The NGO has reported more than 300 deaths and 2,100 injuries in its facilities alone since May 10
Aug. 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has denounced that hospitals in the Sudanese region of El Fasher, one of the current epicentres of the war that is devastating the African country, are the target of an attack every eight days in a pattern that is making it impossible to care for the victims of the clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have caused more than 300 deaths and 2,170 injuries in less than three months in the medical facilities where the NGO works alone.
The El Fasher region is located in the state of North Darfur, in the west of the country. Its main town, also called El Fasher, is defended by the Sudanese Army and the militias of the governor of Darfur, Minni Minawi, from the paramilitary siege installed in November last year and finally turned into an all-out offensive in May against what was, until then, one of the last refuges for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the conflict that broke out in April 2023.
MSF cites attacks such as the one on Monday against the city’s Saudi Hospital, the tenth attack on a hospital in the city since 10 May and one that left three dead and 25 wounded, including several displaced people who were taking refuge in a nearby mosque, which was also hit. The bombing, MSF says, took place while El Fasher was under attack by the RSF, but international observers say that both sides routinely violate international law during hostilities in the area.
“We do not know whether hospitals are being deliberately targeted, but Monday’s incident shows once again that the warring parties are not taking any measures or care to protect them,” said Stéphane Doyon, MSF’s head of emergencies in Sudan. Neither side, Doyon laments, “is making any effort to prevent the deaths of civilians or to ensure the protection of patients and medical staff. As a result, many people are losing their lives,” he warned.
At least nine people have been killed in 10 attacks on hospitals in El Fasher city over the past 80 days, and at least 38 have been injured, MSF adds, warning that “the warring parties are well aware of the location of the Saudi Hospital, as well as that it is the last remaining public hospital in the city with the capacity to treat the wounded.”
“Despite this, it has already been attacked four times, and if it stops working as the Hospital del Sur did when it was attacked in June – the fifth time it was attacked – there will be no place left in the city where the injured, or women who need emergency caesarean sections to save their lives, can be operated on,” he said.
The children’s hospital also ceased operations in May when a bomb that fell nearby killed three people, including two children in the intensive care unit. Children who need hospital treatment are now treated in a small, poorly equipped health clinic or, if they have war wounds, are transferred to the Saudi Hospital.
In addition to attacks on hospitals and other health facilities, MSF supply trucks have been held up by RSF in Kabkabiya for four weeks, which could soon leave Saudi Hospital without essential supplies.
“Our trucks left N’Djamena (Chad) more than six weeks ago and should have already arrived in El Fasher, but we have no idea when they will be released,” says Doyon. “If the number of victims continues to rise at the same rate as now, these supplies will soon run out. We desperately need our trucks to arrive. They contain not only supplies for the Saudi hospital, but also therapeutic food and medical supplies for the children in Zamzam camp,” he says.
In fact, the Famine Research Commission (FRC) has announced in the last few hours that the more than 400,000 residents of this camp are in a state of famine and warned that this situation could spread to another 800,000 people if immediate help does not arrive.
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