Patients at Aweil Teaching Hospital in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state complained of lack of medical staff at the hospital. The hospital had only one doctor last week and has turned away patients seeking treatment for urinary fistula.

According to patients, all the surgeries at the hospital and the maternity ward have been postponed due to lack of doctors and medical instruments. A medical source at the hospital confirmed that there is a shortage of doctors with only one doctor working at the hospital over the last week, forcing hundreds of patients to return to their homes without receiving treatment.

Zainab Abdullah, a midwife working with UNFPA at Aweil Teaching Hospital, stated that there is a sharp rise in the rate of urinary fistula especially among young new mothers.

She said that the hospital has 67 fistula cases and they have taken only 20 women for treatment in Wau. Abdullah appealed to the infected women to go immediately to Wau town in Western Bahr el Ghazal state for operations and treatment at the hands of Ethiopian and Kenyan doctors who are supposed to provide treatement for all types of fistula in Greater Bahr al-Ghazal states.