Sudan doctors call for international condemnation of violence against medical facilities
January 10, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan doctors have called for international condemnation of the use of tear gas and live ammunition against doctors and their patients inside Omdurman Hospital by the government security agencies on Wednesday.
In a bid to quell the continuing protests across the country for three weeks, the government security agencies have used live ammunition against peaceful protesters who kept taking to the street on daily basis in different towns.
Also, government officials and party leaders like Ali Osman Mohamed Taha stated they will launch their militia against the protesters as they did in September 2013 when they killed nearly two hundred people.
However, in an unprecedented escalation of violence, security agents stormed the Omdurman Hospital, where there were no demonstrators except those who seek treatment. They fired tear gas and bullets sporadically in the courts of the big medical facility.
They further went to the emergencies department and used tear gas against the doctors and injured people and beat them.
The security forces broke into the emergencies department and beat the doctors “saying we do not know who is a doctor and who is patient” said a joint statement released by the three doctors’ unions in the first hours of Thursday.
“We call on jurists and international legal organizations to condemn the barbarous behaviour of the regime militias and to lodge complaints with every court and international bodies to protect our people, institutions and medical cadres,” said the Sudan Central Doctors Committee, Legitimate Sudan Doctor Union, and Medical Specialties Board.
Following the attack on Wednesday, Omdurman Hospital doctors issued a statement declaring an unlimited general strike to protest against violence and brutalities by the unidentified security forces.
The doctors said they will evacuate the patients from the emergencies, surgery and internal medicine departments, pointing they cannot ensure the security and safety of doctors and patients.
Since the start of the nationwide demonstrations, the government security services target the Sudanese doctors saying the practitioners are actively supporting the unrest.
(ST)