The attack on hospitals in El Fasher and the detention of supplies endanger lives
Moatinoon
Doctors Without Borders warned that repeated attacks on health facilities in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, have resulted in a rising number of casualties in the city. At the same time, the detention of trucks loaded with urgent medical supplies endangers more lives. The organization called on all parties to respect health facilities and civilians and to urgently allow the delivery of food and medicines to the area.
The organization urged all parties to stop attacking hospitals in El Fasher and throughout Sudan and called on the Rapid Support Forces to release the Doctors Without Borders trucks from Kabkabiya so that life-saving medical supplies can be brought to the Saudi Hospital and the organizations facilities in Zamzam camp. It also urged the warring parties to facilitate rapid access for all humanitarian supplies and convoys to El Fasher and Zamzam camp to prevent further deterioration in the health of the population.
It revealed that the organization’s supply trucks have been detained by the Rapid Support Forces in the city of Kabkabiya over the past four weeks.
Stéphane Doyon, Head of Emergency Response for Doctors Without Borders in Sudan, said: We do not know if hospitals are being deliberately targeted, but Monday’s incident shows that the warring parties are not taking any precautions to protect them. He added: They are making no effort to prevent civilian deaths or to ensure the protection of patients and medical staff. As a result, many lives are being lost.
Since the fighting intensified about 12 weeks ago, more than 2,170 injured people have been treated in hospitals supported by Doctors Without Borders in El Fasher, and more than 300 people have died from their injuries.
Doyon said: The warring parties are well aware of the location of the Saudi Hospital and that it is the last remaining public hospital in the city capable of treating the wounded. He added: It has been targeted four times now, and if it goes out of service as happened with the South Hospital when it was stormed in June—for the fifth time this facility was attacked—there will be no other place in the city for the injured or for women who need emergency cesarean surgeries to save their lives to receive surgery.
Doyon continued: The Childrens Hospital also became inoperable in May when it was damaged by a bomb that fell nearby, killing three people, including two children who were in the intensive care unit. Children needing hospital treatment are now being treated in a small health clinic with limited equipment—or if they are suffering from war-related injuries, they are treated at the Saudi Hospital."
