Mohamed Hassan al-Ta'aishi says the rehabilitated hospital can treat at least 150 children a day and that courts and the public prosecutor are working again, a year after Tasis-aligned forces took the North Darfur capital.
The prime minister of the Tasis-led Government of Peace and Unity, Mohamed Hassan al-Ta'aishi, has inaugurated a rehabilitated children's hospital in El Fasher, the North Darfur capital, saying it can now receive at least 150 children a day, The Sudan Times and Blue News reported. The opening coincided with the first anniversary of Tasis-aligned forces taking control of the city.
Al-Ta'aishi said the public prosecutor's office and three specialised courts had resumed work, that the Hajar Gaddo market was active again, and that hospitals, schools, water and food services were being restored, according to Blue News. Addressing people displaced from the city and refugees abroad, he said: "Come back to El Fasher; the city's heart is wide enough for you and for all the peoples of Sudan" (CERHA translation from Arabic).
Interior Minister Suleiman Sandal said the opening sent a message to regional and international audiences that recovery was continuing despite the destruction, and that another hospital would follow. He noted that the government had chosen to hold its second cabinet meeting in the city.
A new police headquarters
Al-Ta'aishi also opened the North Darfur police headquarters with Sandal and police chief Major General Bashir Adam Issa, The Sudan Times reported. He said a professional federal police was essential to building "a civilian state governed by law", promised spending on training, equipment, uniforms and salaries, and told officers they must protect civilians and property and enforce the law without discrimination. He said rebuilding public trust would require a fundamental change in policing, with more accountability.
Returns remain limited
The government is trying to draw people back. About 135 displaced families returned from Nyala to El Fasher last week under a voluntary programme run by the National Authority for Humanitarian Access and South Darfur's social affairs ministry, Darfur24 reported. The same outlet said some displaced families remain reluctant to return because of security conditions and reports of arrests of returnees, and some have gone to Tawila instead.
The scale of the task is large. A Yale Humanitarian Research Lab satellite study published last week found that much of the city remained empty a year after the fighting ended, Radio Dabanga reported. Al-Ta'aishi's figure for the hospital's capacity has not been independently verified, and international agencies have not yet commented on the reopening.
Image: Displaced women selling charcoal at a market in El Fasher, 2015. Roman Deckert, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.