HQ Team
September 9, 2024: Sudan’s civil war is a “nightmare” and the World Health Organization has called on the international community to broker peace and provide the necessary short and long-term aid for the largest internal displacement of people in the world today.
“The international community has seemingly forgotten about Sudan and is paying little heed to the conflict tearing it apart, with serious repercussions for the region,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Port Sudan after talking to Sudanese leaders in the country.
“We are calling on the world to wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through. … We must not fail the people of Sudan.”
Violent clashes erupted between the two warring factions in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital on April 15, 2023. The Sudanese armed forces, loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, are fighting with a collection of militia, the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces, under the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.
Both factions are vying for control over the Sudanese state and its resources, leading to confrontations in urban areas, particularly in Khartoum and Darfur.
‘Life-saving aid’
The talks with Sudanese leaders, including the federal minister for health, centred on the devastating impact of the ongoing conflict and the critical need for unhindered humanitarian access to ensure that life-saving aid reaches all those in need, regardless of their location, according to a WHO statement.
“That is why I have come to Sudan. I am here, with my sister Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Director, to meet with the wide range of partners involved in the response, and to call for urgent and scaled-up action to provide more resources, more access to humanitarian aid, and more security to health workers and the patients they serve.”
Sudan’s health system has been devastated by the conflict, with more than 100 attacks on healthcare facilities in the over 500 days of conflict leading to significant casualties among health workers and patients.
The conflict has so far killed more than 20,000 people, which is an underestimate, displaced over 10 million people inside the country, and forced another 2 million to flee to neighbouring countries. This is the largest internal displacement of people in the world today.
Health workers flee
The insecurity has forced many health workers to flee with their families, worsening the shortage of medical staff. This exodus has further weakened the health system’s ability to provide essential services, leaving many Sudanese without access to critical care.
Currently, 3.6 million children are acutely malnourished, with 730,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The ongoing conflict has exacerbated food insecurity, making it increasingly difficult to deliver essential nutrition and health services to vulnerable populations.
The daily risks include the threat of gender-based violence, particularly against the estimated four million women and girls at risk due to the ongoing conflict.
“Sudan’s health infrastructure is in ruins, with many facilities destroyed, looted, or abandoned. To rebuild and stabilize the health system, there must be significant investment not only in restoring facilities but also in strengthening the health workforce,” Dr Balkhy said.
“Our priority is to ensure that every Sudanese in need receives the assistance they require, wherever they are in the country. This will only be possible through sustained peace, substantial investment in health infrastructure, and full, unimpeded access for humanitarian efforts across Sudan by whatever means needed, including both cross-line and cross-border from neighbouring countries,” she said.
‘Crisis demands collective response’
“The only way forward is peace, for which the warring parties themselves have the greatest responsibility, with support from the international community. The world must not look away—this crisis demands our immediate and collective response.”
The conflict has left some 25 million people — more than half of the country’s population — in dire need of humanitarian aid. Of these, 14.7 million require urgent assistance for a range of life-saving support, for which the humanitarian sector has requested $2.7 billion, which is less than half of the funding required, according to the WHO.
WHO’s current funding gap for the Sudan health crisis is concerning, with only 24% received out of the total WHO ask, severely limiting the ability to address the crisis.
