WHO says 70 killed in attack on western Sudan hospital

An attack on the main hospital in El-Fasher, a besieged town in western Sudan, has killed 70 people and wounded 19 others, the World Health Organisation chief said on Sunday.

"The appalling attack on Saudi Hospital in El Fasher... led to 19 injuries and 70 deaths among patients and companions," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a posting on X.

"At the time of the attack, the hospital was packed with patients receiving care," he added.

In a rare statement addressing the targeting of healthcare in Sudan, Saudi Arabia also condemned on Sunday the attack as a "violation of international law and international humanitarian law".

It called for "protection of medical and humanitarian workers", practice of "self-restraint" and avoidance of "targeting civilians".

Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In Darfur, the RSF has laid siege to El-Fasher since May, though armed-aligned militias have successfully repelled repeated attempts to seize the city.

AFP could not independently verify which of Sudan's warring sides had launched the attack.

The conflict in Sudan has unleased a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.

Tens of thousands have been killed and over 12 million people have been uprooted.

Famine is sweeping through parts of the country, forcing some families to survive on grass and animal fodder especially in the country's west and south.