“Medical staff forced to flee as hospitals become battlegrounds in Sudan’s conflict”

Abu Bakr says: “We left only with God’s protection. There were no safe passages. All the medical staff got out under the bombardment. A sniper targeted me with four bullets, all of which passed near my head.”

But the most difficult task was evacuating patients. At first, some patients who were not in critical condition were discharged, and patients who were on ventilators were transported in a special way.

Abu Bakr added, “The nurses cooperated to transfer the patients and the medical equipment they were being treated with, to the nearby Khartoum Hospital.”

Khartoum Hospital was not spared from the ongoing fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, so the medical staff was forced to evacuate patients from it days later.

Since the beginning of the conflict, many hospitals in Sudan have stopped working, and access to some of them has become a potentially deadly risk.

According to the Preliminary Committee of the Sudanese Medical Association, about 70 percent of hospitals in the capital and areas adjacent to the clashes were out of service due to damage from the bombing, or the impossibility of accessing them.

But risking going to those hospitals was the only option for some.

Al-Numeir Jibril, director of Al-Shaab Hospital, says: “Days after the patients were evacuated from the hospital, we were surprised by some patients returning to it without our knowledge, in order to obtain oxygen. They stayed there for 48 hours, until a shell fell directly on the hospital, and we evacuated them again.”

The BBC documented video clips of Rapid Support soldiers standing with heavy military equipment near Best Care Hospital in the capital.

It also documented pictures of a fire that broke out in one of the buildings of Al-Shaab Teaching Hospital after a shell fell on it. It also documented pictures of the blood of injured people who were wounded by the bombing of Al-Roumi Hospital in the capital, as well as the effects of the bombing of Ibn Sina Hospital in Khartoum.

“There will be a big problem in restoring these hospitals to service after the end of the war, if they are severely destroyed,” Jibril says.

While Abu Bakr had to leave Khartoum to his family’s home in Gezira State, south of the capital, Dr. Al-Numeir works in other hospitals on the outskirts of the capital.

Doctor Asmaa Imam and her colleagues operated the Turkish Hospital, south of Khartoum, after it stopped working for months for administrative reasons.

He started working at the hospital with two doctors and one technician, before calls were made for other doctors to join.

Asmaa says: “We faced difficulties in operating the emergency and some devices. The electricity was constantly cut off, as well as the water. It was a very difficult situation.”

After a few days, the number of volunteers among the medical staff reached 25, but the number of patients remained far beyond the capabilities of this number.

Asmaa added, “I volunteered to receive patients as a general practitioner, but the pressure on the dialysis department was so severe that it worked 3 shifts. I had not worked in this department before, but during these two days I learned some skills to help the patients there.”

After days of working in the Turkish hospital, Asmaa was forced to leave the capital with her family because of the security situation, describing the situation, saying: “Staying in Khartoum became for those who can afford it.”