A Sudanese doctor who criticised the army for diverting aid from the World Health Organization to a hospital it has converted into a barracks has been arrested by intelligence officers.
Alaaeldin Nugud, a surgeon who is well known locally, was taken from his home in Omdurman’s al-Manar neighbourhood on Saturday. He had previously told the Saudi-owned al-Hadath TV station about how aid was being diverted by the army from those who needed it.
“A WHO shipment arrived in Port Sudan and the army got hold of it,” Nugud said. “They took it to the army hospital in Omdurman, but when doctors arrived to transport it to other facilities they were denied entry.” He said doctors were told the hospital had become a barracks.
Nugud’s wife, Ridab Idres, who has fled to Egypt with their daughter, said he was taken by armed plainclothes officers and that his younger brother was beaten up. “They took all his library, computer, an iPad, mobile phone and him,” she said, adding that she believed he was being targeted because of his activism.
The Sudanese American Physicians Association, an organisation for Sudanese doctors in the US, called for his release in a tweet that described the targeting of doctors as “a feature, not a bug, of the horrific crisis” in Sudan.
On Tuesday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said 17,000 metric tonnes of food aid had been lost to looting since the start of the fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, in mid-April.
Sudan was already poverty-stricken before the war, with a third of its 45 million people relying on aid. Entire districts of the capital, Khartoum, no longer have running water, electricity is available for only a few hours a week, and three-quarters of hospitals in combat zones are out of service.
The WFP has been distributing food and other aid in places such as Omdurman, which lies on the west bank of the Nile opposite Khartoum. On a recent trip to Omdurman’s Ombadah 18 neighbourhood, the Guardian saw people fighting over a delivery of the nutrient-rich cereal grain sorghum.
Khalid Osman, the WFP’s acting deputy country director in Sudan, said: “We appeal to all parties involved to prioritise the safety of humanitarian workers and assets, enabling us to continue our life-saving work.”
The majority of hospitals in the tri-city area encompassing Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri have been shut to the public. Many have been occupied by the RSF, which was one of the reasons the army gave for suspending its participation in peace talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday.
The development was a blow to the US and Saudi Arabia, which have been mediating between the two sides.
Brig Nabil Abdalla, a spokesperson for the Sudanese armed forces, told the Associated Press that the move was a protest against the RSF’s “repeated violations” of a humanitarian ceasefire, including their continued occupation of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in Khartoum.
Abdalla said the military wanted to ensure that the truce’s terms were fully implemented before discussing further steps. Responding to the military’s move, the RSF said it still “unconditionally backs the Saudi-US initiative”.
Associated Press contributed to this report
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