Deadly attack cripples Al Daein Teaching Hospital, worsening Sudan war humanitarian crisis
More than 2 million people in Sudan’s Darfur region have been left without proper medical care after a drone strike destroyed Al Daein Teaching Hospital last week, according to the World Health Organization and local aid officials. The strike killed 70 people, including 13 children and seven women, and wounded 146 others, targeting the facility that served as a key referral hospital for East Darfur.
Satellite imagery released Wednesday shows extensive damage to the hospital, including collapsed walls, debris inside wards, and structural damage to roofs. Experts from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab said the strike involved “multiple precise impacts,” with no damage to surrounding buildings, suggesting the hospital may have been specifically targeted.
The strike has left residents of Al Daein city and nine surrounding districts facing severe gaps in life-saving care. Patients now may have to travel over 100 miles to reach the next referral hospital, making access to emergency services extremely difficult, according to WHO officials.
Aid organizations, including Alight and MedGlobal, are scrambling to provide temporary medical support, but the scale of the need exceeds available resources. Bedreldin Abduelnabi, heading Alight’s operations in the region, said: “The facility is now completely out of service. This has created a severe gap in access to life-saving health care across the area.”
The attack has been blamed on the Sudanese military, though officials deny targeting the hospital, claiming they were aiming at a nearby police station. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and monitoring groups assert the military carried out the strike. Both parties have increasingly relied on drones in the nearly three-year war, which has caused mass civilian casualties, famine, and widespread atrocities.
This strike marks the latest in a series of attacks on medical facilities in Sudan. Since the war began, the WHO reports over 213 attacks on healthcare, killing more than 2,000 people. The International Criminal Court has begun investigating such incidents as potential war crimes and crimes against humanity, citing mass killings, sexual violence, and attacks on civilians.
In addition, the RSF recently attacked a hospital and pharmacy in Kurmuk, Blue Nile, forcing over 3,000 civilians to flee to Damazin or across the border into Ethiopia. The conflict in Darfur and Kordofan continues to intensify, with daily drone strikes killing hundreds of civilians, adding to the region’s humanitarian disaster.
Source: AP News