Khartoum residents seek medical advice online as hospitals attacked
The World Health Organization has urged both sides in Sudan to pause fighting to allow people to get medical attention, as Khartoum's residents have banded together on social media offering aid, advice and support as fighting between two rival factions within the military junta entered its sixth day.
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The WHO's regional director, Ahmed Al-Mandhari on Thursday called for both sides in conflict to observe a in pause fighting to allow people receive medical attention and to open up a humanitarian passage for health workers, patients and ambulances.
This comes as people have been trapped inside their homes for days as intense street battles rage between Sudan's rival generals.
Meanwhile, Khartoum's residents have reportedly banded together on social media offering aid, advice and support.
If you’re outside of Sudan and feeling helpless, we’re working with hospitals to cover charges and equipment costs for those in Sudan.
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Online first aid, WhatsApp crowd-sourcing
WhatsApp groups crowd-source needs, while medical professionals upload first-aid video tutorials, and others in the city of more than five million people work together to provide any support they can.
Like many Sudanese barricaded in their homes – avoiding windows for fear of gunfire – Twitter user Mujtaba Musa turned to social media, asking over 200,000 followers to "share calls for help" to "try to connect those in need."
Since fighting erupted on Saturday – with fighter jets launching air strikes in the city and artillery fire in densely populated areas – civilians have become increasingly desperate, with dwindling food supplies, power outages, and a lack of running water.
On Twitter, under the Arabic hashtags like #Khartoum_Needs, residents of each district have been mobilising support and solidarity.
On WhatsApp, hundreds of users joined a group to pool resources.
The messages are heart-breaking: Kholood needs baby formula, Hisham is looking for a car, and a third anonymous user pleads for a phone credit top-up to call his family.
Others provide advice: what to put in an escape bag, which doctors to call, or how to handle a panic attack.
Harrowing details of bloodshed
Speaking to RFI, Dr Salman Omar – a doctor at the Royal Care International Hospital – told of his feeling of helplessness in the face of atrocities being committed by both sides in the violence.
"We have lost a lot of people ... they are all below 30 years old – kids actually.
"My line is dealing with bone fractures. We saw a lot of cases of gunshot injury from the back, the extremities, the chest – all are fatal wounds – human beings in front of you and you cannot do anything to help."
Dr. Omar also explained that people with chronic illnesses are facing a slow death as they cannot access their treatment.
"Dialysis people with chronic kidney disease. And [those with] end stage renal disease who have cancer that need chemotherapy ... they cannot be treated because we don't have the supplies, we don't have enough equipment, we don't have blood, we don't have IV fluids, painkillers – all of that has run out."
The Sudanese doctor also laments witnessing infants dying before him from gunshot wounds.
"We had two-year-old babies with gunshots in the abdomen. One shot in the front lobe of the head and people are screaming.
"You can see the pain in their eyes. 'Can you help us out?'"
Zero-sum battle for control
This comes as the residents of Khartoum – historically the safest city in Sudan even when brutal civil war ravaged in other states – woke up on Saturday to find the conflict had come to their doorstep as tensions between Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the Rapid Support Force militia, erupted into what appears to be a zero-sum battle for control of the country.
They have since spent the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan sheltering as tanks roll through the streets, buildings shake and billowing smoke from fires triggered by the fighting have turned the sky ashen grey.
Under years of international sanctions and failing infrastructure, Khartoum's residents are no strangers to dealing with power outages and rationing supplies.
But they could not have imagined having to shield their families from air strikes from the air force in the capital.
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