The NGO warns of “terrible” levels of violence due to the conflict, which has left a “catatrophic” number of victims
Jul 22. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The non-governmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Monday denounced the existence of “a war against people” in the context of the conflict that broke out in April between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has caused a collapse of the system of protection for civilians, who face indiscriminate violence, murder, torture and sexual violence.
The report ‘War on People, the Human Cost of Conflict and Violence in Sudan’ states that both the Army and the RSF and their respective allies are causing “terrible” levels of violence to the population, with a “catastrophic” number of victims and attacks on hospitals, markets and other civilian facilities.
The organisation is supporting the few hospitals and emergency rooms still in operation in Sudan in areas of active conflict in Khartoum, Gezira and Darfur, where they have treated thousands of war wounded due to crossfire, bombings and artillery attacks.
MSF has reported that between 15 August 2023 and 30 April 2024, 6,776 war-wounded people were admitted to Al Nao Hospital in Omdurman – almost 30 per cent of whom were children and women – 53 per cent of whom had gunshot wounds, while another 42 per cent suffered shrapnel wounds. Of the total, almost 400 died from their injuries.
“Around 20 people died shortly after arriving at the hospital. Some were already dead. Most of them came to us with their hands or legs hanging down, already amputated,” said a health worker at Al Nao. In some cases, only a small piece of skin held the limbs together. One patient arrived without a leg; the person accompanying him was holding the missing limb in his hand,” he added.
In this vein, MSF teams at Bashair University Hospital in Khartoum treated 4,393 patients with trauma injuries between May 2023 and April 2024, a situation that is replicated in other areas of the country, where the health system has suffered the serious impact of the conflict, including obstruction by the warring parties to the delivery of aid.
The report also contains data on sexual and gender-based violence, primarily in Darfur. A survey of survivors of sexual violence conducted between July and December 2023 in refugee camps in Chad reveals that 90 percent had been abused by one armed assailant, 50 percent in their own home, and 40 percent by multiple assailants.
“Two young girls from Sariba, our neighbourhood, disappeared. Then they kidnapped my brother and when he came home he said that the two girls were in the same house where he was kidnapped and that they had been there for two months,” said an MSF patient about events in Gedaref. “He said he heard that they did bad things to them, the kind of bad things they do to girls,” he said.
ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN DARFUR
MSF has also stressed that the testimonies also reflect the existence of ethnic violence against the population of Darfur, and several residents have stated that members of the RSF and allied militias went house to house in the city of Nyala in the summer of 2023 to kill and loot members of the Masalit community and other non-Arab ethnic groups.
“The men were armed with pistols and dressed in RSF camouflage. They stabbed me several times and I fell to the ground. When they came out of my house they looked at me lying on the ground, I was barely conscious. I heard them say: ‘He is going to die, don’t waste your bullets’, while one of them stepped on me,” said one patient.
Meanwhile, an MSF study conducted in South Darfur between February and March 2024 detected excess crude mortality rates and found that in northern Nyala, the rate had doubled due to the conflict, especially during the fighting in October 2023.
The NGO also noted that while the health system is trying to cope with the needs, there have been numerous obstacles to delivering aid, arguing that although authorities have begun to issue visas for humanitarian personnel more easily, attempts to provide vital medical care continue to be regularly hampered by bureaucratic blockages.
“Violence between warring parties is compounded by obstruction. By blocking, interfering with and stifling services when people need them most, stamps and signatures can be as deadly as bullets and bombs in Sudan,” said MSF’s general director, Vickie Hawkins.
“We call on all warring parties to facilitate increased humanitarian aid and, above all, to end this senseless war against the population by immediately ceasing attacks on the population, civilian infrastructure and residential areas,” Hawkins concluded.
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