WHO chief says at least 64 killed in Sudan hospital strikenewsline24

March 22 (UPI) — An airstrike on a Sudanese hospital over the weekend has killed at least 64 people, the World Health Organization confirmed Sunday, as the country’s warring militaries traded accusations of responsibility.

The Al-Daein Teaching Hospital, in Rapid Support Forces-controlled East Darfur, was struck Friday evening. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus verified the death toll Sunday, saying 13 children, two nurses, a doctor and multiple patients were among the dead.

Eighty-nine people, including eight health staff, were also injured in the blast that damaged the facility’s pediatric, maternity and emergency departments, he said.

The hospital is no longer functional, he said, and WHO is expanding support at other health facilities, strengthening primary care services and deploying trauma care supplies and essential medicines.

“Enough blood has been spilled,” he said in a statement. “Enough suffering has been inflicted.”

The Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary RSF have been locked in a brutal civil war since a power struggle between them over control of the country’s transition and planned integration of the RSF into the regular army turned violent in April 2023.

The death toll is not known, but is believed to be in the tens of thousands, though possibly much higher. According to United Nations statistics, the war has displaced more than 11.6 million people, 4.4 million of whom have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes, while the RSF has also been accused of crimes against humanity. The United States has also declared that the RSF and aligned militias have been committing genocide in Darfur.

The RSF on Saturday blamed the SAF for the strike on the hospital.

“This attack constitutes a full-fledged war crime and represents a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” an RSF spokesman said in a statement.

An SAF spokesman on Sunday said it received accusations with “astonishment.” The attack bears the hallmarks of the RSF, the spokesman said.

“The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) affirms that it is a regular force committed to international law and norms. This pattern of behavior, however, is characteristic of the Rapid Support Militia, which has repeatedly carried out such attacks,” the spokesman said in a statement.

The RSF has been accused of attacking several medical facilities during the war, most recently on March 2, when 12 people were injured in a strike on the British Hospital in El Obeid.

“Attacking service and healthcare facilities is a consistent approach and a daily practice carried out by this terrorist militia, which has committed massacres in El Fasher, as well as crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.”

Both the SAF and the RSF called on the international community to hold the other responsible.

According to Ghebreyesus, 2,036 people have been killed in 213 attacks on Sudanese healthcare facilities amid the war. More than 720 people were also injured in the attacks, he said.

“In an instant, a place of healing was turned into a scene of devastation,” Hanan Balkhy, regional director of WHO’s office for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in response to the Friday strike.

“And for families in the surrounding area, one of the few places to seek care is now gone.”