Increasing violence against health workers in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, threatens the few hospitals still open, Doctors Without Borders said, after its staff were beaten and flogged by armed men on Thursday.
The MSF team came under attack 700 meters from the Turkish hospital, one of only two operating in southern Khartoum after others were forced to close during nearly 100 days of fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, she said.The Guardian“.
Doctors Without Borders said that it may not be able to maintain its presence in the hospital, after it continued to support it by performing surgeries and treating chronic diseases, at a time when it also received about 15 people injured in the fighting every day.
“In order to save lives, the lives of our staff who are there doing this life-saving work must not be put at risk,” said Christophe Garnier, MSF Emergency Director in Sudan. “If an incident like this happens again, and if our ability to transport supplies continues to be hampered, it is unfortunate that our presence in the Turkish hospital will soon become untenable.”
On Thursday, a group of armed men stopped four MSF staff while they were taking medical supplies to the hospital.
The organization said its team was physically attacked by men who questioned MSF’s presence in the city.
There were at least nine attacks on healthcare workers or hospitals in Sudan between June 28 and July 11, according to a report by Insecurity Insight, which tracks attacks on health systems in conflict.
The report documented the deaths of at least eight healthcare workers during this period, as well as the looting and burning of facilities.
ACAPS, which monitors humanitarian crises, said West Darfur, which has been a focus of violence by the RSF, has seen attacks that have closed medical facilities and restricted supplies of medicine, which usually arrives from Khartoum.
The Sudanese Ministry of Health also stated that four civilians were killed and four others injured when a military hospital in Omdurman, which is adjacent to Khartoum, was hit by a drone strike that was blamed on the Rapid Support Forces.
Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world, and more than half of its population now needs help to survive, at a time when the famine warning has reached its maximum, and while more than two-thirds of hospitals are out of service.
2023-07-22 03:08:52
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