The Babiker Nahar Pediatric Hospital in the capital of North Darfur state was bombed by aircraft amid fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the regular Sudanese army, which MSF accuses of being responsible for the attack.

The attack caused the roof of the intensive care unit (ICU) to collapse, killing two of the children who were hospitalized.

MSF recalls that the hospital was one of the few pediatric centers still operating since the beginning of the armed conflict, in April 2023.

"It received patients referred from all over the Darfur region because many other hospitals have been forced to close. Now, it joins the list of medical centers that have been put out of service," the NGO points out.

On Friday, 160 wounded people arrived at the hospital, including 31 women and 19 children at the Al-Fasher South Hospital, which is supported by MSF, as well as at the Babiker Nahar Pediatric Hospital.

A total of 25 of these wounded were in critical condition and ended up dying.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkwita, today expressed her concern about the use of "heavy weapons" in the fighting in Al-Fasher.

"The use of heavy weapons and attacks on densely populated areas in and around central Al-Fasher are causing many casualties," she said, quoted by the daily Sudan Ajbar.

The Sudanese army and allied militias and the RSF blamed each other for the deaths of dozens of civilians during Friday's fighting in Al-Fasher, the historic capital of the Darfur region in the west of the country, and one of the main epicenters of the war that has plagued Sudan since April last year.

Al-Fasher has been under paramilitary siege for weeks, as the Sudanese army and a coalition of guerrillas led by a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Darfur Governor Minni Minawi, are entrenched in several neighborhoods of the city.

Currently, 1.5 million people are living in areas blockaded by the fighting, both in the city and in its three main displacement camps: Abu Shuk, Abu Shuk and Zamzam, on the outskirts of the city, which have more than 500,000 people and are on the front lines.

The RSF, however, assured that it is not conducting any kind of offensive and that the siege remains static.

"Last March, we pledged not to advance towards the headquarters in the city center. We are surprised by this type of attack, which ignores the presence of civilians and uses the displaced people in the camps as human shields," they add.

The paramilitaries claim to have repelled 22 attacks by Sudanese forces in recent days.

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