MSF denounces authorities ban on life-saving medical supplies
Moatinoon
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says Sudanese authorities are preventing life-saving surgical supplies from reaching hospitals serving people in areas of Khartoum under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which could cause hundreds of deaths.
The organization revealed that travel permits for MSF trucks remain prohibited and that despite the Sudanese Armed Forces stated commitment in Jeddah to allow 90 relief trucks to travel to Khartoum, no convoys have yet reached their destination.
The organization said in a statement yesterday that the Sudanese authorities ban on surgical supplies since early September was unreasonable and violated the laws of war, noting that the policy was aimed at preventing wounded rapid support soldiers from receiving treatment, as well as preventing women and children from performing life-saving surgeries, including caesareans.
MSF surgical teams suspended operations at Bashire Teaching Hospital in mid-October as a result of the ban, and said they may soon have to suspend operations at the Turkish hospital. Both are located in a point south of Khartoum.
"The ban is a ruthless tactic that will likely cause the preventable deaths of hundreds of people in Khartoum over the coming weeks," said Claire Nicolet, MSF’s head of emergencies for Sudan. "Two-thirds of the surgeries we carry out in the Turkish Hospital are Cesarean sections. In the past two months alone, we have performed 170 such surgeries—without this procedure, many of the women and their newborn babies would have died. Women in labor needing C-sections already have very few options available to them in Khartoum. If we continue to be denied permission to bring surgical supplies to our hospital, soon they will have no options at all."
The organizations statement made it clear that the embargo contravened the laws of international warfare -- to which the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces confirmed their commitment in the Jeddah Declaration in May. The refusal of life-saving treatment to a person with war injuries -- regardless of whether he was fighting or caught in the crossfire -- was contrary to medical ethics. Doctors without Borders treated people solely on the basis of their medical needs, without discrimination.
The statement cautioned that the embargo not only affected supplies, but also staff, and humanitarian workers -- including medical personnel -- were denied travel permits. He confirmed that no member of MSFs medical staff -- Sudanese or foreign -- had been authorized to travel to southern Khartoum to work since early October, despite the absence of an official MSF announcement from the authorities on the issue.
