El Fasher, June 24(Darfur 24)
The General Director of the Ministry of Health, North Darfur State, Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, said that the Rapid Support Forces RSF continued to bomb health institutions in the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, most recently on Sunday, they bombed the dialysis center, which is located west of the Grand Market in the center of the city, and where 94 dialysis patients are receiving treatment.
Ibrahim told “Darfur 24” about the violent bombing that the Saudi Specialized Hospital was subjected to after the closure of the Southern El Fasher Hospital, due to the deliberate bombing by the Rapid Support Forces with heavy, light and medium artillery, and that it was subjected to shelling, attacks on medical personnel, patients and sabotage of medical equipment and offices.
He denounced the artillery shelling of the Saudi Hospital, which caused the death of a pharmacist, damaged and destroyed the pharmacy headquarters and the medical supplies store, and endangered the lives of patients.
He wondered about the role of the international community and human rights defenders and their silence towards the bombing of health institutions that provide services to people, accusing Rapid Support and its collaborators of continuing to attack medical personnel, workers and employees, stressing at the same time their continued work without surrender and diligence in providing health services under all circumstances and confronting them.
The Ministry of Health was forced to close the Southern Hospital after it was attacked for the fifth time, and the Babiker Nahar Children’s Hospital was closed due to damage caused by an air strike.
MSF said that as a result of these events, the Saudi Hospital – which was previously a maternity hospital – became the only health center in the city with the surgical capacity and treatment of injured people.
The organization said in a statement obtained by Darfur 24, “Ten days after the United Nations Security Council called for an end to the fighting in El Fasher, we warned that hospitals were still being attacked and that foreign aid could not reach the city due to the severity of the violence.”
She pointed out that the Rapid Support Forces bombed, on Friday night, the pharmacy of Al-Fasher Saudi Hospital, where a pharmacist died while working and the pharmacy building was damaged.
She added: “Although the hospital remains open and continues to treat patients, it has suffered damage and is only partially functioning.”
MSF has warned of a new attack on the hospital due to ongoing fighting nearby, with one person killed just 200 meters from the hospital on Friday, and a third killed near our staff accommodation.
MSF Emergency Director Michel Olivier Lacharité said, “In El Fasher, we are witnessing a series of attacks and counterattacks from which hospitals have not been spared, and the warring parties are failing to assume their responsibility to protect the civilian population.”
He continued: “We do not know whether hospitals were deliberately targeted, but protecting them is imperative and must be respected. Civilians are trapped and cannot get out. Their lives must be protected and they must be able to receive treatment if they need it.”
The bombing that targeted the Saudi Hospital on Friday night was the second of its kind, and it was the eighth attack on a hospital in El Fasher during the past six weeks. Two weeks ago.