Lack of Fuel Could Shut Down Kidney Dialysis Center in Darfur, Sudan
(Arab World Press) - The flow of humanitarian aid into Darfur has been facing challenges, despite the two conflicting sides’ pledges to open safe passages, which has brought the only kidney dialysis center in Nyala, the capital city of the Sudanese state of South Darfur, to the brink of closure.
Doctors in the center have had to decrease dialysis sessions for all patients to once instead of twice a week, due to the extreme shortage in medicine and health workers, as well as the lack of fuel, which causes power outages.
The lives of hundreds of patients with kidney failure are in jeopardy, and they cannot be sent to other health institutions, due to the high cost of transport and security tensions on the roads.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been in control of Nyala and three other key cities in Darfur, where basic services are not available, for months.
Al-Fadi Mohamed Adam, a Sudanese man who escorts his sick mother to the hospital, said that the administration had decided that kidney patients would have a dialysis session only once a week, instead of twice, due to problems with the main components of dialysis.
“There are certain tools unavailable. We were notified that a truck would be coming from Port Sudan to al-Dabba area, but it is not known when it will arrive under these circumstances of war. We hope it arrives as soon as possible,” he added.
Abeer Aydam, the director of the kidney dialysis center at the Nyala Specialized Hospital, said that the obstacles during the war have been many, and that the situation is worsening.
“There are 54 patients in the centre at present. During and prior to the war, we used to have 150 patients, but unfortunately, we lost most of them. Currently, more than 50 patients are receiving treatment, including 28 old cases,” she pointed out.
Fatima al-Zaha’, a female worker at the center, said the staff had not received any money for two months.
“We manage day by day. As workers, we are tired. The patients in this kidney dialysis center have various degrees of disease. We have endured much, but no one cares about us—not the governor, the government, nor the ordinary citizens.”