Hospitals are not safe and relief operations are still closed, the NGO says.
Civilians are facing violence and killings and health workers and medical services are under constant attack during the intense violence by both warring parties in Sudan, Doctors Without Borders said in a new report.
The NGO, known by its French initials MSF, warned in a report released on Monday that civilian security has been undermined, and the entire community is “facing indiscriminate violence, killings, torture and sexual violence amid persistent attacks on health workers and medical facilities”.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their supporters are “perpetrating terrible violence against people across the country”, a report titled “War on people – The human cost of conflict and violence in Sudan”, reads.
More than 10 million people have been displaced since the conflict began in April 2023, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The war has caused a terrible tragedy as hospitals have been attacked, markets bombed and homes destroyed, the MSF report added.
MSF says it is treating an average of 26 people a day between August 2023 and the end of April 2024 in the only hospital it supports in Omdurman, most of the injuries caused by explosions, shootings and gunfire.
It also notes that throughout the war, hospitals have been regularly looted and attacked. In June, the World Health Organization said that only 20 to 30 percent of health facilities in hard-to-reach areas were still functioning, albeit in limited capacity.
The Sudanese army and RSF have not yet responded to the report. They have previously denied intentionally harming civilians, and accuse each other of committing crimes and destroying Sudan.
Kidnapping, harassment, ethnic violence
The SAF, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, refused to give up their goal of controlling the country, despite the damage, the joint efforts -regional and international, and criticism. violence against civilians.
MSF’s findings show “horrifying” incidents of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly in Darfur, where the RSF – formed by militias from Arab tribes with a history of violence – has been accused of “ethnic cleansing”. “.
A survey of 135 survivors of sexual violence treated by MSF teams between July and December 2023 in refugee camps in Chad, near the border with Sudan, found 90 percent were abused by an armed perpetrator, 50 percent abused in their homes, and 40. percent were raped by multiple attackers.
“These findings are consistent with evidence from survivors still in Sudan, showing how sexual violence against women in their homes and on migration routes is a feature of the conflict,” the Geneva-based organization said. .
An MSF patient said two girls from their neighborhood in Gadarif town in eastern Sudan went missing in March 2024.
“Later my brother was kidnapped and when he returned home, he said that the two girls were in the same house where he was imprisoned and that the girls had been there for months two. He said he still hears the bad things they do, the kind of bad things they do to girls,” said the patient.
The report also contains evidence detailing “targeted ethnic violence” in Darfur, where RSF soldiers have been committing violence against Muslims and other non-Arab ethnic groups.
MSF notes that humanitarian and medical organizations have been repeatedly prevented from providing support to the population.
“The violence of the warring parties is exacerbated by obstacles: by blocking, interfering with services and drowning people when they need them most, stamps and signatures can be as deadly as bullets and bombs in Sudan,” said the Director. MSF General Vickie Hawkins.
#Bad #news #Sudans #warring #parties #refuse #budge #MSF
