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

On Wednesday, the army accused the RSF in a statement of targeting populated areas of the city.

In April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimated that 70 to 80 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas in Sudan were out of service, citing El-Fasher as a prime example.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million, including 5.6 million in Darfur alone.

According to the UN, the war has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminately bombing residential areas and obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid.