Khartoum, 26 March 2013 —Following recent violence in Jebel Amir, North Darfur state, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supported El Seraif hospital by providing urgent medical care to 121 wounded people, including two children. MSF was the only international organization to remain in the area during the fighting.

Working with the Sudanese Ministry of Health, MSF medical teams have treated 121 wounded people in El Seraif hospital since 8 February. Sixty-one of the patients have since been discharged. MSF teams also facilitated the transfer of 50 of the most severely wounded to El Fasher teaching hospital in the capital of North Darfur.

“MSF’s emergency team, working with Ministry of Health teams, performed 15 surgeries to gunshot-wounded patients during the recent violence from 21 to 23 February,” said Fernando Medina, MSF’s head of mission in Sudan. “Despite an unstable situation, we decided to stay in El Seraif to support emergency care.” MSF also donated emergency medical supplies and drugs to El Seraif hospital and distributed high-calorie, vitamin-fortified food donated by other agencies to some 9,600 children to help prevent malnutrition.

MSF supported several emergency responses in Sudan in 2012, donating household items and clean drinking water to communities affected by floods in July in Al-Gedaref and Sennar states. In December 2012 and February 2013 MSF supported health authorities in vaccinating more than 850,000 people against yellow fever in North and Central Darfur states. Joint medical teams also treated 324 patients suspected of having yellow fever.

Currently MSF works in various locations in North Darfur, running clinics in Tawila and Dar Zaghawa and providing a range of services in Ministry of Health facilities and through community health networks.