EMERGENCY Evacuates Staff and Suspends Activities in Wad Madani.

EMERGENCY has been forced to evacuate non-resident staff at its Cardiology Outpatient Clinic in Wad Madani and suspend the facility’s activities due to intensified fighting in the city, capital of Gezira state.

The team of 10 people, which includes surgeons and pharmacists, are all Sudanese and are evacuating south.

The clinic opened in August to guarantee pre-operative visits to cardiac patients in need of surgery, and follow-up visits and administration of anticoagulant therapy to patients who have already received operations at EMERGENCY’s Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery. This allowed for continuity of life-saving treatment for patients who could not travel and reach the capital Khartoum due to the extremely difficult security conditions.

EMERGENCY also has a warehouse in Wad Madani for supplies that are essential for the provision of medical and surgical activities at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery. EMERGENCY doesn’t currently know the status of this facility.

“Evacuating our staff means we had to leave patients without continuity of care following cardiac procedures. We had tried to guarantee this presence in Wad Madani because of the difficulty patients had in reaching the Salam Centre in Khartoum for follow up care. Meanwhile, the supplies in our warehouse that are needed to maintain activities at the Salam Centre cannot get to where they are needed,” says Gina Portella, Coordinator of the Sudan Programme from Khartoum.

Many people fleeing Khartoum had found refuge in Wad Madani and are now trying to leave the city by any means. Almost 500,000 people have fled to the state of Gezira, the country’s main humanitarian hub, 86,400 of whom are in Wad Madani.

At the moment it is not possible to predict how the situation in Wad Madani will evolve and whether it will be possible to return to provide care. Since the beginning of the war, it has become increasingly difficult to provide humanitarian assistance to the population because there is no guarantee of the safety of healthcare facilities and staff.

EMERGENCY requests all parties to the conflict to respect the safety of the population and health facilities in order to give those who need it the chance to receive treatment.

EMERGENCY – which has been working in Sudan since 2004 – has not left the country even though the war makes its activities extremely difficult due to intense fighting, difficulty in accessing resources, and insecurity when traveling within the country. The organisation continues its work at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Khartoum, the Paediatric Centre in Port Sudan and the Cardiology Outpatient Clinic in Atbara.