The UN has issued a warning that the ongoing Sudan conflict could cause a healthcare disaster, as the country’s healthcare sector was already fragile.
According to Ahmed al-Mandhari, the regional director for the eastern Mediterranean branch of the World Health Organization, hospitals have been bombed. Medicines are scarce, and many doctors have fled the country due to safety concerns.
Mandhari stated that the poverty-stricken nation is facing a crisis in every sense of the word. This is with a high risk of the spread of diseases. Diseases such as cholera and malaria.
The battles raging in Sudan have pitted the Sudanese Armed Forces . It is led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Official figures indicate that the number of deaths has surpassed 500, while over 5,000 people have sustained injuries. However, there are concerns that the actual toll may be significantly higher.
Mandhari said that only 16 per cent of the hospitals in Khartoum are now fully functional. In addition he said that there is a “real shortage in medical staff… especially specialised medical staff, for example in surgery and in anaesthesia”.
The most vulnerable among the lot are pregnant women about four million sick and 50,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition. The children will no longer receive vital care due to the Sudan conflict.
Approximately three million women or girls are at risk of experiencing various forms of gender-based violence. This is including sexual violence, he said, adding that children face “psychological pressures” from conflict and displacement.
Malaria is endemic in Sudan and could spread when the rainy season starts in the coming weeks, he said, also warning of the threat of a cholera outbreak as clean water becomes increasingly sparse.
