The WHO says over 1,600 people have been killed in attacks on medical facilities in Sudan this year, with 65 documented assaults and 276 wounded. A recent drone strike on a military hospital in Diling killed nine and wounded 17, and local medical networks blamed paramilitary forces. The violence is part of a war that began in April 2023 and has killed more than 40,000 people, displaced over 14 million, and triggered disease outbreaks and pockets of famine.
WHO: Attacks on Sudan Health Facilities Kill Over 1,600 This Year, Deepening Humanitarian Crisis
FILE.- Sudanese families displaced from El-Fasher reach out as aid workers distribute food supplies at the newly established El-Afadh camp in Al Dabbah, in Sudan's Northern State, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali,File)
The World Health Organization reports that more than 1,600 people have been killed in attacks on hospitals and other health facilities across conflict-torn Sudan so far this year, underscoring the severe human cost of the fighting.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, said the agency had documented 65 separate attacks on health facilities since January and that those incidents left 276 people wounded. The WHO has repeatedly warned that attacks on medical infrastructure have a cascading effect: they deny care to civilians, force closures, and reduce access to essential medicines and services.
The most recent strike occurred on Sunday when a drone hit a military hospital in Diling, the capital of South Kordofan province. The agency said the Diling attack killed nine people and injured 17. The Sudan Doctors' Network, a group of medical professionals monitoring the conflict, blamed paramilitary forces for the strike.
“Every attack deprives more people from health services and medicines – needs that do not pause while facilities are rebuilt and services restored,” Tedros wrote on X.
United Nations officials say the Diling casualties were among at least 104 people reported killed in attacks across the wider Kordofan region since Dec. 4, according to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. In October, the Rapid Support Forces launched an offensive on the Saudi Hospital in el-Fasher, Darfur; the WHO has said gunmen killed at least 460 people during that assault and abducted doctors and nurses.
Sudan plunged into widespread violence in April 2023 when a power struggle between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces escalated into open combat in Khartoum and other regions. Now in its third year, the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people by U.N. estimates, a figure that humanitarian groups say is likely an undercount. The fighting has produced what the U.N. calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis: more than 14 million people displaced, recurrent disease outbreaks, and areas at risk of famine.
Why it matters: Targeting medical facilities violates international humanitarian law and seriously undermines relief efforts. Continued assaults on hospitals and health workers will further erode Sudan’s fragile health system and deepen civilian suffering unless parties to the conflict allow unfettered humanitarian access and protection for medical services.
