Sudan: "300,000 fled in 72 hrs with little to survive on. Most in makeshift shelters with no food. We're giving relief items tomorrow in Sennar & Gedaref. But we've little left. This is catastrophic". -Will Carter, NRC

UN is saying up to 300,000 people have left Gezira state since the RSF advance began on Friday, mostly to states that are already full to capacity.

300,000 people fled in 72 hours.
There's so little for them to survive on; most live in makeshift shelters with no food.
We're finishing needs assessments & starting distributions of relief items tomorrow in Sennar, then Gedaref. But we've little left.

This is catastrophic. https://t.co/CsM2cikhQ9 pic.twitter.com/CR3kRgmEd3

— William Carter (@WillCarter_NRC) December 18, 2023

END

Sudan: Vaccine hero on front lines uses auto rickshaw

For the past 11 years, immunisation specialist Ibtisam Abdullah Altayeb has been protecting children in Sudan from vaccine-preventable diseases. When armed conflict broke out between Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Response Forces on April 15, her job got a lot more complicated. Read more.

Article at Forbes - www.forbes.com

UNICEF USABRANDVOICE| Paid Program

Written by Proscovia Nakibuuka Mbonye

Published Thursday 29 June 2023, 12:42pm EDT - here is a full copy:

Vaccination Hero On the Front Lines In Sudan

On June 5, 2023, Ibtisam Abdullah Altayeb, a UNICEF-supported immunization specialist at Gezirat Al-Feel Health Center in Sudan, vaccinates a child at a shelter for displaced people. © UNICEF/UN0856032/MOHAMDEEN

For the past 11 years, immunization specialist Ibtisam Abdullah Altayeb has been protecting children in Sudan from vaccine-preventable diseases. When armed conflict broke out between Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Response Forces on April 15, 2023, her job got a lot more complicated.

Since April, the conflict has pushed an estimated 2.2 million people — including 1 million children — out of their homes in search of safety. Some are displaced inside Sudan, others have fled to neighboring countries.

On June 5, 2023, UNICEF-supported vaccinator Ibtisam Abdullah Altayeb jumps into an auto rickshaw with a cold storage bag full of vaccines, en route to a center for families displaced by violence in Sudan.© UNICEF/UN0856025/MOHAMDEEN

Crowded living conditions leave displaced children particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks

An important part of protecting children from harm is making sure they are up to date on all their vaccinations. But for displaced mothers and caretakers unfamiliar with their new surroundings, finding health facility locations and figuring out which services are offered where can be a high hurdle.

So Ibtisam and her health worker colleagues are innovating to reach displaced children and those in host communities through a coordinated weekly approach: home visits. 

They are determined to reach every child with lifesaving vaccines, despite the challenging times. And nothing will stop them.

Ibtisam Abdullah Altayeb, a vaccinator at Gezirat Al-Feel Health Center in Sudan, arrives at a shelter for displaced people to provide vaccination services for children who have fled violence with their families.© UNICEF/UN0856036/MOHAMDEEN

Home visits ensure every child receives lifesaving vaccines

On a Wednesday morning, Ibtisam arrives at her work station. According to the schedule, this day is designated for immunization outreach targeting displaced children. Her first stop: the Ishgaddi gathering point.

Children and families are arriving daily, taking refuge in places like Madani. Many are living in schools and institutions also known as gathering points, while some are hosted by relatives. The locations have been mapped out by the health workers for easy reach of eligible children, and Ibtisam and her team have created a schedule indicating who goes where and when.

“These days, we have many people arriving, first from Al Damazine and now from Khartoum. We don’t discriminate while offering our services. Every child has the right to vaccination,” she says.

Ibtisam Abdullah Altayeb loads vaccines into a cooler box before heading out to protect more children from vaccine-preventable diseases. © UNICEF/UN0856018/MOHAMDEEN

Some families have their children’s immunization records, others come empty-handed

Vaccines and other supplies are prepped for delivery and Ibtisam is ready to head out to the communities.

“Some families came with health cards containing all the immunization records of their child, which is always helpful," she says. "Others came empty-handed, and some have never been immunized.”

“We don’t say no to anyone. We work together on an immunization plan ... Today I am taking vaccines for measles, meningitis and yellow fever. There are several new mothers in the camp,” she asserts.

Ibtisam Abdullah Altayeb, a vaccinator at Gezirat Al-Feel Health Center, waits for mothers to bring their children for vaccination at a shelter for displaced people. © UNICEF/UN0856026/MOHAMDEEN

UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Health are working together to maintain an uninterrupted supply chain of vaccines

On Sundays and Tuesdays, Ibtisam runs static vaccination clinics at the health facility; on Mondays she conducts outreach sessions for displaced communities in camps and shelters.

Given the significant increase in the number of arrivals, the health facility occasionally experiences reduced vaccine stocks. But UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Health are addressing these challenges through maintenance of an uninterrupted supply chain of vaccines in 12 states, including Gezira state, where Madani is located.

Using the quickest means of transport to reach the children with vaccines safely tucked into a cooler box that keeps them safe and effective, Ibtisam heads out to the gathering point with several children under 5.

In no time, the mothers with their children congregate around her.

Ibtisam Abdullah Altayeb shares vaccine information with mothers and caregivers who have brought their children for vaccination at a shelter for displaced people in Sudan.© UNICEF/UN0856033/MOHAMDEEN

Outreach programs address vaccine hesitancy

For several years, Ibtisam has witnessed vaccine refusals resulting from myths shared by mothers and caregivers. Today her sessions begin with health education to demystify these myths and rumors. She shares detailed information on all the vaccines a child needs to stay healthy and when the vaccines should be administered, and ends with the overall importance of vaccination to protect kids from killer childhood illnesses.

“We try to educate the mothers, according to their level of understanding. Sometimes we use posters for visual illustration,” she says.

Mothers are her primary audiences because she believes they are key decision makers on childhood vaccinations in their households. “Sometimes fathers oppose immunization. So, we educate the mothers to convince their husbands on the importance of immunizing their children.”

Original: https://www.forbes.com/sites/unicefusa/2023/06/29/vaccination-hero-on-the-front-lines-in-sudan/

[Ends]

Sudan crisis: Actress Asia Abdelmajid one of Sudan's first theatre stars killed in Khartoum cross-fire

Report at BBC News
By Zeinab Mohammed Salih 
Dated 4 May 2023 - full copy:

Sudan crisis: Actress Asia Abdelmajid killed in Khartoum cross-fire

IMAGE SOURCE, ALFAITORY FAMILY

Image caption, Asia Abdelmajid was one of Sudan's first theatre stars

The death of a well-known actress, killed in cross-fire in the north of Khartoum, has shocked residents of Sudan's capital. But she is just one of many civilians still in the city who are paying with their lives as the fighting continues to rage despite the latest ceasefire.

Zeinab Mohammed Salih is a journalist living in Omdurman, next to the Sudanese capital - she describes daily life for people caught up in the conflict.

__________________________

Asia Abdelmajid, who was born in 1943, was famous for her theatre performances - first coming to prominence in a production of the play Pamseeka 58 years ago.

It was put on at the national theatre in Omdurman to mark the anniversary of Sudan's first revolution against a coup leader. She was considered a pioneer of the stage - and the country's first professional stage actress, later retiring to become a teacher.

Her family say she was buried within hours of her shooting on Wednesday morning in the grounds of a kindergarten where she had been most recently working. It was too dangerous to take her to a cemetery.

It is not clear who fired the shot that killed her in the clashes in the northern suburb of Bahri. But paramilitary fighters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are ensconced in their bases in residential areas across the city, continue to battle the army, which tends to attack from the air.

The RSF says the military tried to deploy members of the police's special force unit on Wednesday - but the group alleges it rebuffed their ground offensive.

The UN's top aid official has warned that the "will to end the fight still was not there" after speaking to Sudan's rival military leaders.

With a military jet flying overhead as I write and WhatsApp messages arriving with more bad news of my friends caught up in the fighting, it feels like neither side is serious about ending their deadly confrontation.

"I was sitting with my brother in the sitting room when we heard the loud noise of the shell and the dust coming from the kitchen - we thought the whole wall had just collapsed," my friend Mohamed el-Fatih, a fellow journalist, told me.

His apartment in Burri, east of the army's headquarters in central Khartoum, was bombed on Monday night.

"My neighbours upstairs and downstairs were terrified and screaming, we had to evacuate immediately to another area."

His suburb is completely occupied by the RSF and rockets are often fired from the military headquarters where it is believed Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army chief, and his aides are staying.

My friend Hiba el-Rayeh has also just been in contact in great distress after her mother Sohair Abdallah el-Basher, a respected lawyer, and two uncles were killed last Thursday by a shell that came from a bridge over the River Nile directed towards the Presidential Palace. They were living close by.

Her uncles had actually come to help them escape during one of last week's so-called humanitarian ceasefires.

In another suburb called Khartoum 2, to the west of the military headquarters, estate agent Omer Belal has decided to stay and guard his home.

The 46-year-old has sent his family to a safer district while he and a few other men in the neighbourhood seek to protect their properties from the looting and armed robbery that is occurring across the city.

People's houses, banks, factories, supermarkets and clothing shops are all being ransacked.

Another friend, who asked not to be named, spent five days in a restaurant in Khartoum 2 when the battles first broke out on 15 April.

He managed to escape during the first shaky ceasefire. First he went to the north of the city then decided to go overland to Ethiopia, a trip that took five days.

Now in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, he messaged to say he had seen piles of bodies as he left Khartoum 2.

Basil Omer, a medic and volunteer, described fleeing his flat when it was shelled in al-Manshiya, east of the army headquarters.

"We spent three days only sleeping on the ground. In the end it was impossible to stay there, I sent my children and their mother to el-Gezira state with my in-laws and I went to stay with my parents in Khartoum North," he said.

I live in Omdurman, regarded as one of the safest places in town - though bullets are constantly flying through people's windows.

A couple of days ago my neighbour was hit by a bullet in her leg while she slept following an airstrike, which have been happening about two times every hour. Although there were fewer strikes on Wednesday.

The Sudanese factions have agreed to a new seven-day truce starting on Thursday, but given that they are currently meant to be observing a humanitarian ceasefire and previous ones have broken down - none of us are holding our breath.

Each day we grow more despondent. Most residents of Khartoum feel abandoned and at a loss that the international community seems unable to exert their influence to bring the generals to heel, given they managed to get them to agree to share power with civilians in 2019 after long-time leader Omar al-Bashir was ousted.

IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS

Image caption, Central Khartoum has been devastated by almost three weeks of fighting

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65467934

Condolences. God bless. Rest in Peace. + + +