A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region killed 30 people and injured dozens, reports said on Saturday.

The bombing of the Saudi Hospital on Friday evening “led to the destruction” of its emergency building, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.

It was not immediately clear which of Sudan’s warring sides had launched the attack.

Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.

They have besieged El Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, since May, but have not managed to claim the city, where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.

Last week, the RSF issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and allies leave the city by Wednesday afternoon in advance of an expected offensive.

Local activists have reported intermittent fighting since, including repeated artillery fire from the RSF on the famine-hit Abu Shouk displacement camp.

‘Sudan must not be forgotten’

On Friday morning alone, heavy shelling killed eight people in the camp, according to civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees.

The United Nations has voiced alarm, calling on both parties to ensure the protection of the city’s civilian population – some two million people.

“The people of El Fasher have suffered so much already from many months of senseless violence and brutal violations and abuses, particularly in the course of the prolonged siege of their city,” Seif Magango, UN rights office spokesman, said Wednesday.

David Lammy, the UK Foreign Secretary, spoke on Friday while on a visit to Sudan to say that it “must not be forgotten”.

While there, he announced an additional £20 million in funding to support refugees fleeing Sudan as he visited a refugee camp across the border in Chad.

“Sudanese people are facing violence on an unimaginable scale. This is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world,” the Foreign Secretary said.