63 children among 114 killed in ‘senseless’ strikes on Sudan hospital, kindergarten, WHO says
Reports paramedics were also targeted during rescue efforts, as WHO director general condemns attack
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that 114 people, including 63 children, were killed in “senseless” strikes on a hospital and kindergarten in Sudan’s South Kordofan state last week.
The strikes “hit a kindergarten and, at least three times, the nearby Kalogi Rural Hospital, killing 114 people, including 63 children, and injuring 35 people,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media, citing the UN health agency’s Attacks on Health Care monitoring system.
Local official Essam al-Din al-Sayed, head of the Kalogi administrative unit, said that Thursday’s paramilitary drone attack on the army-held town first hit the kindergarten, then the hospital, and a third strike occurred as people tried to rescue the children.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million.
Survivors from Thursday’s attack were moved to Abu Jebaiha Hospital in South Kordofan for treatment, while urgent calls have gone out for blood donations and other medical support, Tedros said.
“Disturbingly, paramedics and responders came under attack as they tried to move the injured from the kindergarten to the hospital,” he said.