The current situation
Large parts of Sudan have experienced ongoing violence, including intense urban warfare, gunfire, shelling and airstrikes. MSF teams report that hospitals are overwhelmed, and in some areas, people are unable or too afraid to get to facilities because the fighting is too intense and/or the facilities have been damaged in the fighting. This means that many people are cut off from medical care at a time when they need it most.
Many people, including healthcare workers, are trapped. Due to the ongoing violence and fear that they will be risking their safety, many cannot reach any of the small number of health facilities that are still functional and open.
Access to basic medical services has been a major issue for the majority of people living in Sudan due to recurrent violence, conflict, the dire economic situation, under-resourcing, lack of medical supplies, brain drain of medical personnel, and costs of healthcare. The decline in funding and the freeze on international aid has caused direct and indirect consequences, such as vaccination ruptures, increased food insecurity and malnutrition among young children. An estimated 50,000 acutely malnourished children have had their treatment disrupted due to the conflict, according to UNOCHA.
According to UNHCR one million people have been displaced by almost five weeks of fighting in Sudan. Around a quarter of a million have crossed borders into neighbouring countries. The rest are displaced within Sudan. Refugees have streamed into Sudan's neighbours, including Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan – countries that are facing their own, poorly funded, humanitarian crises. Egypt has so far received the highest number of Sudanese refugees with around 110,000.