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Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has lamented another attack on the MSF supported Saudi Hospital in El Fasher in Sudan, the tenth time that a hospital in the city had been hit since the fighting escalated almost 12 weeks ago.
The doctors’ organisation said three caregivers were killed in the attack on 29 July, and 25 people were injured, including displaced people who were sheltering in a nearby mosque that was also hit.
“At least nine people have been killed in the 10 attacks on hospitals in El Fasher over the past 80 days, and at least 38 have been injured,” said MSF head of emergency response in Sudan, Stephane Doyon.
“We do not know if hospitals are being intentionally targeted, but the incident on Monday shows that the belligerents are not taking any precautions to spare them,” he said.
He said the attackers were also not making any efforts to prevent the civilian death of civilians or to ensure the protection of patients and medical staff.
Doyon said in addition to attacks on health facilities, MSF supply trucks have been held in Kabkabiya by the government-operated paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, for the past four weeks, which could soon leave Saudi hospital without essential supplies.
MSF called for an end to attacks on hospitals and for the RSF to release the trucks carrying life-saving medical supplies.
Meanwhile, AFP reports that the war raging in Sudan between the army and rival paramilitaries has pushed the Zamzam camp near Darfur's besieged city of El-Fasher into famine, according to a UN-backed assessment.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) review, which is used by UN agencies, found that "famine is ongoing in July 2024 in Zamzam camp".
"The main drivers of famine in Zamzam camp are conflict and lack of humanitarian access," it said.
Aid group Plan International said that "the IPC's latest report confirms what we and our fellow humanitarians have feared for months: that children in Sudan, having endured more than a year of harrowing conflict, are now dying of hunger".
