Last updated on 16 April 2024.
Large parts of Sudan have experienced ongoing violence, including intense urban warfare, gunfire, shelling and airstrikes. Our teams are treating war-wounded patients with catastrophic injuries caused by explosions, bullets and stabbings, and at times are responding to mass casualty incidents.
Millions in Sudan and neighbouring nations are displaced. Refugee camps, particularly those in the south and east, lack adequate healthcare and humanitarian aid. Camp conditions suffer from a lack of water and sanitation, creating potential for outbreaks. The collapse of the healthcare system presents challenges in accessing medical care due to shortages in hospital supplies and staff. Chronic diseases are being neglected, malnutrition is on the rise, and disease outbreaks are also a serious concern – especially due to the rupture of vaccines.
Sudan must not become a forgotten crisis, but the humanitarian response is far from adequate, while restrictions imposed on humanitarian actors by the Sudanese authorities further isolate people in need of healthcare.
We are currently working in 13 areas in Sudan, including Khartoum City, Khartoum North, Omdurman, Al-Jazeera State, West Darfur State, North Darfur State, Central Darfur State, South Darfur State, Al-Gedaref State, Blue Nile State, White Nile state, Kassala State and Port Sudan.
Our teams are providing both general and specialised healthcare for patients in various parts of Sudan in existing healthcare facilities and in camps for displaced people. We provide emergency treatment, perform surgeries, offer mental healthcare for survivors of gender-based sexual violence, run mobile clinics for displaced people, treat communicable and non-communicable diseases, and offer maternal and paediatric healthcare, including safe deliveries.
We also provide water and sanitation services, donate medicines and medical supplies to healthcare facilities, rehabilitate damaged, looted or relocated health facilities and offer incentive pay, training and logistical support to Ministry of Health staff.
MSF emergency response in Sudan (April 2023-April 2024)
94,330
94,33
3,804
3,804
519,407
519,407
4,445
4,445
The ongoing conflict has aggravated the risk of outbreaks and made the treatment of malnutrition, chronic illnesses, and control of outbreaks even more challenging. In Zamzam camp in North Darfur there are alarmingly high levels of malnutrition among children – for them, severe diarrhoea can be fatal. Likewise, it can lead to malnutrition in healthy children and cause a rapid deterioration in their health. We estimate that at least one child is dying every two hours in the camp.
The total number of deaths in the camp per day was also cause for extreme alarm, with a crude mortality rate of 2.5 per 10,000 people per day – around 75 people dying per day, and more than double the emergency threshold. 40 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women were also found to be malnourished – another indicator of the intense severity of the situation.
On top of the already catastrophic health crisis, the Sudan Ministry of Health declared a cholera outbreak in Gedaref, Khartoum, South Kordofan and Al Jazirah on 29 October.
In camps, people are living without proper access to water and sanitation, and in unsanitary conditions, fuelling possible outbreaks. To support patients in remote places or places where healthcare facilities have closed, our mobile clinic teams are providing general healthcare and supporting the referral system to ensure that critical patients have access to specialised healthcare.
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