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24 June 2024 (Khartoum) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern over the horrific attack in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, following an attack on a maternity hospital that left a pharmacy worker dead.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group fighting the Sudanese Army (SAF), has been accused of bombing the only maternity hospital in El Fasher.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the attack as “shocking and appalling” and called on the warring parties to “always protect mothers and children in the country and allow them safe access to health care.”
Fighting between Sudan’s rival factions has killed thousands of people and displaced nearly 10 million since mid-April last year, according to aid agencies.
Calls from the United Nations and the international community have intensified in recent weeks to prevent Sudan from sliding into a humanitarian disaster, which could plunge millions of people into starvation as fighting in 12 of the country’s states causes food shortages.
Clementine Nkweta Salami, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said pharmacist Amna Ahmed Bakhit was killed while prescribing and dispensing medicines to women, men and children in a place that should have been safe.
“Whether it’s bullets or bombs, whether it’s hunger or disease, every life lost in this senseless war brings Sudan one step closer to what we all want. Peace,” she posted on X, calling for an end to Sudan’s ongoing brutal fighting.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), malnutrition among Sudanese children has reached emergency levels as people in Khartoum, Darfur and parts of Kordofan continue to lack food and medical assistance.
The agency said some 9 million children faced severe food shortages.
Meanwhile, a World Food Programme (WFP) food security analysis found that Sudan has 44 hunger hotspots, mainly in the war-torn regions of Khartoum, Kordofan, Darfur and Gezira, where 2.6 million people are at high risk of falling into the fifth extreme stage of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC 5).
As a result, the United Nations emergency food aid agency is reportedly expanding its operations to avert famine. The agency says it has already helped more than 3 million people and plans to help another 5 million people throughout the year through general food assistance, nutrition, school meals and recovery activities.
(English stone)
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