As the battle for control of Sudan enters its third week, health services in the capital, Khartoum, are rapidly falling apart, a grim aftermath of brutal fighting that has raised fears that the conflict could escalate into a wider humanitarian crisis.

A complete collapse of the health care system could occur in a few days, the Sudanese doctors’ union has warned.

According to the World Health Organization, hospitals have been shelled and two-thirds of the hospitals in Khartoum have been closed. According to official figures, more than a dozen medical workers have died. In addition, “hidden victims” are dying from sickness and disease as basic health services have become Not enough, said Dr. Abdullah Atia, general secretary of the doctors’ union.

“We get a lot of calls every day, ‘Where should I go?’,” he said. “These are questions we cannot answer.”

Millions of civilians were left trapped. The last truth that allowed civilians to flee was terminated at midnight on Sunday, and although the Rapid Support Forces said they would extend the humanitarian ceasefire for another three days, fighting was reported in the capital.

On Sunday, the Sudanese army agreed to extend the truce, but accused the Rapid Support Forces of violating the truce and taking over the hospital. RSF, in turn, said that the army looted the medical supplies.

In response to the deteriorating situation, the UN Secretary-General’s office said it was “immediately” sending Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, to Sudan.

“The scale and speed of what is happening is unprecedented in Sudan,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the Secretary General, said. statements.

Other countries tried to evacuate their citizens by any means as the situation worsened. By Saturday, the UK had airlifted more than 2,122 people on 21 flights, with another flight from Port Sudan in eastern Sudan scheduled for Monday. This was announced by the British government on Sunday.. The Americans fled in long columns of buses, trucks and cars, heading north for Egypt or Port Sudan, where they hope to board ships for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The State Department said Sunday that a second convoy of US citizens has arrived in Port Sudan, bringing the number of American evacuees to just under 1,000. The department added that fewer than 5,000 Sudanese citizens have turned to the US government for help through the “crisis reception.” website for Americans and their families. About 16,000 Americans live in Sudan, many of whom hold dual citizenship.

Sudan’s health ministry is nowhere to be found, and the doctors’ union said it had received no support and little communication from the government. According to witnesses and officials, the medical facilities were used by the militants as defensive positions.

Moreover, according to officials, the national laboratory was seized by paramilitaries. Samples of diseases such as malaria or tuberculosis could become a weapon in the wrong hands, the doctor said. Atia, who, like others, was on the phone from Khartoum.

He added that another problem is the uncleaned bodies in morgues and others on the streets. The Physicians Union later said in statement tthe number of bodies strewn across the streets grew, creating an “environmental disaster”.

Hundreds of doctors have fled, and there are rumors that members of the Rapid Support Forces are kidnapping doctors and forcing them at gunpoint to treat wounded comrades. Although the abductions have not been confirmed, Dr. Dozens of members of the Sudanese Doctors’ Union are missing, Atia said.

A shortage of medical workers has meant that hospitals are barely staffed to deal with the situation. The Al Ban Jadid hospital in east Khartoum usually employs at least 400 people, but now it has only eight medical staff. The Al Joda hospital in southern Khartoum hobbles along with four people: a surgeon, an anesthesiologist and two nurses, Dr. Khartoum. Atia said.

“Health workers in Sudan are doing the impossible, caring for the wounded without water, electricity and basic medical supplies,” said Patrick Youssef, Regional Director of the Red Cross Africa.

The Sudanese Doctors’ Union posts several times a day on Facebook a notice listing several hospitals still operating in Khartoum, or an urgent warning for doctors to report to field hospitals located in houses around the city.

Away from hospitals, medical personnel must use whatever tools they can find to treat the wounded.

At the field hospital in El Mamour, Dr. Mohamed Carrar improvised an intercostal drainage system using a sterilized soda bottle to drain blood from a punctured lung of a firearm victim. Long shifts in the trauma unit of the now-closed Ibrahim Malik Teaching Hospital in central Khartoum helped him prepare. Carrara now has to contend with the sounds of war while working in a living room converted into an operating room.

“I know that I am in danger in these places,” he said, “but these sick and wounded people need me.”

In Al-Nada, medical workers and their patients take shelter under beds and tables several times a day to escape aerial bombardment and heavy artillery fire. Everyone is so nervous, said local doctor Mohamed Fath, that the sound of an oxygen tank being opened could send employees running.

At the start of the conflict, Al-Nada Nursing Home decided to treat only pregnant women and children in order to provide shelter to a small fraction of the more than 24,000 women who, according to the WHO, should be given shelter. birth in Sudan in the next few weeks.

In the weeks since the fighting began, 220 babies have been born there, and most of them have survived. Fath said.

One woman raced through active war zones and barely made it to the emergency room, he said. Later, her husband showed Dr. Find bullet holes in your car. Another woman gave birth at home, but due to complications, the baby needed urgent medical attention. According to the doctor, the mother and child were locked in their home for several days under artillery fire overhead. When they finally got to the hospital, it was already too late for the dead baby.

“They have to go through this hell to get to the hospital,” says the doctor. Fath said.

Neighbors seeking help started calling the doctor. Doorbell Veil at home. Twice last week, he said, he pronounced two people dead in Omdurman-Altavra, north of the city. Both were diabetics who ran out of insulin in a city where pharmacies were ransacked and a medical black market flourished.

Now, the doctor said, he hid the home remedy in his car. But in areas that could quickly turn from ghost towns into active war zones, even a mile-long road between a hospital and his home could put his life at risk.

Before the war Dr. Fath filled out applications for jobs in hospitals in South Africa, where he planned to specialize in pediatric neurology. But he and his wife, also a doctor, whose last exam was scheduled for May 6, decided to stay.

“If you see what I saw every day in my daily practice,” says the doctor. Fath said, “You would understand my situation.”

Edward Wong provided a report from Washington, Nyla Morgan from New York and Isabella Kwai from London.