Goats and Soda: NPR

On a fresh June morning in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, UNICEF Sudan’s health chief Tedla Damte got excited thinking about her plans from the past: visits to a UNICEF school for displaced children and meetings with Sudan’s health minister.

The veteran humanitarian worker is seeking to lead the charge on the massive health crisis unfolding in Sudan since the country’s civil conflict began in April 2023. This is a problem that Demte is able to accomplish almost all day. But last June, he was given a text message from Darfur, on the other side of the country, where fighting has escalated in the past few months.

A laborer once informed Demte that the Saudi clinic there had been attacked and ransacked. Damte said, “And it was really heartbreaking when I heard that the attack had also lost an experienced pharmacist who was giving his life going forward and helping the people of Sudan.”

That attack was one of several attacks on hospitals in Sudan since the beginning of June. Armed teams have focused on targeting hospitals, health care facilities and workers since an impact effort between Sudanese armed forces and paramilitary rapid response forces escalated into civil conflict. Both sides were accused of committing war crimes against civilians and the team’s scientific facilities and staff.

Damte and officials from alternative world aid companies warn that the increasing attacks could soon lead to a severe generation shortage due to lack of fitness support.

According to UNICEF, at least 77 hospitals across Sudan have come under attack since the war began. Aid groups say the last fighting has resulted in the displacement of more than 7 million people, has led to Sudan’s worst humanitarian disaster in the world and the attacks have made it harder for fitness workers to respond and provide essential scientific services. . Products for a population of millions.

In the attack on a maternity clinic in Darfur, most of the staff fled, so it is unknown how many of them – or their patients – were injured. And earlier in June, Docs Without Borders told NPR that the only gap clinic in the besieged city of El Fashir in North Darfur — the South Clinic — was ambushed and looted by armed groups — government included. There was no way to accurately verify who was responsible–forcing the staff there to flee and leaving the victims behind.

“But it’s not just (attacks on) hospitals and facilities,” Damte said, “but because of lack of fuel and health workers, over 70% of health facilities are literally not providing services right now in places like Darfur. ” According to UN estimates, Darfur had a population of more than 10 million before the beginning of the conflict.

Most of Sudan’s scientific supplies and kit such as blood banks and crowded fitness labs are in the capital Khartoum, which is the front line in the fighting and out of reach. According to Demte, most of the 250,000 fitness workers based in Sudan’s fitness ministry have fled the country, making the situation even more difficult for many who remain there.

“And in addition, in fear for their safety and without guarantees of safety, health workers in many places are unable to access facilities and have not been paid for months,” he said.

The desire for hospital treatment is great throughout Sudan. The International Fitness Group reported in June that more than 25 million Sudanese were facing an acute lack of confidence in food. There have also been outbreaks of diseases including cholera, measles, malaria and dengue.

UNICEF’s Damte recalls a woman she met a few weeks ago on Sudan’s border with Egypt, where more than a million displaced people were camping, many sleeping on the floors of a barren area without safe shelter and surrounded by scorpions. Were crawling. , The girl was once pregnant with twins and was once taken to the then clinic when she started laboring hard.

“And when they got to the hospital, because they didn’t have enough supplies in the hospital to take care of a newborn and one of the babies needed resuscitation… (the baby) died,” Damte said.

According to Shashwat Saraf, World Rescue Committee’s East Africa regional disaster director, only 2% of the more than seven million internally displaced population in Sudan have access to health assistance.

This has prompted alternative aid organizations, including the IRC and the International Fitness Group, to field a new option to expand access to needy populations: cell clinics established anywhere, available equivalent to colleges, structures. Even under the shade of wood.

“A lot of our health programming is in the form of mobile health teams, where we are more flexible, more adaptable and we have a larger coverage area in terms of meeting people who are traveling,” Saraf said.

However many populated areas – such as Khartoum, Al Jazeera and Darfur – remain difficult and dangerous for fitness workers to gain entry and even send aid supplies. Aid teams say rapid global consideration and investment is needed to prevent and control the tragic loss of additional generations.