Conflict in Sudan

Last updated on 18 September 2026.

On 15 April 2023, intense fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and across most of Sudan. Since then, the conflict has killed and injured thousands of people.

The war in Sudan is a war on people. Across large parts of Sudan, and especially in the Darfur and Kordofans regions, people have experienced ongoing violence, including intense urban warfare, gunfire, shelling, and airstrikes. Our teams are treating patients with injuries caused by explosions, bullets, and stabbings. Healthcare workers and facilities have been attacked and looted.

Nearly 14 million people have been forcibly displaced since the conflict began, including over 4.5 million who have sought safety in neighbouring countries, according to OCHA. Displaced people’s camps lack adequate healthcare and humanitarian aid. There are catastrophic levels of malnutrition, with OCHA estimating that 5 million children under five years old, and 3.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women, are in need of nutrition assistance. Disease outbreaks, including cholera and measles, are overwhelming already fragile health services.

This is all taking place while the World Health Organization estimates that more than one third of health facilities are non-functional in the country. With very few international aid organisations on the ground, the humanitarian response is far from adequate. Restrictions imposed on humanitarian organisations by the Sudanese authorities further isolate people in need of assistance.

People’s suffering in Sudan is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a political failure. The humanitarian response is underfunded, deprioritised, and stalled by a lack of political will — both internationally and within Sudan. Sudan needs the world to act now, not later.

MSF’s response in Sudan

In Sudan, MSF is present in ten out of 18 states. Our colleagues currently run two hospitals and two clinics, as well as work in and/or support 13 hospitals, 18 basic healthcare facilities, and various clinics and mobile clinic sites.

In Sudan, MSF teams:

• Provide emergency medical treatment, including surgeries, for war wounded and non-war related injuries.
• Respond to disease outbreaks.
• Provide maternal and paediatric healthcare
• Offer water and sanitation services.
• Donate medicines and medical supplies to healthcare facilities, and provide incentives, training, and logistical support to Ministry of Health staff.
• Treat children and pregnant women with malnutrition both at-home and in-hospital.
• Conduct vaccination campaigns.
• Distribute food and water in camps for internally displaced people.

Between January and July 2026, MSF teams helped provide:

• 403,793 outpatient consultations
• 72,303 emergency room consultations
• 69,076 participants in group mental health sessions
• 14,838 births assisted
• 1,827 consultations for sexual violence

Assisting in neighbouring countries

The United Nations estimates that approximately 4.3 million people who have been displaced by the conflict in Sudan have fled to neighbouring countries such as Chad, South Sudan, Egypt and the Central African Republic. This huge displacement of people has had significant impacts on host countries, where many were already struggling to access essentials prior to the conflict in Sudan.

What we need in Sudan

1. Attacks must stop now. The warring parties cannot continue to inflict severe suffering on people by killing, raping, and attacking civilians, destroying livelihoods and infrastructure, and displacing people.
2. Safe and unhindered humanitarian access must be granted now. Every attack or obstruction against health workers and facilities, and humanitarian aid, puts lives in danger and cuts off communities from the care they need.
3. The humanitarian response must be urgently funded. The humanitarian response in Sudan is currently underfunded, deprioritised, and stalled by a lack of will both in Sudan and internationally.
4. Urgent and coordinated action is needed now to provide people with healthcare, clean water, sanitation services, and shelter. The overcrowded conditions and lack of basic services in camps in Sudan, and in those for people fleeing outside of Sudan, are delaying care and fuelling disease.
5. Urgent and coordinated action is needed to provide food, therapeutic food, and essential care for malnutrition. Widespread food insecurity is driving malnutrition among children, and more must be done to prevent deaths and long-term harm.
6. Urgent action is needed to expand the availability of secure shelters, obstetric care, and general medical and psychological care for victims and survivors of sexual violence. Sexual violence and the collapse of sexual and reproductive health services are leaving people exposed to trauma and preventable deaths.