On the afternoon of April 24, Dr. Attia Abdullah, a general medicine doctor and secretary general of the Sudan Doctors Trade Union, got a call: An airstrike had hit the Al-Kalakla neighborhood of Khartoum and civilian casualties were pouring in. He set off immediately for the hospital.
The route to the hospital was peppered with military checkpoints. Groups of soldiers roamed the streets carrying machine guns. Abdullah did not dare wear his medical scrubs or carry his professional badge. He also dared not drive. If he were stopped by the soldiers at one of the checkpoints, his driver's license would reveal he was a medical doctor. Like other doctors in Sudan, he had received many cryptic calls and text messages that made him fear for his life.
