Sudan’s Humanitarian Crisis: Delivering Healthcare in One of the World’s Largest Emergencies 

For over three years, Sudan has been torn apart by a brutal civil war, displacing 14 million people as families face unimaginable violence and persecution. Resource supply networks, livelihoods and healthcare systems are collapsing under the strain. Doctors of the World’s teams are responding in the west.

Since fighting broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the toll on Sudan’s health system has been unprecedented. Millions have been displaced, healthcare services are stretched to breaking point, and families have been fleeing to camps in the west, struggling to survive without reliable access to food, clean water or medical care.

Healthcare in Sudan is under immense pressure 

Today, 33.7 million people across Sudan need humanitarian assistance. 

The collapse of food supply systems has left millions facing acute food insecurity. Nearly five million children and pregnant or breastfeeding women are estimated to be suffering from malnutrition. Additionally, women and girls continue to face an extreme risk of sexual violence, exploitation and abuse throughout the conflict, particularly within overcrowded displacement camps where protection services are limited. 

Across conflict-affected regions, approximately 80% of health facilities are no longer functioning. Women are unable to give birth safely. Survivors of sexual violence are often left without emergency medical treatment, psychological support or protection services.  

Without functioning healthcare systems, vaccination programmes, or adequate sanitation, diarrhoea, malaria and cholera continue to spread through communities already weakened by malnourishment and displacement. During the rainy season, the threat of cholera outbreaks becomes even greater, placing additional pressure on the few remaining health services.

Responding in Dar Omo 

In western Sudan, Doctors of the World has taken over the management of a primary healthcare clinic in Dar Omo displacement camp, which shelters around 45,000 internally displaced people. Located in a remote area of Darfur, the camp is now a refuge to thousands of families who have fled repeated waves of violence. 

Our doctors and nurses remain active, delivering medicine, sanitation, and aid provisions to the populations living there. More than 80 national staff keep the clinic operational, providing approximately 200 primary healthcare consultations every day. Our teams diagnose and treat infection and disease, identify acute malnutrition and deliver routine vaccinations to control the epidemics.  

The clinic provides sexual and reproductive healthcare, including maternal and newborn services, antenatal and postnatal care, and emergency support for survivors of sexual violence. More than 1,700 women have received support. Alongside medical treatment, survivors are supported through integrated services that include psychosocial care and referrals for legal assistance, helping women begin to rebuild their lives after violence. 

Sudan’s humanitarian crisis is unrelenting, but so is our medical work on the ground. With your help, we can continue restoring healthcare for the communities surviving this humanitarian crisis.  

As conflict continues to displace families and place enormous pressure on the country’s remaining health services, the need for humanitarian assistance has never been greater. Doctors of the World UK is committed to delivering life-saving healthcare to Sudan’s communities, devastated by crisis and conflict.