More than 270 civilians killed in five days in Sudan, according to a report reported on Wednesday by Western embassies in Khartoum. They specify that this is a “provisional assessment”, as access is cut off in the capital. The electricity no longer works. Hospitals are devastated. Several of them were shelled by air forces and artillery from both sides. This is the case of the Royal Care International Hospital, a private hospital in the capital where Dr. Salman Omar works.
RFI: What is the situation today in Khartoum? What is the atmosphere in the capital ?
Dr Salman Omar: There was to be a 24-hour ceasefire, between 6 p.m. yesterday (Tuesday) and today (Wednesday), 6 p.m. It was to allow the injured to be evacuated and the medical personnel to reach the hospitals. But until now, we still hear the shooting, the explosions, the heavy artillery. It doesn’t stop. Even during the ceasefire period, the two warring parties continued to clash, even though they had agreed to help Sudanese civilians.
We imagine that you must be very tired of this situation…
It’s not just fatigue that we feel. What is tragic is that we have lost a lot of people. Lots of young people under 30. Children too. The situation is really very bad. Our hospital is currently out of service. We are the last team to leave this morning. The building was targeted by heavy artillery fire.
Since Saturday, the hospital only runs on gas because the electricity has been cut off. And we only have two barrels of gas left to keep the hospital running. Two days ago, we started saving electricity. We had to ask a lot of people to go home, because we don’t have any medicine or medical equipment. We are also understaffed. The medical teams are exhausted. There is no food, no water, no gas, no equipment… The only service which still functions, at present, is the intensive care unit.
What types of wounds do you treat in this unit?
We are dealing with broken bones. We also do a lot of ablations of the spleen, because of bullet wounds. We also treat injuries to the back or injuries to the extremities. All those with minor injuries survived. But we have had eight confirmed gunshot deaths in the hospital because once again, we are short of gloves and medical equipment. Even to obtain the reinforcement of certain doctors, like an anesthetist for operations for example, it is complicated. It takes a long time to find one able to travel to the hospital, to save lives.
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Two days ago, the hospital had to close. So we couldn’t accept patients. You know, the most painful thing in this situation is seeing someone injured, a human being, and not being able to do anything to help them. That’s the hardest feeling. I have never experienced a situation like this before. We are doctors. We have our authorization to work. But without our equipment, we can’t do anything. We are like the rest of the Sudanese. This situation is really very difficult. People are scared. And we can’t help more.
Of the twenty hospitals in Khartoum, 12 are currently out of order. Patients have had to leave the premises, including those with chronic illnesses, cancers and who need chemotherapy or radiotherapy. You cannot imagine how serious the situation is. The health sector in Sudan really needs help. If we are not able to provide health care, that means there will be a lot of deaths.
In your hospital, have you seen many people die precisely because they could not be treated?
Yes… They couldn’t be taken care of because we didn’t have the necessary equipment. We don’t have enough material. We have no blood. We don’t have fluid for the infusions. All of our stocks have been completely sold out in the past four days.
Another hospital was totally destroyed by the army because they were helping the RSF [les Forces de soutien rapide, du général Hemedti, NDLR]. But you know, we are doctors. We are not partisans of one camp or another. We help all human beings without distinction, if they are hurt. We are not politicized. Our job is to save lives. When they target hospitals like this, medical teams feel immense sadness. They are also afraid for their own lives. They have little to be targeted with the patients inside.
You know, two days ago, in our own hospital, we had to evacuate four female doctors, because they couldn’t stop crying. They wanted to go home. They were exhausted by all they had seen. At such times, you don’t even know what is happening to your own family. You don’t know if she’s safe. And for me, will it be okay? These are the questions doctors ask themselves.
Your emotion is palpable. Have you also had to deal with children in your hospital?
Yes. We are taking care of four children at the moment. Four children under two years old. They are babies. They have bullet wounds, particularly in the abdomen and head. They are not even a year old and we have to operate on them. We have to open their abdomens to remove the bullets. It’s terrible and it makes us even more anxious and angry about everything that’s going on.
This war must stop. Many people are already dead. And many more will die because there are currently no medical providers in Sudan. This is the current situation.
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You can see the sorrow, the pain, in people’s eyes. People don’t know what will happen next. Will they live or die? You can imagine how much worse the situation is getting. People I don’t know call me. They beg me to help their sick father. And I have to explain to them that I’m not at work and that I don’t have the appropriate medical equipment. So these people ask me what they should do now. But you can’t give them a good answer. This situation is slowly killing people when most of them are already living in poverty. Most people in Sudan already live below the poverty line.
Today, what are your hopes for Sudan?
To be honest, I don’t think the situation will improve if the two sides – the military and the RSF – continue to clash. We’re supposed to be on a ceasefire right now. But the shooting does not stop.
Nobody can sleep. Me, I haven’t slept a wink for two days. I’m still looking home, not far from the hospital, to make sure my family is okay. As soon as you hear an explosion, you take your phone to call your sister, your family, your friends to make sure no one has anything. This is the life of the Sudanese at the moment.
We don’t know what will happen. We hope they will hear our call to stop what they are doing because a lot of people are dying. We don’t care about the political situation. The current needs are above all humanitarian. There are plenty of corpses in the streets. People cannot even move them because they are afraid of risking their lives if they leave their homes. It’s really hard… And we need the shooting to stop as soon as possible.