The NGO insists on the critical situation of civilians, especially in Darfur, where “they are shooting dead” those who try to escape
June 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Doctors Without Borders warns this Friday that widespread violence and bureaucratic difficulties are preventing the regular arrival of humanitarian aid to the areas most affected by the war between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), especially in the capital, Khartoum, and the Darfur region.
“People are dying while the country’s health system is reeling under the weight of overwhelming needs,” warns Jean Nicolas Armstrong Dangelser, MSF’s Emergency Coordinator in Sudan, who denounces “shocking levels of violence” by the Army and paramilitaries .
Added to this are the enormous difficulties that MSF teams face in getting through the innumerable checkpoints on the country’s highways, as lamented by Dr. Javid Abdelomoneim, head of the MSF medical team who ended up blocked while trying to deliver aid. emergency medical supplies from Port Sudan, where MSF has its base of operations.
“Why, after two, three, four, five, six, seven conversations with the authorities, our permits to travel back to Khartoum and the Nile river states were refused?” Dr. Abdelomoneim lamented. “Weeks have passed and my entire team is still sitting in Port Sudan helplessly,” he added.
MSF accuses the authorities of “repeatedly” preventing the movement of humanitarian and medical personnel and supplies, of refusing travel permits “requested on time and with proper documentation” without ever “giving clear reasons” and even denouncing that, at times, “MSF staff were harassed, threatened or detained.”
Despite repeated requests and petitions, the Sudanese authorities have issued far fewer visas than MSF needs to bring in enough staff to meet the immense needs of the Sudanese population in an “inconsistent, unreliable and unsecured” process.
“Although it is not clear if these actions are a deliberate attempt to restrict humanitarian aid, the consequences for the population are the same as if they were: reduced access to health care at the moment when it is most urgent,” he laments. the organization.
The NGO insists for the umpteenth time on the “desperate situation” facing civilians. Patients who fled West Darfur to Chad, where they were cared for by MSF, described a dire situation in El Geneina, the state capital, where “people trying to leave the city are being shot dead.”
