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Looted and damaged homes in Central Darfur state, Sudan.

Conflict in Sudan

After over a year of war in Sudan, the brutal fighting and bombings have left people´s homes destroyed and looted. Central Darfur state, Sudan, April 2024.
© Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

Last updated on 21 February 2025.

On 15 April 2023, intense fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and across most of Sudan. Since then, the conflict has killed and injured thousands of people.

The war in Sudan is a war on people. Across large parts of Sudan, and especially in Darfur, people have experienced ongoing violence, including intense urban warfare, gunfire, shelling, and airstrikes. Our teams are treating patients with injuries caused by explosions, bullets, and stabbings. Healthcare workers and facilities have been attacked and looted.

An estimated 12 million people have been displaced, including over 3 million who have sought safety in Chad, Egypt and South Sudan (UNHCR). Displaced people’s camps lack adequate healthcare and humanitarian aid. There are catastrophic levels of malnutrition.

The World Health Organization estimates that 70 to 80 per cent of health facilities are non-operational. With very few international aid organisations on the ground, the humanitarian response is far from adequate. Restrictions imposed on humanitarian organisations by the Sudanese authorities further isolate people in need of assistance. 

MSF’s response in Sudan

In Sudan, MSF is present in 10 out of the 18 states in the country. Our 1,500 Sudanese staff and 200 international staff currently work in and/or support 22 hospitals and 42 basic healthcare facilities, clinics, and mobile clinic sites.

In Sudan, MSF teams:

  • Provide emergency medical treatment, including surgeries, for war wounded and non-war related injuries.
  • Respond to disease outbreaks.
  • Provide maternal and paediatric healthcare
  • Offer water and sanitation services.
  • Donate medicines and medical supplies to healthcare facilities, and provide incentives, training, and logistical support to Ministry of Health staff.
  • Treat children and pregnant women with malnutrition both at-home and in-hospital. 
  • Conduct vaccination campaigns.

 

MSF Activity Map in Sudan Dec 2024 update
Hareth Mohammed/MSF

MSF emergency response in Sudan (January-December 2024)

MSF’s response in bordering countries

Chad

Over 734,000 refugees and returnees have crossed the border from Sudan to Chad. People are living in camps in Chad and are facing difficulties securing even their most basic needs. With a lack of water, food, proper shelter, and healthcare people are suffering from diarrhoea, malnutrition, and malaria.  

MSF teams are responding in three border regions, Sila, Wadi Fira, and Ouaddaï.

In Chad, we provide basic healthcare, malnutrition screening and treatment, vaccinations, and sexual and reproductive healthcare through existing local health facilities, and mobile clinics. Our teams have also begun digging boreholes to supply camps and local communities with water. In some places, we provide refugee communities with plastic sheeting, mosquito nets and bars of soap, which are crucial to prevent the spread of malaria and diarrhoea.

South Sudan 

Since the eruption of conflict in Sudan, over 1 million people have crossed into South Sudan to seek refuge. This influx has overwhelmed the already dire humanitarian situation in the country. Our teams are running emergency activities in Renk, Abyei special administrative area and Juba to provide the refugees and returnees with healthcare services, including care for war-related injuries. After a cholera outbreak was declared in Renk, MSF teams vaccinated people in Renk, Malkal, Rubkona, and Juba, as well as in Gorom refugee camp.

 
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