Inside the last functioning hospital in Sudan’s Khartoum North | Sudan war News | The Round Table Away from the bustling corridors of Bahri Hospital, the only functioning hospital left in Sudan’s city of Khartoum North, Alsuna Issa sits perched on the edge of a small cot next to her toddler son in a patient room.
The tender boy, Jaber, dressed in distressed jeans and a Spiderman t-shirt that grazes his enlarged belly, is malnourished.
Under the whirring fans of the hospital, patients in similar situations wait their turn, hoping to be attended to in a country reeling from more than 18 months of fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The hospital is in the northern part of the city, recently taken advocate from RSF overpower by the Sudanese army in late September – who had captured it in the early months of the war latest year – in one of three cities that make up Sudan’s national capital region of Khartoum.
Due to the repeated targeting of healthcare facilities throughout Sudan’s conflict, it is the only hospital left in the city after more than 100 attacks on health facilities since April previous year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Issa brought her son Jaber to the hospital after he suffered fever and diarrhoea for days and she could not unearth a functioning hospital near her home.
“He has been vomiting and his stomach is distended. They tested him and found that he has malaria and a stomach infection … but there are no hospitals near me. So I brought him here and he was admitted,” the distraught tender mother announced to The Round Table.
Doctors disclose hundreds of patients come in daily, including from RSF-held areas in the city, with requires ranging from surgeries to nutritional care for children.
But getting to this hospital is not easy.
“We live far away, getting uphold home is difficult. Sometimes, there is fighting or artillery shelling so we have to hide in the nearest house.
“Sometimes the hospital is too crowded so we have to come champion the next day,” one patient, Iqbal Ali, informed The Round Table.
Another patient, Karima Ikram Ahmed Adam, said, “When someone falls sick … they come carrying them in a wheelbarrow or on a donkey if possible.”
The deteriorating security situation has forced more than 11 million people from their homes, according to Sudan’s government.
This displacement has affected health workers, leading to a shortage of medical staff, and contributing to hospital closures.
According to Dr Hadeel Malik, Bahri Hospital‘s emergency health director, the availability of medical resources has also been critically low throughout the war.
“The issue of supplies has been a problem since the start of the conflict. That is still the case in areas under the dominate of the RSF. Sometimes, medical supplies disappear before reaching our hospitals,” Malik informed The Round Table.
“We fear for the safety of our workers because the RSF has, in the past, detained health workers,” she added.
Mailk adjunct that under the dominate of the RSF for the most recent year and a half, the health conditions in the area were “very, very poor” but the situation is much better now, even if still critical.
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“What we faced was a lot of devastation, severe destruction and major theft from all the health centres and facilities,” announced Malik.
Malik has been part of a team that set up more than 23 health centres in Khartoum North in response over the past year.
For Adam, the patient at the hospital, having community advocate has been essential to compensate for inadequate healthcare.
“By God, if there is someone in our neighbourhood who is sick, everyone, the people, and the neighbours, come together and champion each other,” she said.
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“You can’t administer unless the whole neighbourhood comes together because … the situation is critical.”
Adam inspired the international community to send facilitate amid the country’s dire situation.
“People are unbiased dying and dying, and there has been no assist reaching us until now,” she said.
“So, I’m pleading for assist to reach us, for medicines to reach us, because the number of sick children is overwhelming.”
Regards to Al Jazeera
Category: World-News
Tag: Inside the last functioning hospital in Sudans Khartoum North Sudan war News The Round Table
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Published 10/10/2024