Maternal Mortality On The Rise In Eastern Sudan

11 November 2010 – (Khartoum) – The federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that if preventive measures are not urgently taken by the government, maternal mortality will continue to rise in Eastern Sudan.

Minister Joseph Lual Achuil said pregnant women in Kassala have to ride on camels to get to health centers where they can deliver.

He said this on Wednesday in Khartoum during a ceremony where the Japanese government donated 10.3 million US dollars for health programs in Sudan.

[Joseph Lual Achuil]: “Pregnant women are still being carried on camels to reach them to the places where they can deliver. If that is happening, I am not a woman, but imagine a woman who has been carrying a child for nine months to be put on a camel. How comfortable will a pregnant woman be on a camel to where she can get services? Let us also look to where the sun comes. We focus so much on Darfur, I don’t regret, they need the services, but let us also give something to the people in the east. The women there need some help and if we wait, then we will have a crisis. Women there are dying on camels because they don’t have ambulances to carry them to where they can deliver.”

The donation is to support programs of vaccination, infectious diseases prevention amongst children and maternal health care throughout Sudan for the year 2011.