In the maternity ward, eight beds were in a room so small they almost touched. They serve a population of about 70,000 people, along with 22,000 Sudanese refugees.
Doctors said 12 staffers have lost their jobs as a result of aid cuts. The majority were from the maternity department.
Amna Adam Hessen had arrived the day before, burning with fever from malaria. Her unborn child was found to be in a breech position, a discovery made late because she had missed prenatal appointments. Brought by motorbike from the refugee camp, she bled heavily during labor and lost her baby.
The next day, her mother, Salet, fanned her in the suffocating heat.
“Giving birth here is exhausting,” she said, describing the long and difficult night.
Amna writhed with fever on the bare foam mattress and cried out, “Mama, mama.”
Zanabe is worried about future cuts in humanitarian assistance affecting mothers.
Over 40% of births in Central African Republic already occur away from medical facilities, the United Nations has estimated — a traditional approach that risks otherwise preventable complications.
‘I abandoned them like that’
Clara Abessendé was one of the four midwives who lost their jobs.
She had watched as the number of women arriving daily at the hospital tripled after Sudan’s war began in early 2023, and as staffers ran out of supplies like antibiotics and malaria treatments.
“As a result, there were more cases of infant and maternal deaths,” she said. Abessendé said she feels heavy with the guilt of having to leave her job.
“The children born in my hands …I abandoned them like that,” she said.
Katidje Idrisse Tahire is one of the women she’s no longer there to help.
Tahire walked slowly through the refugee camp to fetch water, one child on her back and two others at her side. She was late in her ninth month, preparing to have another.
She said she fled Sudan four months ago on foot. At the border, armed men robbed her of everything. Her husband hasn’t been seen since they fled Darfur.
“My whole body aches,” she said. “I am very tired and unwell.”
She has no money and doesn’t know if care will be available when her baby comes.