WHO chief: Over 40 people killed in attack on Sudanese hospital
Over 40 people have been killed in an attack on a Sudanese hospital on June 21st, including children and health care workers, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed.
According to The New Arab on June 24th, the attack on the Al Mujlad hospital occurred in West Kordofan, close to the front line between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The two factions have been engaged in a highly violent struggle for power since the conflict broke out in April 2023.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged for the end to attacks on health infrastructure in Sudan, without explicitly stating who was responsible for this most recent instance.
The WHO Sudan office announced that six children and five medics were killed in the attack, reporting extensive damage to the hospital.
Emergency Lawyers, a human rights group, made accusations that placed responsibility for the attack on the military, claiming that one of their drones struck the hospital on June 21st. Their statement on June 22nd put the death toll at nine people.
The catastrophic war in Sudan has been raging on since fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF broke out in April 2023. At least 24,000 people have been killed in the conflict and roughly 13 million have been displaced. The World Food Programme has warned of imminent famine in certain regions of the country. The hospital attack represents another sinister instalment in a long succession of egregious atrocities which have been committed frequently throughout the conflict.
On June 23rd, the United Nation’s under secretary-general and acting special advisor on the prevention of genocide to UN chief Antonio Guterres, Virginia Gamba, cautioned that there was a serious risk of genocide occurring in Sudan. She drew particular attention to the ethnically motivated killings perpetrated by the RSF and its armed allies, who target the Zaghawa, Masalit, and Fur groups.
Gamba added that “both parties have committed serious human rights violations.”
The New Arab, Maghrebi.org
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