Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called on all warring parties in Sudan to ensure the safety of medical personnel and health facilities.
Development Dairies reports that the organisation made the call while lamenting the recent harassment of its staff and the looting and occupation of its medical facilities by armed men.
According to MSF, staff and patients are repeatedly facing the trauma of armed groups entering and looting MSF premises, with medicines, supplies and vehicles stolen.
‘This shocking disregard for humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law has impeded our ability to provide healthcare to people at a time when it is desperately needed’, MSF’s Emergency Coordinator in Sudan, Jean-Nicolas Dangelser, said in a statement.
‘We are experiencing a violation of humanitarian principles and the space for humanitarians to work is shrinking on a scale I’ve rarely seen before.
‘After the looting of one of our medical warehouses in Khartoum, fridges were unplugged and medicines removed. The entire cold chain was ruined so the medicines are spoiled and can’t be used to treat anyone’.
This comes at a time when the conflict is having a dire impact on people in Sudan. People in Khartoum, Darfur and other places where fighting is most intense continue to suffer terribly.
People are injured by gunshot wounds, stabbing and explosions, or are victims of sexual violence.
Fighting, airstrikes and other violence close to health facilities can leave both patients and staff, too, afraid to reach them.
Source: MSF
Photo source: MSF
