Interview with Dr. Tom Catena, Physician-Surgeon, Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel, South Kordofan (Nuba Mountains), Sudan

Abstract

The following interview of Dr. Tom Catena by Samuel Totten was largely conducted in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. Catena, a US citizen with a medical degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has what one can aptly describe as legendary status in the Nuba Mountains. He is the only physician-surgeon at the only hospital in the Nuba Mountains. Due to the fact that he cares for anyone who shows up at Mother Mercy Hospital in Gidel, he has seen up-close the human impact of the bombs the government of Sudan has dropped almost daily on the civilians of the Nuba Mountains since June 2011, as well as the impact of civilians being forced off their farms due to the aerial bombings—that run the entire gamut from malnutrition to starvation. His thoughts on the current crisis in the Nuba Mountains are fascinating and insightful.