The Sudan Founding Alliance, known as TASIS, has ordered Médecins Sans Frontières France to suspend its operations in Tawila, North Darfur, health sources said on Saturday.
The TASIS government had previously suspended the activities of MSF France across areas under its control, including most of Darfur and parts of Kordofan. The decision followed the organisation’s acknowledgment that some of its employees had been implicated in sexual violence against Sudanese refugee women in eastern Chad.
Sources told Darfur24 that MSF France had been instructed to stop its activities in Tawila and had been given until July 18 to hand over the town’s main hospital to the Sudanese Agency for Relief and Humanitarian Operations.
The agency is affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces.
Most of the organisation’s international staff have already withdrawn from Tawila, the sources said. Only the country director, medical team coordinator, human resources coordinator and a small number of other foreign employees reportedly remain to oversee the transfer of operations to local staff.
Intensive consultations are continuing between the TASIS government, MSF France and United Nations agencies in an effort to ease tensions and protect the interests of civilians affected by the war, according to the sources.
MSF France is among the most important humanitarian organisations operating in Tawila, providing healthcare services and distributing non-food assistance to thousands of displaced people who fled fighting in El Fasher.
Officials at displacement sites in Tawila warned in June that suspending the organisation’s activities could severely affect healthcare services available to displaced communities.
Tawila, which is controlled by the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid Mohamed Nur, has become one of Sudan’s largest displacement centres. The area currently hosts an estimated 707,000 displaced people, most of whom fled El Fasher.
