A deadly drone strike by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed six people at a hospital in El-Obeid on Friday, intensifying the humanitarian crisis as a cholera outbreak grips the capital, Khartoum.
The attack, which also injured 12 others, targeted the Social Insurance Hospital in the strategic southern city.
An army source revealed the hospital was one of several locations struck during simultaneous RSF assaults on residential areas using drones and heavy artillery. Another hospital in the city centre was also reportedly hit.
El-Obeid, located around 400 kilometres southwest of Khartoum, had endured an RSF siege for nearly two years until the national army broke through in February.
The city remains a critical logistics hub for army operations in western Sudan, particularly in the besieged city of El-Fasher, the last state capital in Darfur still under military control.
Friday’s attack drew condemnation from the World Health Organisation. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO was “appalled” by the strike and called for the protection of health workers and facilities, insisting that “the best medicine is peace.”
Fighting continues along the route between El-Obeid and El-Fasher, with RSF forces claiming on Thursday to have retaken Al-Khoei, a town west of El-Obeid that the army had recently seized.
The civil war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, which began in April 2023, has left tens of thousands dead and displaced over 13 million people. The United Nations has described it as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
Meanwhile, in Khartoum, overwhelmed doctors are battling a severe cholera outbreak that has claimed dozens of lives this week. With medicine and supplies dwindling, healthcare workers, including those from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), are relying on makeshift tents and limited resources to treat patients in extreme heat.
“We are using all available means to limit its spread and treat infected patients,” said Dr. Hamad Adel from MSF, speaking from Bashair Hospital.
Images showed patients receiving IV fluids while lying on rusted beds in overcrowded, makeshift wards. Children appeared visibly malnourished and fatigued, underscoring the growing public health emergency.
The outbreak has been linked to RSF drone strikes on Khartoum’s power stations, which disrupted water treatment facilities and left millions without access to clean water.
Though cholera is easily preventable and treatable with proper sanitation, Sudan’s devastated health infrastructure cannot cope. According to the doctors’ union, nearly 90 per cent of hospitals in key conflict zones have been forced to shut at some point during the war.
The war has fractured Sudan into opposing zones of control — the army dominates the north, east, and centre, while the RSF and its allies control nearly all of Darfur and much of the south.
Despite several failed attempts, the RSF continues its bid to seize El-Fasher, a move that would solidify its hold over Darfur. The UN World Food Programme reported on Thursday that one of its facilities in the city had been damaged by repeated RSF shelling.
The United States, which has imposed sanctions on both Burhan and Daglo, condemned the RSF’s latest assault.
“Safe, sustained humanitarian access is critical, and violations that endanger civilians and relief efforts demand serious attention,” said US Senior Africa Advisor Massad Boulos.
The RSF, after being pushed out of Khartoum in March, appears to be shifting tactics — combining long-range drone attacks with a southern counteroffensive.
On Thursday, the group claimed to have captured Dibeibat in South Kordofan, a region where allied rebel factions also operate.
