Doctors at East Darfur hospital on strike

Doctors of the Ed Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur are on strike since Monday after deputy general surgeon Hussein Osman was beaten-up by a lieutenant of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia on Sunday.

The East Darfur authorities brought in medical staff from the Military Hospital to treat emergency cases in the hospital.

The state government condemned the RSF assault in a statement. It directed the competent authorities to take measures to prevent any recurrence of the incident.

The Ed Daein Teaching Hospital Doctors’ Committee pointed out in a statement that this was not the first physical or verbal attack on medical personnel by members of the regular forces, “which are supposed to establish security and enforce the law”.

The doctors added that the hospital administration and the state security forces are unable to prevent these kind of attacks. They also noted that no severe penalties have been imposed on aggressors in the past that will deter future attacks.

Rapid Support Forces

Officially, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), set up by the ousted Al Bashir regime in August 2013, was integrated into the Sudan Armed Forces in August last year. At the same time however, the militia stays a force unto intself, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’, deputy president of Sudan's Sovereign Council.

In the Constitutional Declaration (also known as Constitutional Charter), signed on August 17, 2019, by the then ruling Transitional Military Council and the opposition Forces for Freedom and Change, it has been agreed that both the Sudan Armed Forces and the RSF will fall under the command of the “Supreme Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces”.

The RSF, which grew out of the janjaweed militias which fought for the Sudanese government in Darfur since the war broke out 2003, is widely believed to be responsible for atrocities in the region in the past six-seven years. Tens of thousands of RSF troops joined the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthi rebels in yemen since 2015. The RSF are also held responsible for the violent break-up of the Khartoum sit-in in June 3 last year.

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