from RAJI BASHIR in Khartoum, Sudan
Sudan Bureau
KHARTOUM, (CAJ News) -THE escalating civil war in Sudan has forced Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) to suspend activities in the El Fasher region of North Darfur.
The region has been the scene of intense fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Joint Forces, a coalition of armed groups allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
The Zamzam displacement camp has been the victim lately.
Residents, who were already barely surviving, now have more restricted access to water and food, as the central market has been looted and burned, MSF bemoaned.
“Eleven patients have died in MSF hospital, including five children, because we were unable to treat them properly or transfer them to the Saudi hospital, the only hospital with surgical capacity located a few kilometres away in El Fasher,” said Yahya Kalilah, MSF head of mission in Sudan.
The official disclosed in December and January, two of their ambulances transporting patients from the camp to El Fasher were shot at.
“Today, the situation is even more dangerous, and many people, including patients in need of emergency surgery or caesarean sections, are trapped in Zamzam.”
Kalilah added, “Suspending our activities as the disaster worsens in Zamzam is a heartbreaking decision.”
Home to around 500 000 people, Zamzam camp has seen new arrivals of displaced people fleeing Abu Zerega, Shagra and Saluma.
They are now sheltered in schools, community buildings or in the open air.
The civil war in Sudan has raged since early 2023.
– CAJ News