TUE 24 MAR - More than 2,000 people have been killed in attacks on healthcare facilities in the three years of war in Sudan, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
It follows a strike on the Al Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur on Friday in which at least 64 people - including 13 children, three medical staff, and multiple patients - were killed.
A further 89 people, including eight medical staff, were injured, while the facility’s paediatric, maternity, and emergency departments were damaged.
Pictures from the scene showed a building littered with mounds of debris and rebar protruding from partially collapsed roofs.
On Saturday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the strike took the number of attacks on healthcare facilities since the start of the war to 213 and the total death toll to at least 2,036.
“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,” he said.
“Health care should never be a target.”
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said patients at the hospital in Al Daein had been moved to other facilities but that additional medical supplies were “urgently needed”.
Debris carpets the ground following a strike on Al Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur
The hospital is in territory currently controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
In a statement, the group accused the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of carrying out the attack, describing it as a “full-fledged war crime” that “reflects a systematic pattern of targeting innocent civilians and civil facilities, foremost among them healthcare facilities”.
In response, SAF said it had “followed with astonishment the accusations” made by the RSF.
“The Sudanese Armed Forces affirms that it is a regular force committed to international law and norms,” it said.
“This pattern of behavior, however, is characteristic of the [RSF], which has repeatedly carried out such attacks.”
Chad deploys army to Darfur border following RSF attacks
Chad has reportedly begun moving refugees away from its border with Sudan as its army deploys to the area following cross-border clashes.
Operations to relocate an initial group of around 2,300 people, mostly women and children, further into Chad began on Saturday and were set to expand on Monday, an official from the country’s refugee agency told Reuters.
It follows a drone strike on the border town of Tina last Wednesday in which at least 17 people were killed.
Chad President Mahamat Déby described the strike as a “blatant aggression" against the country’s territorial integrity and ordered that the border with Sudan be closed, as it has been on a number of occasions amid fighting over recent months.
Déby also ordered the military to remain on high alert and to retaliate against any further attacks, the BBC reports.
A government statement said last week that Chad had reinforced its security presence near the border and could be deployed for operations inside Sudan, according to Reuters.
Tina is divided in two by a seasonal waterway that follows the Chad-Sudan border.
The populations of both towns are mostly Zaghawa - one of the ethnic groups historically targeted in Darfur by the RSF - and in many cases have family ties across the border.
As the RSF has secured control of more of Darfur over recent months, the SAF-allied Joint Forces have withdrawn into Chad, using areas like Tina to launch attacks back into Sudan, Sudan War Monitor reports.
The RSF has, in turn, staged a number of attacks encroaching onto Chadian territory.
Sources told Sudan Tribune that Chadian forces have begun confiscating weapons and military vehicles in Chadian Tina - an initiative being resisted by local leaders - and could be planning an operation to take control of Sudanese Tina.
At least 12 killed in ‘massacre’ after RSF retakes Bara
At least 12 people were killed in a “massacre” following the RSF’s recapture of the town of Bara last week, according to the Sudan Doctors Network (SDN).
The town, a key military and logistical hub, has changed hands multiple times over recent months, but was retaken by the RSF following an assault on 16 March.
The SDN said on Wednesday that the killings occurred in the nearby village of Shrim Mima and that six women were among the dead, while another three people were injured.
The victims were reportedly accused of being supporters of SAF.
An estimated 150 people were displaced from Shrim Mima by "heightened insecurity" on 17 March, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
SDN called for the “immediate protection of civilians and for opening safe routes for those who remain in the villages around Bara”.
Control of Bara is considered a key aim for the RSF as it seeks to bring North Kordofan state capital El Obeid, which sits around 60km to the south, under siege.
In July, at least 284 civilians were killed in a series of massacres by the RSF in villages in the rural areas surrounding Bara, according to the Emergency Lawyers human rights group.
UAE ‘seeks to open new supply routes’ in eastern and central Africa
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is working to maintain its support to the RSF by opening new supply lines through eastern and central Africa, according to an investigation by Le Monde.
The report tracked at least nine flights believed to have departed the UAE for Ethiopia or the Central African Republic over the past month.
One of the flights - thought to have been from Fujairah in the UAE to Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa - used a plane previously owned by Gewan Airways, an air cargo company alleged to have been involved in flights carrying supplies from the UAE to the RSF.
Flight-tracking data reportedly indicates that this craft, along with a second, is now registered in the Central African Republic (CAR) and being operated by Invicta Air Cargo.
Le Monde reports that Invicta Air Cargo was set up in August by an Emirati national in CAR capital Bangui.
Regional security and diplomatic sources told Le Monde that arms shipments are believed to have previously been made via Bangui - the capital of CAR - and Birao, a town with an airfield near the Sudanese border.
The planes often switch their transponders off during flights, making it difficult to be certain about their origin and destination.
The UAE has long denied providing support to the RSF, despite previous media reports setting out evidence of supplies being flown to Sudan’s neighbouring countries.
SAF 'accuses Ethiopia of aiding attack' on border town
The investigation follows reports of disruption to RSF supply lines through Libya and Chad.
A recent uptick in fighting in Blue Nile is believed to be part of an attempt by the RSF to open new supply lines from Ethiopia, which borders the state.
On Sunday, the RSF and the allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-N) reportedly launched an assault to seize the town of Kurmuk, which sits on the Sudanese side of the border.
Speaking to Sudan Tribune, an official in the SAF government accused Ethiopia of having “sponsored” the attack and claimed that combat vehicles moved through the Ethiopian towns of Assosa and Khor al-Dahab ahead of the offensive.
In a statement, the SPLM-N said a joint operation had “crushed” SAF forces in the Jurut area, near Kurmuk, and seized “huge quantities of weapons and ammunition”.
Footage circulating online purportedly showed RSF and SPLM-N forces advancing through rural areas around Kurmuk and clambering on a captured SAF tank.
The weekly dispatch features the latest developments, first-hand testimony, footage, photos, stats and analysis on Sudan. We can connect you with voices from the ground, experts, and survivors of the war. Get in touch on +44 7514 796 678 or sudan@avaaz.org
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