Sudan security bans charity project in Kassala

The Emergency Street Initiative has been ordered to hand over the intensive care unit it is constructing in the Kassala Teaching Hospital to the hospital’s management.

On Thursday, officers of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) summoned the volunteers of the Initiative on Thursday morning, and gave them an ultimatum until 3 pm that day to hand over the intensive care unit to the hospital’s administration.

In a statement on Friday, the volunteers said the Initiative handed over the unit that is 80 per cent complete.

A number of residents of Kassala contacted Radio Dabanga, condemning the interference of the NISS and its obstruction of voluntary charity work. They praised the Initiative for the work one concerning the hygiene of the hospital and the upgrading of the children's wards.

In 2014, a group of youth activists in Omdurman launched the Emergency Street Initiative to support needy patients in the area. They managed to collect enough funds for the construction of an intensive care unit for children at the Mohamed El Amin Hamed Hospital in Omdurman in May 2015.

Since then, the project has expanded, and young people in various other towns in the country managed to set up similar charity projects.

The emergency department of the Khartoum Teaching Hospital is located at the Hospital Street in central Khartoum. The street, where also a number of private hospitals and clinics are located, is popularly known as “Emergency Street”, hence the name given to the Initiative.