Kass — Employees of all departments of Kas hospital participated in an open strike due to the arrest of the hospital director by security forces for a period of three days. One of the patients told Radio Dabanga that dozens of patients were surprised to find the hospital without any doctors or nurses yesterday morning.

He pointed out that eleven pregnant women, among them four IDP's, were transferred to the hospital in Nyala due to the absence of doctors and nurses. The patient added that it is most difficult for IDP's to get treatment and medicine in particular. Most of them cannot afford to go to special clinics for treatment and to buy medicine in the market.

A source from Kas revealed to Radio Dabanga that the open strike for hospital employees was caused by the arrest of Dr. Abd El-Sameea last Tuesday. He was released on Thursday morning. His arrest followed after the complaining about extending the hospital's power plant to the security services.

The security services allegedly used the hospital's electricity all day long, which weakened the electricity. In turn, this led to a complete stop of operations in the hospital. A source said that the hospital staff decided not to conduct any operations until the problem was addressed and the interference and abuse of the security services was stopped.