El Fasher , June 10(Darfur 24)
The Director-General of the Ministry of Health in North Darfur State, Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, revealed on Sunday that a number of wounded patients had been killed following the Rapid Support Forces RSF ttack on Al-Fasher Southern Hospital, which eventually got out of service .
On Saturday, RSF stormed Al-Fasher Southern Hospital, which was bombed three times during the period from May 25 to June 3, during which two people were killed and 14 patients and caregivers were injured.
Ibrahim Abdullah Khater announced, in a statement to “Darfur 24”, that the Al-Fasher Southern Hospital was out of service after it was bombed, medical personnel, patients and companions were attacked, medical equipment and offices were vandalized, money related to workers’ salaries was stolen, and medicines, medical consumables and an ambulance belonging to Doctors Without Borders were looted.
Khater considered the departure of the Southern Hospital, which has a capacity of 120 beds and includes obstetrics and gynecology departments, general surgery departments, orthopedics, intensive care and dental departments, from service as a collapse of the health situation in the state, after El Fasher Teaching Hospital was taken out of service and the Children’s Teaching Hospital was subjected to looting, theft and vandalism and it was used as a military barracks since the beginning of the war in April of the year. The past and the exit of the Eye Hospital and Babakir Nahar Hospital, which was bombed several times and went out of service.
He reported that the five states of Darfur were relying on the Southern El Fasher Hospital as a reference for surgery, orthopedics, and internal medicine, which would plunge the region into a state of sadness due to its inability to provide medical services.
Khater revealed that some patients were transferred after they sensed there was a danger to them, and some of them were transferred to nearby health centers in the neighborhoods and the Sayyid Al-Shuhada Centre, and they began using some of the prefabricated Saudi Hospital buildings west of the city and rehabilitating the rest of the buildings to receive the wounded and emergency cases and benefit from them as a temporary alternative.
Khater said that the storming of the hospital by armed members of the Rapid Support Forces deliberately infiltrating the hospital led to the transfer of a number of those accompanying their sick families outside the hospital, the attack on the hospital director, the injury of the medical director of accidents after he fell from the wall, and the killing of a number of the wounded and their companions without knowing their real number. Until now. He pointed out that the aggressor force withdrew from the hospital and the medical personnel and workers were transferred to a safe place inside the city of El Fasher.
Khater stipulated that the hospital be restarted by the Rapid Support Forces moving away from the areas around the hospital, especially the presence of Sudanese army and joint forces bases at a distance not exceeding 500 metres, and the occurrence of continuous clashes between them, leaving stray bullets and continuous shells targeting the hospital buildings.
He added: “The two parties must be kept far away until reopening is considered.”
Regarding the fate of the sick and wounded at the Southern Hospital, he said that they were readmitted to the wards of the Saudi Hospital despite the distress they are experiencing as it is specific to fistula diseases.
He denounced the Rapid Support attack on the hospital, which calls for democracy, equality, and human rights, but the reality is the opposite, considering its control of the hospital for a moral motive as it provides a service to everyone.
Doctors Without Borders confirmed that the main hospital in the city of El Fasher was out of service.
She said that the Southern Hospital is considered the main referral hospital for treating the war-wounded in El Fasher and the only one capable of dealing with mass casualties.
She noted that between May 10 and June 6, the hospital received more than 1,300 wounded people.
The military hospital, located in the vicinity of the Sixth Infantry Division El Fasher Command, west of the city, works to provide medical services to its employees and some citizens, and a military source revealed a decline in its services during the recent period, which necessitated receiving critical cases in their final stages for citizens.
The police hospital has limited capabilities and currently provides services to police officers and their families, according to “Darfur 24” sources.