Attacks on Sudan healthcare facilities killed 69 this year, says WHO

CAIRO: Five attacks on healthcare facilities have killed dozens of people in Sudan since the beginning of the year, the WHO said, as the war nears the start of its fourth year. The fighting between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has dismantled an already fragile medical system, with more than a third of facilities currently out of service. "During the first 50 days of 2026, five attacks on health care have already been recorded in Sudan, killing 69 people and injuring 49," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

A hospital was targeted in the southeastern state of Sennar, leaving three patients dead and seven people wounded, including an employee, Tedros said. In three other attacks early this month, more than 30 people were killed when medical centres were targeted in South Kordofan, a vast region south of the capital Khartoum that is currently a focus of the fighting.

The WHO has confirmed at least 206 attacks on healthcare facilities since the start of the war in April 2023, resulting in the deaths of around 2,000 people and injuries to several hundred. Last year alone, 65 attacks killed more than 1,620 people, accounting for 80 per cent of all deaths worldwide linked to attacks on the medical sector, according to the WHO.

Some 4.2 million cases of acute malnutrition are expected to arise in Sudan this year, including more than 800,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition, the WHO chief said earlier this month. Around 33 million people will be left without humanitarian aid in 2026, with the United Nations warning in January that its aid stocks could run out by the end of March.