Four maternal deaths in Zamzam

Abu Tira forces allegedly blocked entry to ambulances inside the camp leading to the fatalitiesFour women died due to complications during child birth in North Darfur’s Zamzam refugee camp in the past couple of weeks, according to sources in the camp.A camp resident blamed the central reserve police, commonly referred to as the Abu Tira, for for maternal mortalities. He said that the Abu Tira personnel who guard the gates block entry to ambulances coming inside the camp late at night.This has made it difficult for emergency medical cases to get an ambulance or any other mode of transport to access the hospital in El Fasher during the hours of curfew. The civilian, who spoke to Radio Dabanga, called for the curfew imposed by the Abu Tira officers to be lifted.Activists in the camp told Radio Dabanga that there had been four maternal deaths in the past couple of weeks owing to the curfew.The curfew forces the women to give birth in the camp where there are no midwives. Four women have died along with their babies in the past two weeks alone, an activist said.Activists in the camp have notified the United Nations African Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and the UN’s Officer for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as well as state health officials about the incident.They demand a lifting of the curfew imposed by the Abu Tira to allow movement of ambulances and other transport facilities to the camps at night.