In the Darfur region, where the violence has taken an ethnic dimension, most health facilities are no longer functioning due to the lack of critical supplies and medical staff. There is a widespread shortage of supplies such as vaccines, nutrition commodities, and HIV medications, as well as a poor disease surveillance system. At the same time, overcrowded and dire conditions in gathering sites and camps exacerbate the risk of disease outbreaks, while people with chronic conditions are struggling to access the care and medicines they need to survive.
Sudan
In April 2023, intense fighting broke out across Sudan, including Khartoum and the Darfur region. MSF teams are providing medical care for people affected by this latest surge of conflict and other crises.
Shocking number of maternal and child deaths in South Darfur, Sudan
September 24, 2024 — One of the worst maternal and child health emergencies in the world is unfolding in South Darfur, Sudan, according to a report released by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today. In Driven to oblivion: The toll of conflict and neglect on the health of mothers and children in South Darfur, MSF explains how pregnant, birthing, and postpartum women as well as children are dying from preventable conditions as health needs far exceed what MSF can respond to.
Read more
Our work in Sudan
After a bloody war erupted in Sudan in 2023, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) quickly adapted activities to respond, despite security and administrative challenges.
What's happening in Sudan?
On April 15, 2023, intense, unexpected fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. It plunged the entire country into chaos as the violence spread nationwide, leading to tens of thousands of casualties and uprooting millions of people from their homes.
The health system, already fragile before the conflict started, is struggling to cope with existing and emerging medical needs while facing overwhelming pressure from the destruction and looting of health facilities, acute shortages of utilities and medical supplies, and under-resourced health staff who are overworked without pay. As a result, people face significant challenges accessing medical care throughout the country. By the time many are able to access care, their condition has become critical.
How we're helping in Sudan
From 2019, following the ousting of the former president, Omar al-Bashir, our teams had been expanding medical activities across Sudan amid a volatile transition, working in 11 states. The country already had large pockets of displaced people as well as refugees from neighboring countries. When the war began, we refocused our response to try to meet the needs of those affected.
The MSF-supported South Hospital in El Fasher, North Darfur, received 136 wounded patients in the first 48 hours of the fighting. Patients had to be treated on the floors and in the corridors due to the lack of space, in what was originally only a small maternity facility with no surgical capacity. In the following weeks, we transformed it into a hospital with an operating theater and emergency room, with the capacity to respond to mass casualty events.
How we're helping
879,100
Outpatient consultations
327,100
Malaria cases treated
74,300
People admitted to hospitals
65,800
Vaccinations against measles in response to an outbreak
14,100
Births assisted
10,300
Surgical interventions
*Data from MSF International Activity Report 2023