By Ashok Ramsarup :: International humanitarian medical non-governmental organisation Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières – MSF) has strongly condemned the ongoing violent attacks on patients and staff at Bashair Teaching Hospital in south Khartoum in Sudan on the African continent.  This is one of the last functioning hospitals providing free medical care in the capital since the civil war erupted in 2023

 In the past 20 months, MSF teams have worked alongside hospital staff and volunteers at Bashair Hospital, in a controlled area of Rapid Support Forces (RSF). However, the Medical Charity experienced constant incidents of armed fighters entering the hospital with weapons threatening medical staff and often demanding fighters were treated before other patients.

 According to MSF reports a patient was shot and killed inside the hospital two months ago. Last month, a patient was shot and killed inside the hospital. On 18 December, attackers fired weapons inside the emergency ward, directly threatening medical staff. In an earlier incident, weapons were fired at the hospital, bullets entered the hospital compound, and one person was wounded.

MSF Emergency Co-Ordinator Claire San Filippo has indicated that the suffering they witnessed in Khartoum is enormous as intense and extreme violence continues daily.  Filippo says shortages and blockages of food supplies and humanitarian aid leave people scrambling for survival. “The medical needs are overwhelming. Injuries are often horrific and gruesome. Mass casualty incidents have become almost routine,” says San Filippo.

 In another incident, San Filippo says 50 people were brought to the emergency room – 12 of them already dead – after an airstrike about a kilometre from the hospital. She says: “Our team, hospital staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to provide the best medical care, but without the security to operate safely it has become untenable to continue when the lives of the staff and patients are threatened.”

 MSF has also experienced an increase in paediatric and maternity cases as other health facilities have closed or reduced services. The humanitarian organization previously had to suspend medical activities at a nearby Turkish Hospital last year because of threats to and violence against staff.

San Filippo adds that between May 2023 and December 2024, Bashair Hospital treated 25,585 patients in the emergency room, with more than 9,000 due to violence, and performed 3,700 surgical procedures. An MSF team joined by volunteers and medical staff assisted with almost 3,800 deliveries, including 850 caesarean sections.

 The humanitarian organization continues to work in 11 states in Sudan, including the city of Omdurman in Khartoum state. MSF is hoping that conditions will allow the medical team and staff to return to Bashair Hospital in the future and restart medical activities.