(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Port Sudan, Sudan: French medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Sunday said a passenger was killed in what it described as a "despicable attack" on one of its ambulances in Sudan's Darfur region.
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, has for months been the site of fierce fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on one side and the Sudanese army and allied armed groups on the other.
It is the only major city in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur that the RSF has not managed to capture.
MSF is one of the few international organisations still present in the city, where nearly all medical facilities have been forced shut amid repeated attacks on healthcare.
On Friday, an ambulance was carrying a female patient in labour who required an emergency surgical procedure from the Zamzam displacement camp to the city's Saudi Hospital, MSF said.
The charity said in a statement that the facility is "the only public hospital with surgical capacity still standing".
"An unknown gunman" shot at "the clearly marked ambulance with the MSF logo and flag", it said, killing one of the patient's caretakers.
This is the second time an MSF ambulance has been shot at in El-Fasher in less than a month.
Regular attacks on healthcare facilities and health workers have shuttered hospitals across the country, where up to 80 percent of facilities are out of service, according to official figures.
On Friday, MSF announced it had been forced to suspend activities in the Bashair Hospital in Khartoum, one of the last remaining facilities offering free medical care in the capital's south.
Since it erupted in April 2023, the war between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and brought millions to the brink of mass starvation.
In the area around El-Fasher, famine has already taken hold in three displacement camps -- Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam -- and is expected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May, according to a UN-backed assessment.
MENAFN12012025000063011010ID1109081195
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.