There are places in life set apart for solace and repair, where the measured routines of care build a fragile refuge against the unpredictable tides beyond their walls. A hospital, in its ideal, stands like a garden in a dry land — a place where life is nurtured, a gentle defiance against the shadows of illness and injury. In a troubled corner of Sudan’s vast landscapes, that garden once stood in Al-Kuweik, in South Kordofan State, offering its quiet promise of healing in the midst of a long and grinding conflict. But on a day that began like many others under an unremarkable sky, the ground shook and lives were ruptured far from the sanctuary that should have been.
In the early days of February, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — a powerful paramilitary group involved in Sudan’s ongoing civil war — struck the Al-Kuweik Military Hospital, shattering the fragile calm that patients and staff had tried so hard to create. What should have been rooms of respite became scenes of chaos and injury, lives upended by artillery and shelling that respect no boundary, not even a hospital’s walls. The Sudan Doctors Network has described this assault as not only devastating but part of a broader pattern of violent disruptions that have forced several health facilities to halt operations amid deepening humanitarian crisis.
The toll was harrowing: at least 22 people lost their lives, including medical staff members who were tending to the sick and wounded, and eight others were injured in the bombardment. Among the fallen were the hospital’s medical director and several other health professionals who had devoted their days to care rather than conflict. These losses rippled beyond the immediate tragedy, searing grief into families and communities already weighted by years of war and displacement.
A hospital is more than bricks and mortar; it is a living tapestry of human struggle and hope. The corridors where nurses once walked, carrying medicines and warm words, became spaces stained with the trauma of sudden violence. When caregivers are killed in the very act of healing, it speaks to a brutality that transcends tactical objectives, reaching into the moral fabric that governs how we treat our most vulnerable.
Local and international medical groups have decried the attack, calling it a violation of accepted humanitarian norms that safeguard health facilities and civilian personnel. In conflict zones, there exists an understanding — codified by international humanitarian law — that hospitals are neutral sanctuaries. When that understanding is breached, the consequences stretch far beyond the immediate conflict scene, undermining trust and diminishing the capacity for communities to recover and survive.
As the war in Sudan continues to claim lives and displace populations, the assault on this hospital stands as a poignant reminder of the fragility of human institutions in the face of violence. For those who survived the bombardment, for families who now mourn, and for neighbors who once looked to this hospital with quiet faith, the echoes of this day will linger far longer than any signal of retreat or relief.
In factual terms, the Rapid Support Forces carried out an artillery assault on the Al-Kuweik Military Hospital in South Kordofan on February 5–6, 2026, resulting in 22 confirmed deaths, including health care workers, and several injuries. The Sudan Doctors Network and other medical groups have condemned the attack, highlighting its impact on healthcare services amid Sudan’s broader conflict
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Sources • MetroTV News • Anadolu Agency (AA) • IDN Times • The New Arab • Sudan Doctors Network statements