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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Weronika Strzyżyńska

Sudan’s doctors turn to social media as health infrastructure crumbles

A man walks among the ruins of the central market in Khartoum North.
A man walks among the ruins of the central market in Khartoum North. Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters

Sudanese doctors are turning to social media to reach patients as hospitals and heath facilities struggle to function or close completely in the violence. Volunteers have set up 24-hour helplines on messaging platforms including WhatsApp, staffed by hundreds of doctors and specialists.

Only 16% of hospitals in the capital, Khartoum, are operating at full capacity, according to the World Health Organization. Last week at least four people, including a child, were killed in an airstrike outside East Nile hospital in north Khartoum, while Médecins Sans Frontières reported that El Geneina teaching hospital, in west Darfur, was looted on 28 April. Doctors in the country are reporting death threats and on Monday two volunteers who were working to reopen a hospital in Bahri were released after being held for days by the army.

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