Khartoum, Jan.27(Darfur24) Doctors Without Borders MSF announced, on Wednesday, the suspension of activities in the state of Khartoum, after Sudanese security authorities arrested its medical team.
Sudanese authorities detained nine members of the medical organization’s staff in the capital, Khartoum, on the evening of January 24., they were released the following day.
“Detaining our staff for their medical work is unacceptable,” said the organization’s head of emergencies, Michel Oliver Lacharette. It is good that our team is now out of custody, but it is clear that they should never have been detained in the first place.”
Lacharette continues, “Our medical work in Sudan is based on one thing only: a place where there are medical needs that require treatment. We are working to help city hospitals take care of the injured, and we are providing them with support to respond to the alarming increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.”
He added, “Some of our activities today are paused in Khartoum as we work to ensure the security of our teams.
We hope that we can quickly resume our assistance to people in the capital.”
He explained that MSF is registered in Sudan and has all the necessary licenses for our medical programmes. We operate in eight states across the country, and our work is funded only through private donations: we do not operate with any government funding.