Doctors Without Borders team attacked in Sudan’s Khartoum

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical charity said Friday that armed men had attacked one of its teams in the Sudanese capital Khartoum while transporting medical supplies to a hospital.

The incident put their continued activities at the hospital in doubt, said the organization.

The 18-member team was attacked on Thursday while trying to reach the Turkish Hospital in the south of the city. Khartoum has been gripped by unrest since fighting broke out on April 15 in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries.

“After arguing about the reasons for MSF’s presence, the armed men then aggressively assaulted our team, physically beating and whipping them, as well as detaining the driver of one of our vehicles,” the Geneva-based organization said in a statement.

“The armed men threatened the driver’s life before releasing him. They then stole the vehicle.”

The incident happened 700 meters from the Turkish Hospital, which, said MSF, on the same day received 44 patients wounded in an airstrike.

MSF said that its activities in the hospital, one of only two still open in southern Khartoum, were now in serious jeopardy and would not be able to continue without minimum safety guarantees.

“If an incident like this happens again, and if our ability to move supplies continues to be obstructed, then, regrettably, our presence in the Turkish Hospital will soon become untenable,” said Christophe Garnier, MSF’s emergencies manager for Sudan.

On Thursday, airstrikes, street battles and artillery fire shook Khartoum, witnesses told AFP, reporting three air raids in the south in the early morning.

The Sudanese army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been battling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, after the two fell out in a power struggle.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people and forced more than 3.3 million to flee their homes.

MSF said it has treated more than 1,600 war wounded patients in Khartoum since the conflict began.

The World Health Organization has verified 51 attacks on healthcare in Sudan since the conflict began, resulting in 10 deaths and 24 injuries.