Six killed as RSF attack devastates Sudanese hospital in North Kordofan

According to officials and rights advocates, a suspected drone attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a hospital in southern Sudan, the most recent civilian facility targeted during the brutal civil war, claimed at least six people.

The RSF was held responsible for the attack on Friday at the Obeid International Hospital, al-Dhaman, in Obeid, the provincial capital, in North Kordofan province, by the Emergency Lawyers. According to the report, the attack claimed injured at least 15 others.

The hospital claimed that the attack caused significant damage to its main building in a statement posted on social media. The hospital’s main medical facility, which provides the region, was ordered to suspend services until further notice, according to the statement.

A second hospital in the city center was also hit by the bombardment, according to a source from Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) intelligence.

The city serves as a crucial staging point for the army’s supply to the west, where El-Fasher, the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under the control of the army, is located.

Despite international warnings about the potential for violence in a city that serves as a major humanitarian hub for the five Darfur states, El-Fasher has been the site of attritional fighting between SAF and RSF since May 2024.

outbreak of cholera

The Health Ministry in Khartoum state on Thursday reported 942 new cholera infections and 25 deaths, a rise from 1, 177 cases and 45 deaths the day before, adding to humanitarian woes on the ground.

Aid workers claim that the fight against cholera is slipping because almost 90% of hospitals in key warzones are no longer operational.

In 12 of Sudan’s 18 states, at least 1, 700 deaths have been reported since August 2024, including at least 1,700 deaths. As a result of more than two years of fighting between the army and the RSF, Kartova has seen 7,700 cases and 185 deaths, including more than 1, 000 infections in children under five.

According to Jean-Nicolas Armstrong Dangelser, the Sudanese emergency coordinator known by its French initials MSF, “Sudan urgently needs an increase in aid to help combat the cholera outbreak, hundreds of cases per day, which has even exceeded the more than 1000 cases per day.”

Nobody has the complete picture at the moment, sadly, so Dangelser said, “This is only the tip of the iceberg.”

Fighting in the south of Ondurman’s al-Salha district, where there were pockets of cholera patients, “greatly contributed” to the spread of the disease, according to Dangelser. The al-Salha district, which is thought to be Khartoum State’s final stronghold, was under the control of the army on May 19 when it was announced.

“The returnees to Khartoum are now exacerbating the situation because of the devasted water system and lack of healthcare,” Dangelser continued. “It’s also now spreading to Darfur, where people have been displaced by fighting.”

Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict outside of their own country, where violence and death are common. Local authorities reported that 11 Sudanese refugees and a Libyan driver were killed in a car crash in Libya’s desert on Friday.

The UN has reported that 250, 000 people have fled their homes since the RSF and SAF clashed in neighboring Libya, out of which 11 million have been forced out of their homes since April 2023.