Southern Khartoum hospitals struggle amid disease and hunger
Destruction of a house due to aerial bombardment in El Ingaz neighborhood in southern Khartoum on September 29 (Photo: South Belt Emergency Room)
As the latest campaign by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to take control of Khartoum continues for the 11th day, people in the Southern Belt of Khartoum continue to live under threat of bombardment and disease, as prices soar and hospitals report closure, causing hunger and further insecurity.
The Southern Belt* includes El Salama, El Azhari, Edd Hussein neighbourhoods, along with Mayo and Soba districts. These neighbourhoods are under control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). They are suffering from repeated airstrikes by the Sudanese Air Force, since the SAF launched a major ground offensive on Khartoum on September 26.
According to Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) Sudan, around 40 people arrived at the Bashair Teaching Hospital in southern Khartoum with blast injuries last week.
Mohamed Kandasha, spokesperson for the Southern Belt Emergency Room, told Radio Dabanga that waves of displacement from El Ingaz neighbourhood continue. El Gaz is close to areas where RSF troops are stationed and is exposed to aerial bombardment by army aircraft.
Hospitals threatened
Violence has become a daily reality in Khartoum, where fighting has intensified, putting the lives of millions at risk, according to MSF. October 1, shelling occurred two kilometres from Bashair Hospital, where MSF operations continue.
MSF said it had been informed that another hospital in the city, which it did not name, had stopped working after being hit by an airstrike on Thursday. The organisation’s teams are reportedly preparing to receive more wounded at Bashair Hospital despite limited supplies following months of deliberate obstruction of aid by the RSF and SAF.
MSF Sudan announced on X last week that its medical activities in El Kalakla would be suspended from September 30 onward “until further notice.” The organisation blamed increased insecurity in the area. “This extremely difficult decision to suspend activities at the Shaheed Wada’allah Clinic comes after three incidents of armed robbery within one month, putting the lives of staff and patients at risk. These attacks against healthcare are unacceptable,” MSF said.
Catastrophic health conditions
In an interview with Radio Dabanga, Kandasha described the situation as “catastrophic.” Cases of malaria, dengue fever, and conjunctivitis are reportedly increasing in the southern Khartoum neighbourhoods, he said, especially among people already suffering from chronic diseases and anaemia.
According to the Kandasha, 72 people died after contracting dengue fever in the past week, including eight people in one day. In September, hospitals recorded a weekly death rate of 20 people.
The Southern Belt Emergency Room reported 170 deaths from September 21 to 27, following the “rapid spread of dengue fever, malaria, typhoid and relapsing fever.”
The emergency room’s medical department recorded more than 1,450 dengue fever cases in September, along with 1,153 cases of malaria and relapsing fever, warning of significant increases in the price of medicines available.
Ongoing disease outbreaks are pushing Sudan’s already fragile healthcare system to a breaking point and exacerbating weaknesses in the sanitation and hygiene infrastructure. An aircraft chartered by UNICEF carrying 1.4 million doses of oral cholera vaccines landed in Port Sudan on Saturday, to bolster efforts to protect children from the ongoing cholera outbreak affecting the country.
Price hikes ease
The South Belt Emergency Room also reported an unprecedented rise in food prices. The price of a kilogramme of sugar rose from SDG 3,000 at the start of September to SDG 7,000 at the end. “The price dropped to SDG6,000 on Saturday, due to the recession and people’s inability to buy it,” said Kandasha.
There is also a severe shortage of flour. “There will be a severe bread crisis if new supplies do not arrive very soon.”
As for meat prices, they also rose before a new influx of deliveries of livestock to Khartoum. The owners can now sell them cheaper as the passage levies demanded by RSF units on the roads have reportedly decreased.
Liquidity crisis
Kandasha said that the markets in southern Khartoum are still open. “The people have adapted to the current situation of continuous air strikes and bombing.”
He warned of the ongoing liquidity crisis in the area. “The commission traders are asking for the transferral from the bankak application to cash is now 10 percent. They sometimes even delay the payment. Others demand 15 percent,” the spokesperson said, accusing the merchants of greed and exploitation. “Some shop owners refuse payment through a bank application.”
As most people have lost their jobs and sources of income, they have become dependent on transfers from relatives abroad and the more than 20 soup kitchens (takaya) in southern Khartoum. “Most of the takaya operate intermittently due to the lack of continuous support, except for those in Mayo and Edd Hussein, which are supported by the World Food Programme.”
Kandasha praised the traders and customers’ increased awareness of counterfeit currencies. “The amount of counterfeit currency in the market has decreased significantly.”
Background
The war between the SAF and the RSF will enter its 18th month next week, with its scope constantly expanding and intensity increasing.
On September 26, the SAF launched a major ground offensive, supported by artillery and airstrikes, in key areas of Khartoum state. Army soldiers entered Khartoum and Khartoum North (Bahri) from Omdurman via the Halfaya Bridge, the old Iron Bridge and the White Nile Bridge. Two days later, SAF soldiers from Omdurman broke through RSF lines in the west of Khartoum North and reached the El Kadaro military base. In southwestern Khartoum, army forces in armoured vehicles are attempting to enter the densely populated neighbourhood of El Kalakla.
*Khartoum’s Southern Belt is part of the periphery of the capital inhabited by people earlier displaced by wars in Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile region and South Sudanese refugees, and by impoverished farmers from various parts of the country who lost their lands to banks.
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