Port Sudan/Darfur, Sudan, 27 August 2024 – Today marks 500 days since Sudan began enduring its worst humanitarian crisis yet. This is a shameful moment for international humanitarian organisations and donors, who for over 16 months have failed to provide an adequate response to the country’s escalating medical needs, from catastrophic child malnutrition to widespread disease outbreaks. Heavy restrictions from both warring parties have drastically limited capacities, including ours, to deliver aid, says Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), starting from the capital Khartoum on April 15, 2023, has been raging across multiple parts of the country, triggering an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Sudan. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people killed and injured. Between April 2023 and June 2024, MSF treated 11,985 war-wounded at supported hospitals. The violence has created the world’s largest displacement crisis: over 10 million people, or one in five people in Sudan, have been forced to flee their homes, many of them facing repeated displacement, according to the UN.
As political solutions for the crisis stagger, malnutrition rises amid increasing food prices and a lack of humanitarian supplies. Beyond the catastrophic situation in North Darfur’s Zamzam camp, MSF’s inpatient therapeutic feeding centres in other areas of Darfur like El Geneina, Nyala and Rokero are full of patients, and the same applies to refugee camps where we operate in eastern Chad. Since the onset of the war until June 2024, we treated 34,751 acutely malnourished children in Sudan.
“Today children are dying of malnutrition across Sudan. The help they most urgently need is barely coming and, when it does, it is often blocked,” says Tuna Turkmen, MSF Emergency Coordinator in Darfur. “In July, for instance, trucks with MSF supplies in two different locations in Darfur were blocked from reaching their destination. Two trucks were held by RSF, and one was seized by unknown armed men.”
The situation is also challenging in east and central Sudan. “In south Khartoum, MSF has been blocked from bringing medical supplies and international staff to hospitals for many months. It is becoming increasingly difficult to provide the medical care our patients need, including maternity and emergency care,” said Claire San Filippo, MSF Emergency Coordinator for Sudan.