Where access is jeopardized, community midwives and skilled birth attendants trained by UNFPA are supporting pregnant women to give birth in the safety of their homes. “Although services continue for the time being, we are praying for more supplies to arrive soon.”īlood, oxygen, and other medical necessities, such as fuel for ambulances, are also running dangerously low.ĭespite the catastrophic circumstances, those hospitals and health centres still functioning – and standing – are proving to be a lifeline for pregnant women and new mothers. “We have a severe lack of supplies in Khartoum, especially oxytocin and umbilical clips,” said Jamila, a midwife working in a UNFPA-supported health centre in Khartoum. Only one in four health facilities in Khartoum are fully operational, with most damaged only partially functioning, leaving millions of people without access to critical care, UNFPA said.ĭozens of attacks on hospitals, healthcare staff and ambulances, alongside widespread looting of already scarce medical supplies, water, fuel and electricity, are pushing the health sector to the brink of collapse. Many of those fleeing have already been displaced multiple times due to political instability, hunger and climate crises, with untold numbers taking refuge in unsafe, crowded and unsanitary makeshift camps. More than 500 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to leave their homes, either within the country or across borders to neighbouring Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Two weeks of brutal fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have turned Khartoum, the epicentre of the violence, into a warzone and thrown the country into turmoil. In addition, women can go into premature delivery, and complications can arise from panic, she said, adding that “the circumstances are so tenuous.” Epicentre of violence “There is no way we can monitor them, there is no access to safe delivery services, no way to ensure even meagre communication. Laila Baker, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) regional director, said pregnant women in capital city are facing perilous conditions.
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