Pregnant Sudanese women face serious risks of losing their babies during childbirth and, in some cases, their own lives due to the lack of specialised medical care amid the ongoing war and escalating humanitarian needs.
Fabrizia Faltchioni, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative in Sudan, said: “Most women in the Golo area of Central Darfur reach the hospital from mountain villages after walking for several hours, or being carried on wooden stretchers across the mountains, often already in labour or suffering from bleeding.”
Speaking to journalists via video link from UN headquarters in Geneva, she added that “some women can afford to pay for a donkey ride to reach the hospital, but many cannot, arriving when it is already too late for them and their babies.”
Faltchioni also pointed to shortages of medical supplies at Golo Hospital, including anaesthetic drugs.
She added: “Just a few days after undergoing a caesarean section, women return to their villages in the mountains, once again on foot.”
She called for greater support for mobile clinics located close to vulnerable communities.
