‘We left behind children in incubators:’ Witnesses describe hospital shelled in Sudan’s clashes

CNN
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As fighting between the warring factions has engulfed Sudan in recent days, hospitals treating those injured in the clashes have been targeted, dealing a blow to the healthcare industry. national health.

In one episode, five witnesses told CNN that the paramilitary group fighting the Sudanese army for control of the country surrounded and shelled a hospital in the capital Khartoum on Sunday, causing at least One child was killed and paramedics fled in panic.

Leaders of the opposing sides, Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy and paramilitary commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have blamed each other for instigating the fighting. spread across the country since Saturday. Burhan accused Dagalo of orchestrating a “coup plot”; Dagolo, in turn, called Burhan a “criminal”.

But at al-Moallem hospital in central Khartoum, where intense shelling forced staff to evacuate, leaving some patients behind, witnesses said they had no doubt about what happened. .

“I have no doubt they intentionally targeted the hospital,” said a doctor who evacuated the hospital on Sunday after Dagalo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) surrounded it. CNN did not use any of the hospital doctors’ real names in this article for safety reasons.

The hospital is a few meters from Sudan’s military headquarters, which the RSF has repeatedly tried to take over. Doctors say they are treating many wounded soldiers and their families. According to hospital staff, the hospital’s obstetrics department was hit by artillery fire, causing a wall there to collapse.

A 6-year-old child died in the building, a doctor said. Two other children were seriously injured. As the shelling grew more intense, doctors and patients gathered together in the corridors and prayed.

At first, we were praying for salvation,” the doctor said. “Then, as the shelling got worse, we started discussing which part of the body would be hit most painlessly and started praying instead of dying painlessly.”

It is unclear if the RSF took control of the hospital as it attempted to take over the nearby army headquarters, a flashpoint in violence in Khartoum.

“The evacuation was chaotic,” the doctor said. “I think I’m going to vomit. I staggered and fell to the ground.”

“Can you believe we left the hospital and left the babies in the incubator and the patients in intensive care without any medical staff,” another doctor said. “The smell of death is everywhere.”

“There is no electricity, no water in the hospital,” said the third doctor. “None of our devices are working, a woman sheltering with us has a two-day-old baby. I don’t even know what happened to her.”

According to the Sudanese Doctors’ Association, at least half a dozen hospitals have been attacked by both warring sides.

“Sudan’s hospitals are under fire,” the Sudanese Central Committee doctors said in a statement on their Facebook page, warning of the risk of the health sector’s collapse if the clashes continuation level.

“Most major and specialized hospitals are shut down due to being forced to evacuate by conflicting military forces or being the target of bombings and other illnesses. Several other hospitals have had their human and medical supplies, water and electricity cut off,” the commission said.

Doctors Without Borders said its teams were “stuck in the ongoing fierce fighting and unable to access warehouses to transport vital medical supplies to hospitals.” and their base in Nyala, South Sarfur, was looted.

Shortages of food, water and electricity are rampant as Sudan experiences its third day of fighting, which has spread from Khartoum across the country.

Eman Abu Garjah, a Sudanese-British doctor in Khartoum, told CNN: “The food in the fridge and freezer was spoiled. “We don’t have any supplies at the moment, that’s why we’re trying to get somewhere where stores are open.”

“The planes were flying overhead early in the day. They not only woke us up, but they also prevented us from falling back asleep,” she said.

“It’s Ramadan, we wake up to pray early in the morning and then usually you’ll take a short nap and wake up again to pray in the afternoon. But sleep is not possible. The house rattled and the windows shook.”

Until recently, Dagalo and Burhan were allies. Couple working together to overthrow overthrow Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and played a pivotal role in the military coup in 2021.

However, tensions have arisen over recent negotiations to integrate the RSF into the country’s military as part of a plan to restore civilian rule.

In an interview with CNN on Monday, Burhan accused Dagalo of trying to “catch and kill” him in an attempt by the paramilitary leader to take over the presidential palace.

In response to the allegation, an RSF spokesman called Burhan a “wanted fugitive”.

“We are trying to arrest him and bring him to justice. We are fighting for all Sudanese,” said an RSF spokesperson.

Burhan also accused the RSF of violating the proposed ceasefire on Sunday and Monday.

“Yesterday and today, a humanitarian ceasefire proposal was put forward and agreed,” said Burhan from army headquarters, as gunfire rang in the background.

“Sadly he didn’t comply (the ceasefire),” he added. “You can hear right now attempts to storm Army headquarters and indiscriminate mortar attacks. He is using the humanitarian pause to continue the fight.”

The RSF denied that it had broken the ceasefire.

It is unclear how much control the RSF has gained from the country’s military. Dagalo claims he now controls the country’s main military sites, a claim repeatedly disputed by Burhan.

“We’re being attacked from all directions,” Dagalo told CNN’s Larry Madowo in a phone interview on Sunday. “We stopped fighting and the other side didn’t, which put us in a difficult position and we had to keep fighting to defend ourselves,” he declared.

The RSF is the preeminent paramilitary group in Sudan, whose leader, Dagalo, quickly rose to power.

During Sudan’s Darfur conflict, which began in the early 2000s, he was the leader of Sudan’s notorious Janjaweed force, which was involved in human rights abuses and atrocities.

An international outcry has seen former President Bashir formalize the group into a paramilitary force known as the Border Intelligence Unit.

In 2007 their military became part of the national intelligence agency, and in 2013 Bashir founded the RSF, a paramilitary group he oversees and led by Dagalo. Dagalo against Bashir in 2019.

Months before the coup that ousted Bashir in April 2019, Dagalo’s forces opened fire on a pro-democracy, anti-Bashir sit-in demonstration in Khartoum, killing at least 118 people.

He was later appointed deputy of the Transitional Sovereign Council governing Sudan with the cooperation of the civilian leadership.

International powers have expressed alarm at the current state of violence in Sudan. Beyond civilian concerns, there are likely other motives at play, given the country’s resource-rich and strategic location. CNN has previous report about how Russia colluded with its military leaders to smuggle gold out of Sudan.