Sudan's healthcare system is overwhelmed and at the point of collapse after nearly two years of brutal conflict and a deadly combination of funding shortages and lack of essential medicine, health workers have told Islamic Relief staff.
Doctors and aid workers in eastern Sudan, which has been inundated with families displaced by the conflict, describe desperate conditions in hospitals, with three or four patients sharing a single bed and others dying on the floor or sent away as medical staff struggle to cope with the huge numbers of sick and wounded. Conditions in hospitals in other parts of the country are the same or even worse.
Mohammed Ali, a security coordinator with Islamic Relief who has travelled across much of eastern Sudan for his work, said:
“The medical situation in Sudan is disastrous. Thousands of people are dying and the medical system has collapsed. In Kassala state in eastern Sudan there are hospitals where three or four patients per hospital bed would be a luxury. Patients there stay on the floor, which is overcrowded with people, and some of them are vomiting from cholera. In many cases critically ill people are turned away and just die.
“My mother passed away. I looked everywhere for a hospital bed for her in Port Sudan when she was ill and couldn’t find one. There was no space at five or six hospitals before she could be admitted to an emergency medical room. This is in Port Sudan, which is among Sudan’s best and wealthiest cities, so imagine what it’s like in the worst conflict-affected places like Khartoum and Darfur. In the villages it is even worse - you can forget about healthcare completely there."
Doctors and aid workers are doing all they can to stem the crisis, but the ongoing violence and mass displacement means needs are outstripping resources.
In the eastern city of Gedaref, Dr Abdalbasit Alameen Mohamed Adallah, the director of Al Gedaref Teaching Hospital, told Islamic Relief that the number of displaced people seeking treatment has increased at double or triple the rate that the hospital can find new beds, despite doctors' best efforts.
He said: “The health situation is very serious. The existing hospitals take all of the burden [from displacement as a result of the conflict]. After recent displacements the number of patients has increased many times. Two or three patients can be treated in one bed, some treated on the couch, and some we just give them the treatment and let them go if they have a place to stay. People are begging for prescriptions.
"Lately some patients even have no place to go, so the responsibility is getting bigger every day. We tried to bring more beds, but the numbers were doubling or tripling every day. The main problem is that the patients are already displaced and they lost everything. They came looking for food and a place to stay. We are providing medical care in the ER for all patients but there is lack of medications such as infusion, laboratory tests, and for every aspect of treatment.”
In conflict-affected areas of Sudan, more than two thirds of all main hospitals are now out of service. Those that are still operating are at risk of closure because of significant shortages of medical staff, medication, medical supplies, water, and electricity.1 Over 120 health workers have been killed, and there have been at least 542 attacks on Sudan’s healthcare system since the war started.2 The displacement of 14.9 million people in Sudan, with over 24 million acutely hungry and famine spreading, has added further strain to the infrastructure.
Violence, disrupted supply chains, looting, economic degradation, and corruption are reducing the amount of medicine available in Sudan. Doctors have fled the country amid violence, attacks, displacement, destroyed infrastructure and reduced pay. An Islamic Relief aid worker reported their relative who was a doctor in Sudan was paid just $100 per month and has now left to live in Dubai.
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Dr Abdalbasit continued: “There has been a systematic destruction of all health facilities across Sudan. Most of the medical staff have themselves been displaced and many hospitals destroyed completely, resulting in no medical services. In Gedaref we took the biggest burden since the very start of the war from the displacement of Khartoum and Al Jazirah state, where half of the population displaced to Gedaref including the elders, children, and people with chronic diseases. It's a huge number.”
Islamic Relief is supporting hospitals, health clinics and malnutrition centres in locations across Sudan. Since April 2023 it has provided medicine and supplies to 52 hospitals and clinics in Al Jazirah, Central Darfur, Gedaref, and Sennar states. The organisation has delivered aid including food, shelter, water, and other items to over 1 million people in Sudan since the war erupted on 15 April 2023, including in Port Sudan, Gedaref, North Kordofan, West Kordofan, Wad Madani, Sennar, Omdurman, Blue Nile, and central Darfur.
