Crisis in Sudan

“We are experiencing a violation of humanitarian principles, and the space for humanitarians to work is shrinking on a scale I've rarely seen before."

A scene of the city of Khartoum and a billowing fire in the background.

Sudan 2023 © Atsuhiko Ochiai/MSF

Alert is a quarterly magazine published by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF-USA) that features ground reporting from our work around the world. This article appears in the Summer 2023 issue (Vol. 24, no. 2), Lives Uprooted.

Since April 15, Sudan has been convulsed by intense fighting between armed groups. Teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are treating thousands of people and calling for the protection of civilians, medical personnel, and facilities. 

An MSF doctor in surgical mask, headscarf, and white vest writes a note at a mobile clinic in Wad Madani, Sudan.

Large numbers of people are fleeing Khartoum for surrounding cities like Wad Madani, where MSF runs mobile clinics in areas where displaced people gather.

2023 © Ala Kheir/MSF

Young man from Sudan with bandaged wound on cheek after being treated by MSF aid workers in Chad

Chad 2023 © Mohammad Ghannam/MSF

Many health facilities are damaged or facing shortages of supplies, cutting people off from vital medical care. Hospitals are overwhelmed, and numerous people have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety.

MSF, which runs medical projects in 10 states in Sudan, has been working to scale up medical activities since the fighting broke out. But these efforts have been hampered by violence, armed incursions, and the looting of medical facilities.

Many patients arrive at Bashair Teaching Hospital in Khartoum in response to the conflict in Sudan.

Patients arrive at the MSF-supported Bashair hospital, the only accessible hospital in southern Khartoum.

Sudan 2023 © Ala Kheir/MSF

Three MSF medical staff discuss patients at a mobile clinic in Wad Madani, Sudan.

Sudan 2023 © Ala Kheir/MSF

“We are experiencing a violation of humanitarian principles, and the space for humanitarians to work is shrinking on a scale I've rarely seen before,” said MSF emergency coordinator Jean-Nicolas Armstrong Dangelser.

MSF is urgently calling on the warring parties to ensure the safety of medical personnel and health facilities, allow safe passage of ambulances and people seeking health care, and facilitate access and unimpeded movement for humanitarian workers.

July 13 01:03 PM

Alert Summer 2023: Lives uprooted

Stories of displacement and finding safety.

Read More
A crowd of displaced people at the Bulengo IDP camp near Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.