Millions of civilians in Sudan have lost their primary access to medical care following a lethal drone attack on the Al Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur on the evening of Eid al-Fitr.

The death toll from the 20 March assault has risen to 70, with 146 people now documented as injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which updated casualty figures on Tuesday.

“An attack on a hospital is not only an attack on a building, it’s an attack on people seeking care, on health workers risking their lives to save others, and on the very possibility of survival at times of crisis,” said Dr Hala Khudari, WHO Deputy Representative to Sudan, during a UN press briefing in Geneva.

Among the casualties from this latest strike were seven women, 13 children, one doctor, and two nurses. Eight other health workers sustained injuries.

This hospital attack exacerbates a widening humanitarian catastrophe fuelled by the lethal use of drones, widespread starvation, and severe violations of international law as the country approaches its third year of armed conflict.

The medical centre served as a critical referral hub for more than two million residents across East Darfur and nine surrounding localities. With the facility entirely out of service following the attack, critically ill patients must now undertake a perilous 160-kilometre journey to reach the nearest functioning specialised clinic, WHO pointed out.

UN demands accountability for hospital attack

While the perpetrators of the attack remain unidentified, both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) extensively deploy relatively cheap, high-tech drones.

The hospital is in territory held by the RSF, but the SAF has denied attacking the hospital in the rebel-held area.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, these lethal weapons had already killed over 500 civilians. primarily in the Kordofan region, between 1 January and 15 March, even before the recent deadly strike in Darfur.

This widening drone warfare is now spiralling across Sudan’s borders into neighbouring Chad, severely endangering refugee populations in border towns like Tine. By repeatedly bombing protected clinics, the warring factions are directly defying international humanitarian law.

“Continued patterns of such attacks striking civilians and destroying civilian infrastructures… may amount to war crimes,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Marta Hurtado said on Tuesday during the press briefing in Geneva.

Attacks on Healthcare: Devastating New Norm as Hotspots Like Sudan Are Overlooked

Medical facilities benefit from strict legal protection and only lose this status under exceptional circumstances. Disregarding these global norms severely damages health systems and completely paralyses local medical infrastructure.

The destruction of the Al Daein Teaching Hospital reflects a grim global trend, where hospital attacks are increasingly becoming a hallmark of present-day armed conflict.

Violence decimates healthcare system, compounds suffering

The violence further strains a health system that has been systematically dismantled over nearly three years of fighting. Since the civil war first erupted in April 2023, the WHO has verified over 200 attacks on medical facilities, leaving only 60% of the nation’s clinics operational.

These relentless assaults have claimed the lives of more than 2,000 individuals, effectively dismantling the nation’s fragile healthcare system.

Medical professionals have paid a devastating price, with independent tracking data from Insecurity Insight documenting that at least 186 health workers have been killed, 112 medical staff arrested and another 15 kidnapped during the ongoing conflict.

The collapse of medical care compounds an unprecedented humanitarian emergency. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, 21.2 million Sudanese currently face high levels of acute food insecurity.

While this reflects a slight improvement – declining by 3.4 million people in the previous months due to gradual stabilisation and improved humanitarian access in states like Khartoum, Al Jazirah, and Sennar – the overall crisis remains catastrophic. Restricted access and the destruction of agricultural capacity continue to transform the former regional breadbasket into an epicentre of starvation.

Relief efforts persist amid devastation

The civil war has triggered a widespread displacement crisis, forcing over 14 million people to flee their homes, with nearly 9.6 million internally displaced and almost 4.5 million seeking shelter in neighbouring countries. Heavy rains and severe flooding have further exacerbated this public health crisis by accelerating major outbreaks of cholera, malaria, and dengue fever across the nation.

The suffering of these vulnerable populations is continually prolonged by external actors who fuel the underlying conflict. While international aid agencies struggle to deliver relief, foreign powers complicate the crisis by continuing to supply weapons to both sides despite a UN arms embargo on Darfur.

Despite the hospital attack and the ongoing violence, international health organisations and local volunteers continue to secure vital victories on the ground. Together with health authorities, UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs are actively working to sustain and revitalise remaining facilities.

Following the recent strike, WHO and partners coordinated alternative healthcare sites and utilised pre-positioned medical supplies sufficient to support approximately 40,000 people over three months. Teams are currently moving additional trauma kits from warehouses in Abéché, Chad, to support rapid-response medical teams.

Image Credits: @DrTedros/WHO, Felix Sassmannshausen/HPW, Insecurity Insight.