Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has revealed that war victims in need of life-saving surgical assistance at the Bashair Teaching Hospital in South Khartoum, Sudan, are now at risk following a shortage of surgical materials.

Development Diaries reports that the hospital, currently run by MSF in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Health and volunteers, is running out of surgical supplies due to a three-week blockade of medical supplies by the military.

It is understood that military authorities blocked the transport of surgical materials from Wad Madani to South Khartoum on 08 September, making it impossible to continue surgical activities.

‘It is devastating to have to stop supporting life-saving surgical care at Bashair Hospital’, MSF Surgical Advisor, Shazeer Majeed, said in a statement.

‘Since mid-May, the hospital’s emergency room has received nearly 5,000 patients and MSF’s surgical team has performed more than 3,000 surgical procedures.

‘The needs are huge. Blocking the medication and materials needed to perform surgery deprives people of the healthcare they so desperately need’.

With surgical activities on hold, the hospital, which has been crucial to the survival of war victims, could lose the trained and experienced hands that have provided assistance since the conflict started.

Development Diaries calls on the authorities in Sudan to ensure medical aid and life-saving supplies gain free access to those in need to ensure civilian lives are saved as enshrined in international humanitarian laws.

Photo source: MSF