Over 1,600 people have been killed in attacks on health centers in Sudan this year, WHO chief says

CAIRO (AP) — More than 1,600 people have been killed in attacks on medical facilities and health care centers in war-torn Sudan so far this year, the United Nations health chief said Wednesday — the latest daunting statistic in the devastating conflict in the African nation.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said the agency has documented 65 attacks on health facilities since January. The attacks also left 276 people wounded.

The most recent was a drone attack on Sunday on a military hospital in Diling, the capital of South Kordofan province, which in recent months became a flashpoint in the fighting between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Ghebreyesus said the attack killed nine people and wounded 17. “Every attack deprives more people from health services and medicines – needs that do not pause while facilities are rebuilt and services restored,” he said in a post on X.

The Sudan Doctor’s Network, a group of medical professionals tracking the war, blamed the paramilitary forces for the drone attack that targeted the miliary hospital in Diling.

The causalities in Diling were among at least 104 people killed in attacks across Kordofan region since Dec. 4, according to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

The attacks on healthcare facilities included an RSF offensive on the Saudi Hospital in the Darfur city of el-Fasher in October. The WHO said gunmen killed at least 460 people at the hospital, and abducted doctors and nurses.

Sudan plunge into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The war, now in its third year, has killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, though aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

The conflict has also created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes, disease outbreaks and famine spreading in parts of the country.