Sudan: Eight killed in maternity ward by RSF drone strike
Eight people have been killed in a maternity ward by a drone strike launched by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, according to The New Arab via AFP on October 8th.
The attack took place on October 7th in the city of El-Fasher, Sudan’s North Darfur state capital, which has been under a brutal siege imposed by the RSF in May 2024.
The famine-stricken city is the last remaining urban centre in the vast western region of Darfur, which is still controlled by the Sudanese military. Since April 2023, it has been at war with the RSF after a power struggle turned violent.
The deadly strike on El-Fasher hospital also wounded seven people and “damaged buildings and equipment”, a health worker told AFP on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.
The hospital is one of the only functioning health facilities in El-Fasher, as most of them have been obliterated by RSF shelling. On August 1st, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated that hospitals had been targeted ten times since May.
According to the United Nations, almost 80 percent of all households in the city that require some form of medical care are unable to access it.
Activists have described El-Fasher as “an open-air morgue” for starving civilians. The RSF has blocked all humanitarian corridors leading into the city with over 30 kilometres of raised earth barriers. Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab described the city as “a literal kill box.”
The severe lack of resources has forced doctors to resort to desperate measures while treating the constant stream of injured civilians. In some cases, they have taken to substituting gauze with bits of mosquito netting.
The now 18 month-long siege has left 400,000 civilians to survive in conditions of extreme scarcity. Community kitchens that were distributing meals to residents have been forced to shut down as they have run out of food.
The severe shortages have skyrocketed demand for anything even remotely edible. Al-Jazeera reported on August 4th that civilians are now forced to survive on animal fodder.
The near constant bombardments, widespread starvation, and increasing cases of cholera and dengue fever due to poor sanitation paint a bleak picture of the nightmarish man-made situation imposed on the innocent residents of El-Fasher.
The New Arab via AFP, Maghrebi.org, Doctors Without Borders, Al Jazeera
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