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On January 24, 2025, a drone attack targeting the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur region, resulted in over 70 fatalities and wounded dozens more. The hospital was the only operational healthcare facility in the area, providing essential services like gy-obstetrics, internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) condemned the attack, emphasizing the critical role the hospital plays in the region. WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for an immediate cessation of all attacks on healthcare facilities in Sudan and urged for unrestricted access to restore the damage to medical centres.
The attack on the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital marks the latest strike in Sudan’s 20-month civil war between the Sudanese government and the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The attack was blamed on the paramilitary group by local authorities, which was said to be caused by the apparent battlefield losses to the Sudanese military and allies. The RSF, however, denied those claims, alleging that the Sudanese military was behind the attack, though they provided no evidence to support the accusation.
This incident is only a small part of the continued escalating conflict in Sudan, which has led to tens of thousands of deaths, the displacement of 12 million Sudanese civilians, and widespread famine in the region. The attack magnifies the ongoing healthcare crisis in Sudan, with two out of three people lacking access to healthcare and one in three people facing severe hunger. As the civil war continues to grow, ethnically driven violence has been on the rise, with some international watchdogs arguing that some acts committed by the RSF are escalating into acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide. If the crisis continues to draw on, it risks spiralling Sudan into state failure, stifling prospects for a successful post-conflict recovery. Furthermore, if the country continues to be vastly divided into two– with the Sudanese army having control of the East and the RSF in the West–the probability of Sudan once again splitting into two countries will become higher. As the conflict escalates, it remains unknown whether the international community will interfere or let it worsen–only time will tell.