Medical officials at the dialysis center at the Nyala Specialized Hospital in Sudan’s South Darfur State on Sunday said the facility has restarted working after it closed in early October due to fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The administrative director of the dialysis center, Hamid Musa Suleiman, told Radio Tamazuj that they resumed operations after the Medical Services Unit of the RSF rehabilitated the equipment and electricity generators and provided fuel and water to the center.
He also appealed to the government authorities and humanitarian organizations to support the center to ensure the continuity of its work.
“The center now operates two shifts a day and each shift runs for four hours,” he said.
For his part, a nurse-technician, Hussein Abdel Rahman, revealed that the center treated 10 patients on the first day and that the number of patients doubled on the second day. He said there is a shortage of medical staff and thanked the youth initiative for their efforts in cleaning the specialized hospital.
Another nurse-technician, Tahani Ahmed Mohammed, stated that the facility operates with a capacity of 17 dialysis machines distributed in different departments and appealed to qualified medical personnel to join them and participate in humanitarian work.
Meanwhile, Mahasen Ismail, who accompanied her sick father to the center, expressed joy at the resumption of work at the dialysis center which also provides free medicines. She said that after the center stopped working, she had to spend a lot of money at private health facilities.
“We were suffering from the high cost of medicines in other centers and the dialysis session was only two hours instead of the four hours at the dialysis center at Nyala Specialized Hospital where there are also free medicines.”
The dialysis center at Nyala Specialized Hospital is the largest in the Darfur region and also receives patients from the five states of Darfur and neighboring countries.
The center which had 78 patients at the time of its closure, stopped operations on 3 October after clashes erupted between the army and RSF which saw the latter take control of the town.
The center’s patients were transferred to the Nyala Turkish Hospital and neighboring states such as El Fasher in North Darfur and Al Daein in East Darfur.