Statement on Sudan from Dr Christos Christou, International President of Médecins Sans Frontières.
| Published date | 08 April 2024 |
M2 PRESSWIRE-April 8, 2024-: Statement on Sudan from Dr Christos Christou, International President of Médecins Sans Frontières
(C)1994-2024 M2 COMMUNICATIONS
RDATE:08042024
"Sudan is one of the worst crises the world has seen for decades. There are extreme levels of suffering across the country, the needs are growing by the day, but the humanitarian response is deeply inadequate. We have responded to multiple mass casualty events and emergencies over the past year. We have performed life-saving surgical procedures, assisted women in giving birth -- including with emergency C-sections -- and treated children in our pediatric wards and inpatient therapeutic feeding centers, trying to save their lives. In refugee camps and locations hosting displaced people, we have improved water and sanitation conditions, run mobile clinics, and vaccinated children. But in many of the areas where we work, we are the sole humanitarian organisation there. Before the start of the war, there were dozens of international organizations responding across the country. Now, there are almost none. For a crisis of this scale, this is unfathomable and unacceptable, and it cannot be allowed to continue.
"There is no doubt that there are enormous challenges in Sudan, but they are not insurmountable. It is possible to respond -- and we know this because we are there. A major issue is the systematic blockage of the delivery of humanitarian assistance that has been imposed by the Sudanese Armed Forces for the past six months. It means that we cannot send medical supplies or personnel across the frontlines into areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces and recently we have seen increasing attempts to block humanitarian supplies and staff crossing from neighboring countries into Sudan. Many of our facilities are perilously low on supplies -- in the Turkish Hospital in Khartoum, for example, we have just 20 percent of our stock remaining. We have already run out of artesunate, which is vital for treating malaria. The blockade amounts to a deliberate obstruction of the provision of humanitarian assistance and it is having a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people across the country. Only 20 to 30 percent of health facilities remain functional in Sudan as it is. Without supplies reaching these facilities, people's ability to get treatment when needed is becoming even more limited.
"Patients are dying due to violence-related injuries and preventable illnesses, children are...
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