At least 40 people, including children and healthcare workers, were killed in an airstrike on Al-Mujlad Hospital in Sudan’s West Kordofan state, according to health officials and civil society groups. The attack took place on Saturday near an active front in Sudan’s ongoing civil war.

The World Health Organization condemned the strike, calling it “another appalling attack” on medical infrastructure in the conflict. “We cannot say this louder,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X. “Attacks on health must stop everywhere!”

The WHO’s office in Sudan confirmed that at least six children and five health workers were among the dead, according to the BBC.

Dozens more were injured in the bombing, which struck the only operating medical facility in the area, the Sudan Doctors Network said.

Responsibility for the attack remains contested. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), a position echoed by the Sudan Doctors Network and the Emergency Lawyers group, both of which track violations committed by both factions. The Sudanese army has not issued a formal statement.

According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the military targeted the hospital in an effort to kill RSF fighters allegedly positioned inside the facility. The RSF has not addressed that accusation.

The hospital, located in the town of Muglad, operated a dialysis unit and primarily treated civilians rather than combatants, according to Emergency Lawyers.

The incident is the latest in a series of reported violations against medical institutions since Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023. 

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell also raised concerns Monday about the escalating humanitarian crisis. Speaking during a visit to refugee camps in Chad, she said that "hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable children are bearing the brunt of both the war in Sudan and a lack of essential services for those who have fled to Chad."

Russell warned that many displaced children are malnourished, lack access to education, and are at heightened risk of exploitation and disease.

She also said that two-thirds of the required aid funding for Sudan remains unmet.

The conflict began in April last year and has led to the deaths of thousands and the displacement of millions. The United Nations has described it as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.