Doctors Without Borders Suspends Work At Large Sudanese Refugee Camp

NAIROBI, Feb 24 (Bernama-dpa) -- Aid organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has suspended its work in a Sudanese refugee camp amid increasing fighting and violence in the region of North Darfur, reported German news agency dpa.

The agency used to run a field hospital in the region's largest refugee camp, called Zamzam, near the provincial capital of Al Fashir.

The camp, which is home to at least half a million people, has been shelled several times in recent weeks.

"Halting our project in the midst of a worsening disaster in Zamzam is a heartbreaking decision," MSF country director Yahya Kalilah said in a statement on Monday.

"The sheer proximity of the violence, great difficulties in sending supplies, the impossibility to send experienced staff for adequate support, and uncertainty regarding routes out of the camp for our colleagues and civilians leave us with little choice."

Since the beginning of February alone, MSF personnel have admitted 139 patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, it said, adding that 11 patients died in the MSF hospital, including five children.

They could neither be properly treated on site nor referred to the only remaining hospital with surgical capacity in Al Fashir.

A bloody power struggle has been raging in Sudan for almost two years between de facto ruler Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. 

The Sudanese army is fighting Daglo's RSF militia. While the army has recently been able to recapture important areas, particularly in the capital Khartoum and the surrounding area, the RSF has been besieging Al Fashir for months and has also repeatedly attacked the refugee camp. 

According to UN figures, the conflict has driven more than 12.5 million people to flee their homes.

-- BERNAMA-dpa