NEW YORK/KHARTOUM, June 15, 2023—Two months after fighting broke out in Khartoum and rapidly spread to other areas of Sudan, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) surgical team working in Bashair Teaching Hospital in Khartoum continues to treat people daily who have been affected by the conflict.
In the last five weeks alone, the MSF team has received more than 1,150 patients in the emergency room, 906 of whom have suffered violent trauma.
“This is a profoundly chaotic and violent situation that almost defies comparison,” said Raphael Veicht, MSF emergency coordinator. “I cannot recall any time in recent years when MSF has treated anything like the number of trauma cases or done as many major surgeries as we have done in Khartoum.”
Of the trauma patients received, 395 (34 percent) suffered gunshot wounds. These patients included children younger than five years old. Another 266 patients (23 percent) had blast wounds caused by explosions, including from shelling or airstrikes. Over a period of five weeks, teams in the hospital performed 379 surgical procedures, 8 percent of which involved children under the age of 15. Given the number of children affected by the conflict, MSF has set up a dedicated pediatric trauma ward to provide specialized care at Bashair Teaching Hospital.
In addition to heavy fighting, areas of Khartoum are also experiencing a rise in violence associated with crime and lawlessness. This has resulted in 183 patients (16 percent) admitted with stab wounds and another 62 patients (5 percent) admitted following assaults.
Despite immense medical needs in the region, administrative and logistical challenges continue to impede MSF’s medical activities across the country since moving supplies from one part of Sudan to another can be extremely difficult. While MSF was able to bring emergency teams into Sudan during the first weeks of the conflict, it has since been challenging to obtain permission for teams to travel to project locations or to secure visas for additional staff.
“The needs are huge, and the fighting and violence show no signs of ending,” said Will Harper, MSF head of mission in Sudan. “We urgently need to be able to bring in more staff to be able to keep providing lifesaving emergency and surgical care.”
MSF works in eleven states in Sudan, including in Khartoum and in the Darfur region. In Khartoum, MSF teams provide surgical care in two hospitals and continue to support several other hospitals in the city, as well as in other parts of the country.
