Doctors Without Borders believes death threats and assaults jeopardise its activities in the country.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday that its teams in Sudan’s capital Khartoum are continuously being targeted by armed groups, threatening humanitarian activities in the country where conflict has raged since mid-April.
The medical organisation reported that 18 of its employees were attacked on Thursday while in a convoy bringing medical supplies to the Turkish Hospital, one of the only two healthcare facilities operating in South Khartoum.
“After arguing about the reasons for MSF’s presence, the armed men attacked our team, physically beating and whipping them and detaining the driver of one of our vehicles,” MSF said in a statement.
The driver was later released, but the vehicle was taken, according to the assistance organisation. The event occurred about 700 metres from the hospital, where hundreds of patients, including children, are presently being treated.
A succession of such occurrences, according to the organisation, have jeopardised its operations, and it has warned that it would be unable to offer medical care without assurances of safety.
“In order to save people’s lives, the lives of our staff who are there to carry out this work must not be jeopardised,” said MSF’s Sudan emergency manager, Christophe Garnier.
According to the Sudanese Ministry of Health, more than 3,000 individuals have been slain in the power struggle between opposing generals of the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. According to the UN, more than 3 million people have fled their homes in the last three months.
According to witnesses, airstrikes, street fights, and artillery fire rocked Khartoum on Thursday.
MSF claimed on Friday that 44 people injured in an airstrike were transported to the Turkish Hospital on Thursday, following a significant influx of wounded over the preceding three and a half weeks.
Since the commencement of hostilities on April 15, the Geneva-based NGO has treated over 1,600 individuals in hospitals in Khartoum’s east and south, as well as Omdurman, the country’s most populous city.
However, the charity stated that “ongoing support may soon no longer be possible” because to the “deteriorated” security situation.
