Deadly Strikes and Displacement Deepen Sudan’s Humanitarian Crisis
A series of attacks across Sudan has resulted in significant civilian casualties and displaced thousands, further crippling the nation’s health services and shelter infrastructure, according to the UN and humanitarian agencies.
Drone strikes near the Sudan-Chad border caused heavy civilian losses, killing six people outright and resulting in four subsequent deaths from wounds. An additional 29 injured individuals were transported to a Médecins Sans Frontières-supported hospital in Tiné, eastern Chad. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that such attacks are pushing Sudan’s already fragile health system toward total collapse.
In South Kordofan, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that attacks on three health facilities between 3 and 5 February killed at least 31 people and wounded 19. The assaults included an assault on a primary health centre on 3 February that killed eight people, among them five children and three women, and wounded 11. A hospital attack on 4 February killed one person. A separate hospital strike on 5 February proved particularly devastating, leaving 22 people dead, including four health workers, and injuring eight.
The violence continues to drive mass displacement. Approximately 750 people fled Delling in South Kordofan over the weekend of 9–10 February. According to the International Organization for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix, the total number of displaced persons from the Kordofan region now stands at 115,223 individuals (22,965 households). While nearly four million people have returned to their homes in other parts of Sudan, the overall internally displaced population remains over nine million.
In a separate incident in North Darfur, a major fire in the Hilla Naima area of Tawila on 11 February killed at least two people, including a 12-year-old child. The blaze destroyed makeshift shelters across three neighbourhoods, spreading for about one kilometre and leaving newly displaced families without shelter or basic necessities. The General Coordination of Camps for Displaced Persons and Refugees emphasized that long-term camp protection is essential for human dignity and that urgent responses are critical to save lives.
OCHA has renewed its call for the protection of civilians and health services, increased funding, and safe, unhindered humanitarian access across the country. The cumulative impact of targeted violence on health infrastructure, coupled with large-scale displacement and now destructive fires in camps, underscores a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian emergency requiring immediate international intervention.
