CAIRO: Hospitals and other health care facilities in war-torn Sudan are facing increased attacks, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Wednesday as fighting between the army and paramilitaries rages on.
Since the start of the war in April 2023, the WHO has recorded 82 attacks on health care facilities, “including 17 in the last six weeks alone,” said Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional director.
Meanwhile, the country is suffering from the “spread of diseases such as cholera, malaria and meningitis,” she warned during a video conference.
The conflict between the regular army under Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has left tens of thousands dead and displaced more than ten million people, according to the United Nations.
With the war showing no signs of abating, the delivery of humanitarian aid faces “administrative, security and logistical obstacles,” said Shible Sahbani, the WHO’s representative in Sudan.
Despite the challenges, “the WHO distributed 510 tons of medicines and aid materials between January and July,” he added, saying that two trucks entered North Darfur last week from Chad and seven trucks are en route to Darfur from Port Sudan.
Sahbani said hunger is the main factor driving Sudanese to flee the country, referring to testimonies from asylum-seekers in neighboring Chad.
A recent UN-backed report said nearly 26 million people, or slightly more than half of the population, were facing high levels of “acute food insecurity.”
Humanitarian agencies say that the difficulty of obtaining data on the ground has prevented famine from being officially declared in Sudan.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of obstructing humanitarian aid and nearly destroying Sudan’s already fragile health care system.
WHO warns of rising attacks on Sudan hospitals
https://arab.news/9bdtw
WHO warns of rising attacks on Sudan hospitals
- Recent UN-backed report said nearly 26 million people, or slightly more than half of the population, were facing high levels of “acute food insecurity”
- Both the army and the RSF have been accused of obstructing humanitarian aid and nearly destroying Sudan’s already fragile health care system
Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe
RAQQA: Baghdad on Friday urged European states to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who fought for Daesh, and who are now being moved to Iraq from detention camps in Syria.
Europeans were among 150 Daesh prisoners transferred so far by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria. They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swaths of territory to the advancing Syrian army.
In a telephone call on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said European countries should take back and prosecute their nationals.
An Iraqi security official said the 150 so far transferred to Iraq were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals.” They included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis,” he said.
Another Iraqi security source said the group comprised “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis, and people from the Caucasus region.”
They all took part in Daesh operations in Iraq, he said, and were now being held at a prison in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “non-Iraqi terrorists will be in Iraq temporarily.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces jailed thousands of militant fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out Daesh in 2019 after five years of fighting.
