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Illustration of fightings in Khartoum, Sudan

Conflict in Sudan

Last updated on 8 November 2024.

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.

People across large parts of Sudan, especially in Darfur, 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 11 million people have been displaced, including nearly 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.

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 11 out of the 18 states in the country. Our 1,400 Sudanese staff and 200 international staff currently work in and/or support 21 hospitals and 12 basic healthcare facilities or clinics. We also provide healthcare in mobile clinics in two camps.

In Sudan, MSF teams:

  • Provide emergency medical treatment, including surgeries, for war wounded and non-war related injuries.
  • Run mobile clinics for displaced people.
  • 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 severe acute malnutrition.
  • Conduct vaccination campaigns.

 

A map of Sudan highlighting MSF's medical activities as of November 2024.
MSF medical activities in Sudan, November 2024.

MSF emergency response in Sudan (January-September 2024)

MSF’s response in bordering countries

Map of MSF Regional Response in Sudan in July 2024
Map of MSF Regional Response in Sudan in July 2024

Chad

Over 899,000 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 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 820,000 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, Bulukat and Twic to provide the refugees and returnees with healthcare services through mobile clinics and hospitals.

 
Girl Skull X-Ray
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One in six war-wounded patients at south Khartoum hospital are children

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Displaced from Al-Hasahisa camp, Zalingei, Sudan to an abandoned and looted bank.
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Malnutrition in Zamzam camp, North Darfur
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Last hospital in El Fasher risks closure during intensive bombardment on the city

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Bullet hole caused by shooting in the operating room of the Zalingei teaching hospital, Central Darfur state, Sudan.
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El Geneina Teaching Hospital in West Darfur
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MSF report reveals catastrophic toll of ‘a war on people’ in Sudan

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