The airstrike came after heavy fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the government-led Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in North Darfur on 10 May, when 160 wounded people— including 31 women and 19 children—arrived at the MSF-supported South Hospital in El Fasher. Of those wounded, 25 were in a terminal condition upon arrival and passed away.
When the conflict neared Babiker Nahar, almost all patients who were able to leave fled in search of safety. Of the 115 children receiving treatment in Babiker Nahar, ten were still in the hospital on Saturday when the bomb dropped. The bomb led to a collapse of the roof above the intensive care unit and the death of two children who remained receiving treatment there, as well as the death of at least one caregiver.
This hospital was one of the few specialising in the treatment of sick children that had managed to remain operational since the start of the war. It received referrals from across the Darfur region because so many others had been forced to close. Now, one additional health facility has been put out of action.
"Already, there was far too little health care available in Sudan due to the conflict," says Michel-Olivier Lacharité, head of MSF’s emergency operations.
"The original paediatric hospital was looted at the start of the war. The children were evacuated to a small health clinic that we rehabilitated and expanded in May and June last year. Upgrading a small health clinic into a functioning hospital is not an easy task—especially during an active conflict.
"It was one of the very few children’s hospitals remaining in the whole Darfur region. We received referrals from across Darfur because of the lack of facilities elsewhere. Now we are one additional hospital down, just as we were trying to scale-up our response in El Fasher and Zamzam camp in response to the catastrophic malnutrition crisis there."
