New waves of COVID-19, haemorrhagic fever in Sudan as healthcare fails

17/11/2021 12:00 KHARTOUM / EL GENEINA

Doctors report that health care is failing and in some cases “completely absent” in many parts of Sudan since Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan and a military junta seized power in a coup d’état on October 25. Daily updates by the Ministry of Heath on COVID figures have ceased, haemorrhagic fever is on the rise, and there are fears of a food gap in states where much agricultural production is performed by displaced people.

Medical checks at a camp for the displaced in Darfur (File photo: Albert González / Farran Unamid)

Doctors report that health care is failing and in some cases “completely absent” in many parts of Sudan since Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan and a military junta seized power in a coup d’état on October 25. Daily updates by the Ministry of Heath on COVID figures have ceased, haemorrhagic fever is on the rise, and there are fears of a food gap in states where much agricultural production is performed by displaced people.

The Federal Ministry of Health stopped publishing its daily reports of COVID-19 figures following the coup. While many have doubted the accuracy of those figures, the current lack of information, exacerbated by the nationwide internet blackout following the coup, is cause for concern.

Medical sources reported a new wave of haemorrhagic fever in Kassala, River Nile state and Northern State, amid “a complete absence of health care after the military coup”.

The sources pointed to the large spread of COVID-19 cases “in all states of the country, with a general deterioration in the provision of treatment and diagnostic services”.

Food gap

The Humanitarian Aid Commissioner of West Darfur, Omar Abdelkarim, announced that he expects a food gap in the state due to the scarcity of rains, the emergence of agricultural pests and insects, in addition to the reluctance of large numbers of displaced people to go about their agricultural activities, because of the insecurity in the region.

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