Doctors Without Borders, the relief organization, reported in a Friday statement that their team in Khartoum was subjected to a “violent assault” and one of their vehicles was stolen by a group of armed individuals.
The organization posted on the “Twitter” platform that one of its teams consisting of 18 people was “subjected on Thursday to a violent assault by a group of armed individuals who beat and flogged them”. The organization added, “One of our drivers was arrested and his life threatened before his release, and one of our cars was stolen”, clarifying that the incident occurred while the team was transporting medical supplies from the organization’s warehouses to the Turkish hospital. The team was intercepted, according to the organization’s statement, about 700 meters from the hospital which is one of only two operating hospitals in the south of Khartoum supported by the non-governmental organization.
Doctors Without Borders warned that as a result of this assault, “our presence in the Turkish hospital may not continue”.
Battles Continue
The incident took place as battles entering their fourth month continue in various areas, notably the capital and Darfur region in the west of the country, between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the rapid support forces led by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. Residents in the south of the capital reported to France Press that the warplanes carried out “violent bombing of the rapid support positions around the sports city, and in neighborhoods located south of the armored weapon”. Others referred to the army’s “bombing of the Soba areas east of the Nile”, as well as witnesses from north Omdurman, a suburb west of Greater Khartoum, reported “heavy artillery and rocket shelling towards the Bahri area north of the capital and also its south”.
Outside the capital, witnesses from the city of Al-Obaid, the capital of North Kordofan State in the south of the country, reported “exchange of artillery bombardment between the army and rapid support around the city”, which has a strategic location on the road that links Darfur with the capital, in addition to the presence of the third largest airport in the country in it.
