WHO Confirms 64 Killed Including 13 Children in Drone Strike on Sudan Hospital

A drone strike on Al-Daein Teaching Hospital in eastern Sudan killed at least 64 people, including at least 13 children, and wounded another 89, the World Health Organization confirmed Saturday — marking one of the single deadliest attacks on a medical facility since Sudan's civil war began nearly three years ago. The strike hit the hospital in al-Daein, the capital of East Darfur state, on Friday night, destroying the paediatric, maternity, and emergency departments and leaving the facility entirely non-functional.

Among those killed were two female nurses, one male doctor, and multiple patients receiving overnight care when the strike occurred. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for immediate de-escalation, saying the attack was part of a catastrophic pattern: the organization has now documented more than 2,000 deaths linked to attacks on health facilities since Sudan's civil war erupted in April 2023. "Hospitals must never be targets," Ghebreyesus said in a statement. "This is a war crime. The perpetrators must be held accountable."

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary organization founded by warlord Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — commonly known as Hemedti — blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces for the strike. The military denied involvement, though two anonymous military officials said in background comments that the operation had been targeting a nearby police station that the RSF was using as a staging area. Independent verification of either account was not immediately possible; international journalists face severe access restrictions throughout Darfur.

Sudan descended into open civil war in April 2023 when a power struggle between the SAF and the RSF over the timeline for a political transition turned into pitched urban combat in Khartoum. The fighting has since spread across much of the country, with Darfur — already scarred by the genocide of the early 2000s — among the hardest-hit regions. United Nations estimates put the direct death toll above 40,000, though humanitarian organizations warn the actual figure is likely far higher due to disease, starvation, and the collapse of medical services. More than 11 million Sudanese have been displaced, making it one of the world's largest displacement crises.

The al-Daein strike drew international condemnation but little immediate action. The United States, preoccupied with the ongoing conflict with Iran and its effects on global energy markets, has devoted minimal diplomatic attention to the Sudan crisis in recent months. Human rights groups renewed calls for an arms embargo and the referral of suspected war crimes to the International Criminal Court, where both the SAF and RSF leadership face existing warrants from earlier rounds of Darfur violence. With the hospital now offline, residents of al-Daein — a city of several hundred thousand people — have no functioning emergency medical facility within the city limits.