MSF: War in Sudan is causing significant psychological trauma
The head of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) organization, Christos Christou, shared that numerous women as well as their children are suffering from significant psychological trauma as a result of the ongoing war in Sudan, noting that some children -a few months old at most- have been injured by live ammunition in the head and chest.
He added in a statement to (Asharq Al-Awsat) that, “We are facing the worst humanitarian crisis the organization has ever witnessed… Thousands of families have been separated, their members left without taking anything, sometimes they were barefoot and walking on their feet, and it is proving rather difficult to provide them with aid in the form of food, water and medicine, this seems impossible in some parts of the country.”
He believes that “The war is a serious problem for women and children in particular. We have conducted examinations for approximately (4,200) women and children in one of the hospitals operating in the capital, Khartoum, and found that a third of them suffer from severe malnutrition, which in turn indicates that the entirety of the women and children examined suffer from moderate and severe malnutrition to varying degrees.”
Christos Christou explained that “One in every six wounded people treated in the same hospital suffers from concomitant diseases.. Children -a few months old at most- were shot in the head or chest, and unfortunately sometimes the necessary medical supplies aren’t available to provide them with the poper treatment, in light of the siege imposed on the hospital and the prevention of medical aid from being delivered.”
The Situation in Darfur
The international president of Doctors Without Borders, Christos Christou, disclosed that the high rate of malnutrition recorded among pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as infants in the Darfur region, in turn leads to deaths from simple causes that can be treated if medical supplies were available.
He shared that the prevalence of malnutrition and anemia far exceeds our teams’ capacity to treat. Christou added: “Last August, we conducted tests on approximately (30,000) children aged two years and under, which proved that a third of this number suffers from severe malnutrition.”
A previous report by Doctors Without Borders issued last February revealed that a child dies every two hours in the Zamzam Camp for displaced persons in North Darfur state.
According to the organization, the conflict in Darfur has taken on an ethnic aspect, particularly the violence that took place in West Darfur state, which led to the deaths of thousands and the displacement of more than (500,000) people to Chad.
The maternal mortality rate in South Darfur since the beginning of this year, as recorded by (MSF) facilities, has exceeded the (7%) mark, and tests conducted to monitor malnutrition among children have shown rates that exceed emergency thresholds.
Christou urged the international community “To exert more efforts to pressure the warring parties to allow the passage of emergency humanitarian aid; and to provide foodstuffs and medicine to thousands of civilians in Sudan.”
More than (4,214) injuries resulting from violence were treated by (MSF) teams. These injuries included; gunshot wounds and bomb explosions, (16%) of whom were children under the age of fifteen.
