WHO Confirms 64 Killed in Attack on Sudan Hospital, Including 13 Children
El-Daein Teaching Hospital strike pushes total health facility fatalities past 2,000 as UN decries “enough blood spilled”
GENEVA — March 22, 2026 — The World Health Organization has verified that an attack on a hospital in East Darfur, Sudan, killed at least 64 people, including 13 children, two female nurses, one male doctor, and multiple patients, in one of the deadliest strikes on health infrastructure since the conflict began nearly three years ago .
The attack, which occurred on Friday evening at El-Daein Teaching Hospital in the RSF-controlled state capital of East Darfur, also wounded 89 people, eight of whom were health staff, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus . The strike damaged the hospital’s pediatric, maternity, and emergency departments, rendering the facility non-functional and causing a “critical interruption of essential medical services” .
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“Enough blood has been spilled. Enough suffering has been inflicted,” Tedros said in a statement on Saturday. “The time has come to de-escalate the conflict in Sudan and ensure the protection of civilians, health workers, and humanitarians” .
Army Drone Strike Blamed by Rights Group
Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers, which documents atrocities in the war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), reported that the hospital was hit by an army drone strike . The RSF dominates the vast western Darfur region, while the army controls Sudan’s east, center, and north .
Though the WHO’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA) confirmed the incident, the organization does not attribute blame as it is not an investigative agency . The attack was described as involving “violence with heavy weapons” and affected medical personnel, patients, supplies, and storage .
El-Daein, the RSF-controlled capital of East Darfur, has been regularly attacked by the army as it attempts to push paramilitary forces back toward their Darfur strongholds and away from Sudan’s central corridor .
Over 2,000 Health Facility Deaths Since War Began
With Friday’s tragedy, the total number of fatalities linked to attacks on health facilities during Sudan’s war has surpassed 2,000. WHO has now confirmed that 2,036 people have been killed in 213 attacks on health care across the country since fighting erupted in April 2023 .
The total number of injured in such attacks has reached at least 720 . According to the WHO’s Surveillance System for Attacks, the attacks are growing increasingly deadly: in 2023, 64 attacks caused 38 deaths; in 2024, 72 attacks led to 200 deaths; and in 2025, 65 attacks caused 1,620 deaths—accounting for 82 percent of reported deaths from attacks on health care globally that year .
This year alone, a total of 12 attacks on health care in Sudan have been recorded, causing 178 deaths and 237 injuries prior to Friday’s strike .
Hospitals Under Fire Throughout Conflict
Near-daily drone strikes have become a hallmark of Sudan’s brutal war, killing dozens at a time, mostly in the southern Kordofan region . UN rights chief Volker Türk this month said he was “appalled” after more than 200 civilians were reported killed by drone attacks within an eight-day period .
“Parties to the conflict in Sudan continue to use increasingly powerful drones to deploy explosive weapons with wide-area impacts in populated areas,” Türk said .
To repeated condemnation by the United Nations, hospitals have been a regular target throughout the war. By December, more than 1,800 people had been killed in attacks on health facilities, including 173 health workers .
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Humanitarian Catastrophe
Beyond the devastating human toll, attacks on health care have immediate and long-term consequences for communities already in desperate need of both emergency and routine medical services .
The war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces under General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF under his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed tens of thousands and driven more than 11 million people from their homes .
It has fueled what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises, with more than 33 million people in need of humanitarian aid across the country .
WHO Response
The WHO is supporting local health partners to help fill urgent gaps by scaling up capacity at other health facilities. This includes strengthening primary health care services to provide outpatient, pediatric, and obstetric care; increasing capacity to treat the injured; and deploying trauma care supplies and essential medicines .
“Health care should never be a target,” Tedros said. “Peace is the best medicine” .
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