Medics and veterinarians on strike in Sudan’s South Kordofan

In South Kordofan, medics and veterinarians laid down their tools last week, in protest against the new director of the Animal Resources department.

Alya Ahmed, one of the striking doctors, told Radio Dabanga that the strike is supported by all medics in South Kordofan. Veterinary clinics, laboratories, vaccination centres, and slaughterhouses, are closed and will only be re-opened until their demands are met.

“Our demands are purely professional. They can be easily and quickly fulfilled,” she explained, and called on “the concerned authorities to intervene and solve the problem, without political compromises, to ward off the health and economic consequences for the people” in South Kordofan.

She explained that they embarked on a strike last Wednesday after the director of the South Kordofan Ministry of Production and Economic Resources appointed a Natural Resources graduate as new head of the Animal Resources department. “We all consider this a violation of the Sudanese Veterinary Council law as well as a number of international laws.”

The doctor said that veterinarians in the state regularly control the procedures in the slaughterhouses – which are now stalled. “Nevertheless, we find meat being sold at the markets that is illegally slaughtered. This poses a threat to human health as there are many diseases can be transmitted to humans through meat that is not subject to health control,” she warned.

She also advised livestock owners not to use medicines by themselves, without obtaining instructions from veterinarians.

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