MSF suspends activities at a major Khartoum hospital due to “violent attacks” against patients and staff

The NGO emphasizes that “it has become unsustainable to continue” the work at the Bashair Hospital without safety guarantees

Jan. 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced this Friday the suspension of its activities in a major hospital in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, due to “violent attacks” against patients and staff at the facilities, located in a area under control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

“MSF strongly condemns the violent attacks against patients and staff at Bashair Hospital, located in an RSF-controlled area of ​​Khartoum,” it said, before stating that the attacks have continued despite “extensive” contacts with “all the parties”.

Thus, he stressed that the situation has led the NGO to adopt the “very difficult decision” to “suspend all medical activities in the hospital”, where its teams have been working for 20 months, a period of time in which they have been registered “repeated incidents” in which “armed fighters” broke into the facility and “threatened medical staff, often demanding that the fighters be treated before other patients.”

MSF has detailed that a patient was shot dead on November 11, 2024 inside the hospital, while on December 18 a group of “attackers” opened fire inside the emergency department, “directly threatening the medical staff” of the hospital. Previously, one person was injured by shots fired at the center.

“The suffering we are witnessing in Khartoum is enormous. Intense and extreme violence continues daily,” said the NGO’s emergency coordinator, Claire Sn Filippo. “Shortages and blockades of food, supplies and humanitarian aid mean that people have to fight to survive,” he added.

“The medical needs are overwhelming. The injuries are often terrible. Incidents with large numbers of victims have become almost routine,” he detailed. “Our team, hospital staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly under very difficult conditions to provide medical care,” he stressed.

However, he stressed that “without the security to operate safely it has become unsustainable to continue when the lives of our staff and patients are threatened.” The center is one of the few that remains operational in the south of Khartoum due to the war that broke out in April 2023 between the Army and the RSF.

The organization has specified that since the end of September there has been an increase in the number of patients with violent traumatic injuries due to the resurgence of fighting in the area, including the transfer on Sunday of 50 people to the emergency room, including twelve already deceased, after a bombing one kilometer away from the hospital.

Along these lines, he explained that there has also been an increase in the number of pediatric and maternity cases at Bashair Hospital due to the closure or reduction of services in other health centers due to hostilities, which have had a profound impact. on the health system of the African country, where outbreaks of cholera, malaria and dengue have also been recorded, in addition to an uptick in malnutrition.

Added to this is that the transport of medical supplies and the movement of personnel from Port Sudan has been blocked for more than a year, while MSF had to suspend its activities in July 2024 at the nearby Turkish Hospital due to threats and acts of violence perpetrated against their staff.

“It is devastating to have to stop providing vital medical care in this hospital, especially in the face of such great and growing medical needs,” acknowledged San Filippo, who stressed that “every time an organization is forced to suspend its activities, “Patients have less access to the medical care they desperately need.”

For this reason, he has stressed that “hospitals must be places where people can seek medical care without risking their lives and where medical professionals can provide care safely”, without the RSF or the Sudanese authorities having commented for now on the organization’s announcement.

The war between the Army and the RSF broke out in April 2023 due to strong disagreements regarding the integration process of the paramilitary group – now declared terrorist – within the Armed Forces, a situation that caused the derailment of the open transition after the overthrow of Omar Hasan al Bashir’s regime in 2019.