WHO: Drone Strike Kills 70 at Sudan's Last Functioning Hospital

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JAN 26

Above: A Sudanese army soldier mans a machine gun on top of a military pickup truck outside a hospital in Omdurman on Nov. 2, 2024. Image copyright: Amaury Falt-Brown/Contributor/AFP via Getty Imagesstory last updated JAN 26

The Facts

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday that a drone attack on the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital in Sudan's El Fasher — the only functional hospital with surgical capacity in the region — killed at least 70 people and injured 19.
"The appalling attack on Saudi Hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, led to 19 injuries and 70 deaths among patients and companions," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "At the time of the attack, the hospital was packed with patients receiving care."
The Saudi hospital, located north of El Fasher's airport near the frontlines, has faced repeated shelling but continues to provide essential services, including obstetrics, internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics.

The Spin

Narrative A

Attacking a hospital when it was full of patients receiving care is nothing short of a massacre and a violation of international law. Sudan's people need peace and protection of their medical and humanitarian workers. Civilians in El Fasher have already endured months of suffering, violence, and gross human rights abuses under the prolonged siege. This reprehensible behavior and the barbaric actions of the militia must end immediately.

Al Arabiya Washington Post

Narrative B

The raging violence currently afflicting the people of Sudan will not cease until the US and UK publicly condemn the UAE's role in fueling the Sudanese war. Punishing the RSF will make the humanitarian situation more dire for the civilians — it's the responsibility of Western actors to challenge the UAE's efforts to secure political and economic hegemony at the cost of democracy in Sudan.

The Conversation Guardian