By Sylvia Chebet
Hospitals in southern Khartoum have run out of life-saving surgical supplies since Sudanese authorities imposed a ban preventing transportation of surgical supplies to areas controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in September.
The international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called for an immediate reversal of the ban, warning that it is putting the lives of hundreds of people – including women and children – at risk.
"Recently, a four-year-old girl was brought to our emergency room (ER) after being hit in the abdomen by a stray bullet in her home. Her mother took her to three other hospitals before she was finally able to get surgical treatment at the Turkish Hospital,” MSF’s head of emergencies for Sudan Claire Nicolet tells TRT Afrika.
“We had another tragic case where four children were playing with an unexploded rocket. They had no idea it was a dangerous object until it exploded in their hands.”
Two of the children playing with the weapon were critically injured and required urgent abdominal surgery.
Life and death
“If the ban on transporting surgical supplies into Khartoum is not lifted, we will no longer be able to provide this type of treatment – to children, pregnant women and people caught in the crossfire,” Nicolet added.
With no avenue to restock supplies in the few hospitals that provide surgical treatments in Khartoum, Nicolet says the coming weeks are bleak. The ban will mean death for every patient who will be in critical need of surgery.
“Two-thirds of the surgeries at the Turkish Hospital are caesarean sections. In the past two months alone, we have performed 170 such surgeries – without this procedure, many of the women and their newborns would have died."
Nicolete is concerned that women in labour who need C-sections already have few options available to them in Khartoum. "If we continue to be denied permission to bring surgical supplies to our hospital, soon they will have no options at all.”
MSF says the ban has been implemented since early September but received communication about it from the Sudanese authorities on October 2. Yet the war between the rival camps continue to bring more civilian casualties than soldiers.
High-intensity warfare
“Surgery is an essential life-saving form of healthcare that everyone is entitled to, and it is one of the crucial medical needs created by high-intensity warfare,” Nicolet emphasises adding: “Shelling, explosions, bullet wounds and other injuries all require surgical treatment.”
On September 10, when Gorro market was bombed, there were 103 casualties. Forty three people were killed, and 60 others, who were wounded, were treated at Bashair Teaching Hospital, including women and children.
Desperation rent the Turkish hospital when yet another 128 wounded people flocked the emergency room following two mass casualty incidents on November 12 and 13.
MSF says several surgeries have already been performed but many patients are still waiting to go into theatre.
“As a result, there are now not enough supplies left in the hospital to last even a month. If MSF is not able to bring in more supplies, the operating theatre in the Turkish Hospital will also have to close its doors and there is no doubt that the death toll of this war will rise further, as women, children and men in need of life-saving surgery will be unable to get treatment.”
Access denied
MSF has learnt that humanitarian workers – including medical personnel – are also being denied travel permits, adding to the severity of the situation.
“Although there has been no official announcement to MSF from the authorities on this issue, the facts are that not a single member of medical staff – Sudanese or foreign – has received authorisation to travel to south Khartoum for work since early October.”
Sudanese authorities had committed to allow 90 trucks of relief supplies into Khartoum, but to-date no convoys have reached their destinations, MSF says.
“Travel permits for MSF trucks remain blocked,” Nicolet says.
“There are MSF supplies and staff ready and waiting in Wad Madani, less than 200 kilometres from Khartoum,” she adds, saying MSF is looking into all available options to ensure that patients can still receive the treatment they need.
However, Nicolet says the options are minimal.
deaths and displacements
It is estimated that more than 10,000 people have been killed during the eight months of relentless fighting between Sudan’s rival forces.
The UN says 6.3 million more have been forced to flee their homes, with a million having left Sudan since the war broke out on April 15.
With increasing number of deaths, displacements and now casualties that cannot be treated, Sudan will not be the same again. Humanitarian bodies say the war must stop to avoid further catastrophe.
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