Seventy patients and companions died in a drone strike on Saud Hospital in western’s Sudan’s Darfur, the region’s governor said. Photo courtesy Gov. Mini Minawi/X

Darfur’s governor Minni Minawi on Saturday accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of the attack.

He wrote in Arabic on X the attack “exterminated all the patients who were inside it, their number exceeding seventy patients, including women, children and others. May God accept them. Shame on these supporters. Terrorist bastards. They have surpassed ISIS in their behavior.”

Since April 2023, the RSF seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.

Tens of thousands and more than 12 million people have uprooted.

The north African nation has 48 million people.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, on X on Saturday called for a “cessation of all attacks on health care in Sudan, and to allow full access for the swift restoration of the facilities that have been damaged. Above all, Sudan’s people need peace. The best medicine is peace.”

He said the hospital was packed with patients receiving care.

“The attack comes at a time when access to health care is already severely constrained in the state due to the closure of health facilities following intense bombardments,” he wrote. “As the only functional hospital in El Fasher, the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital provides services which include gyn-obstetrics, internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics, along with a nutrition stabilization centre.”

He said a health facility in Al Malha, North Darfur, also was attacked Friday, resulting in a pause of care.

Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders said Saudi Hospital was “the only public hospital with surgical capacity still standing.”