Coronavirus: 5,714 cases recorded in Sudan, Unamid continues to support govt.

Yesterday, the Sudanese Ministry of Health reported 215 new Covid-19 patients, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 5,714. Unamid continues to support the Sudanese health authorities in various fields. Dozens of its peacekeepers have been quarantined. People in the Port Sudan isolation centre complain about a lack of food and clean drinking water.

Of the 5,714 coronavirus patients so far, 333 patients have died and 1,825 recovered.

In eastern Sudan’s Kassala, the authorities have launched a mass campaign against people violating the curfew.

Listeners reported that during the past two days, the police imposed fines exceeding SDG2,000* on people visiting the Grand Market and district markets.

A number of the neighbourhoods witnessed protests against the measures.  and throwing stones at the regular forces carrying out the campaigns, while the forces fired tear gas canisters at the protesters.

Unamid

The hybrid United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (Unamid) said in a Covid-19 Situation Update yesterday that 52 of its personnel has recently been placed in quarantine at the Mission’s Logistics Base in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, after three staff members tested positive.

Unamid continues to support the Sudanese government with its efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the country.  

Upon request by the authorities, the mission gifted a wide range of personal protective items, equipment, and medical accessories. In addition, Unamid regularly provides access to its air assets to allow the government to speedily transport vital equipment and test samples from Darfur to Khartoum.

Unamid has provided substantial Covid-19 mitigation support to the authorities in Darfur and to local communities, including displaced in the camps. The gifting was often complemented with outreach and community sensitisation, including production and dissemination of education materials. In this regard, partnership with local radio stations has helped to reach a wider audience across Darfur, the report reads.

Further support has been jointly agreed by Unamid and the UN Country Team to utilise $1.8 million from the State Liaison Functions “to help minimise Covid-19 infection and mortality, fund the establishment of isolation centres, provide personal protective equipment, enhance capacities of local health and community systems as well as strengthen the detection, referral and testing of suspected cases”.

Badly equipped

The people placed in the makeshift isolation centre at the Ports Boarding House Centre in the Red Sea state capital of Port Sudan, are complaining about “a lack of everything”.

The centre is devoid of clean drinking water and food,” one of them told Radio Dabanga. “We are now drinking contaminated well water.”

He further complained about the absence of administrative control and medical supervision of the people staying in the centre. Social distancing and other precautionary measures against the coronavirus are not applied. “In this way, the centre will become a focal point for the spread of Cobid-19.”

The more than 400 people quarantined for two weeks in the Trucking Centre in Port Sudan after they entered Red Sea state from other states, also complain about bad services.

“We are in need of clean drinking water,” one of them said. “And the toilets and bathrooms need cleaning and maintenance.”

Radio Dabanga reported last month that members of resistance committees in the neighbourhoods of Port Sudan expressed their serious concern about the dire situation in the city's quarantine centres.

Drinking water and food are lacking, sanitation facilities are very bad, and administrative supervision is absent, they said in a press statement on May 14.  

* USD 1 = SDG 55.1375 at the time of publishing this article. As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).

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