APA-Khartoum (Sudan) As the fighting in Sudan enters its fourth month, people in Khartoum, Darfur, and other areas are living in dire conditions with very little access to health care, water, and electricity as food prices surge across the country, the ICRC said in a statement.
The humanitarian situation is deteriorating dramatically, and people require urgent humanitarian assistance in the absence of a political solution, it warned.
“Civilians and essential infrastructure must not be targeted and should be protected at all times,” said Martin Thalmann, the head of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sudan. “Aid workers should be granted guarantees from all parties to access affected areas to deliver humanitarian assistance. This is crucial to deliver lifesaving supplies to hospitals, provide clean water, and restore electricity.”
The intense fighting in Khartoum, Darfur, and other parts of Sudan has led to thousands of casualties, more than two million people displaced from their homes, and hundreds of thousands of refugees seeking safety in neighboring countries, most notably Egypt, South Sudan, and Chad.
The ongoing hostilities have also brought the country’s health care system to its knees, with approximately 80% of hospitals and health facilities no longer functioning in most areas affected by the conflict. This puts an immense burden on existing health structures, which now must cover ongoing health needs as well as large numbers of wounded patients and displaced people.
The ICRC and the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) continue to cross frontlines, evacuate the most vulnerable, aid in the transfer of released detainees, and support hospitals in and around Khartoum, Darfur, and other parts of Sudan. In neighbouring Chad, the ICRC is supporting health care services to refugees as well as helping people establish contact with their families.
With both parties to the conflict, the ICRC engages in a dialogue on international humanitarian law and intervenes for the plight of people who are missing, separated from loved ones, detained, or killed.
Since the fighting started on April 15, the ICRC has evacuated 301 children and 72 caretakers from Maygoma orphanage in Khartoum to Wad Madani, distributed surgical supplies sufficient to treat hundreds of severely wounded and hospitalised people to 10 hospitals in Khartoum and the surrounding areas, as well as to 4 hospitals in Darfur and 6 hospitals in other regions of Sudan
It has also deployed a surgical team to Abeché in eastern Chad to treat an influx of people with gunshot wounds who fled from Sudan seeking safety and medical care, donated medications to cover the primary healthcare needs of 10,000 people in several health centers.
WN/as/APA