Dozens of patients have been killed in a drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region.

While it was not immediately clear who targeted the Saudi Hospital on Friday, medical sources quoted by AFP news agency said the same building was hit by a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drone “a few weeks ago”.

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Friday’s attack killed at least 30 patients in the emergency department, the report added. Regional governor Mini Minawi posted graphic images of bloodied bodies on his X account on Saturday, saying that the attack “exterminated” more than 70 patients, including women and children.

The Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary RSF, who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur, since April 2023.

The RSF has besieged el-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, since May, but army-aligned armed groups have repeatedly pushed its fighters back, preventing them from claiming the city.

Attacks on healthcare facilities have been rampant in el-Fasher, where medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this month the Saudi Hospital was “the only public hospital with surgical capacity still standing”.

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Across the country, up to 80 percent of healthcare facilities have been forced out of service, according to official figures.

The war, which broke out after disputes on the integration of the two forces, has killed tens of thousands of people, driven millions from their homes and plunged half of the population into hunger.

In the area around el-Fasher, famine has already taken hold in three displacement camps – Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam – and is expected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May, according to a UN-backed assessment.

The attack on the hospital in el-Fasher occurred as the Sudanese army claimed to have broken an RSF siege of its headquarters in Khartoum, in place since the war broke out.

In a statement, the army said troops in Bahri [Khartoum North] and Omdurman had “merged with our forces stationed at the General Command of the Armed Forces”.

Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, comprises three main cities – Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri – separated by the Nile River and collectively referred to as the triangular capital.

The army added that it had “expelled” the RSF from the strategically important al-Jili oil refinery north of the capital, the country’s largest.

The RSF said in a statement that it rejected the Sudanese army’s claims as “propaganda” designed to boost morale, and accused it of spreading falsehoods through doctored videos.