Intense fighting in Sudan 

Since Saturday 15 April, intense fighting has been taking place between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan. Sudanese civilians continue to flee into neighbouring countries like Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, and CAR as a result of the ongoing battle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has reached its third week.

Over the past two years, 20,000 people have been living in subpar conditions at the Tanedba refugee camp in Sudan, one of the major camps that were established following the flood of migrants following the resurgence of violence in Ethiopia. The precariousness of their lives has only been made worse by the most recent occurrences.

How is Doctors Without Borders responding amid the intense fighting in Sudan?

Before the violence increased in April, the health system was incredibly unstable, with persistently low health indices and huge gaps between urban and rural areas, as well as between the rich and the poor. 

Due to ongoing violence and conflict, the dismal economic condition, under-resourcing, a shortage of medical supplies, the brain drain of medical professionals, and the high cost of healthcare, access to basic medical services has been a serious problem for the majority of people living in Sudan.

The following are new activities in response to the current escalation in violence:

• In the capital Khartoum, a surgical team is working in a hospital in south Khartoum, alongside Sudanese medical staff and volunteers, providing emergency and surgical care. We’re now running 24/7 operations. We have our operating theatre, post-op, we’ve built up an intensive care unit. And we’re working, day-by-day, to increase the quality of care. The team performed more than 400 surgical procedures’ since they started working in the Bashair Teaching Hospital in Khartoum on 9 May. Doctors Without Borders is working in collaboration with community volunteers – doctors and nurses but also young people from the area and the community who made a decision to try to restart this hospital after it had closed. Staff had left for their own safety. 

• While Doctors Without Borders has been able to secure enough medical supplies to work in the Bashair Teaching Hospital for now, drawing on pre-positioned stocks in Khartoum and some donations from others, stocks will run out at some point. A shipment of medical and other supplies landed in Port Sudan on 16 May 2023 and will be moved to Khartoum and another area to the south, Wad Madani, where teams are running mobile clinics for displaced people.

• In Wad Madani the capital of Al-Jazeera state, are running mobile clinics for people who have been displaced from Khartoum and supporting health facilities dealing with the influx of patients. We have also distributed hygiene and non-food items and food staples in Wad Madani, prioritising the most vulnerable who are currently sheltering in public buildings, and carrying out WASH activities. 

• In Port Sudan, the capital of Red Sea state, Doctors Without Borders started implementing some water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities in IDP and other collective sites. We are desludging latrines, trucking water, and distributing hygiene items. We have also provided training at local emergency room on MCP and emergency triage. 

• The Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital in El Fasher, North Darfur, was originally a maternity hospital with no surgical capacity. It was rapidly repurposed to provide urgent trauma care after receiving a huge influx of wounded patients. Since the conflict broke out on April 15, the hospital has carried out over 600 surgical operations for both the wounded and for women requiring emergency obstetric surgery. A Doctors Without Borders truck carrying 10 tons of medical supplies for South Hospital and Zamzam camp arrived in El Fasher on Monday 15 May.

Donations

• Donations of medical supplies and fuel to hospitals and other health facilities in Khartoum, North and Central Darfur, Red Sea, and in Al-Jazeera states (where many displaced people have been seeking shelter), and other areas have been and are ongoing – please follow Doctors Without Borders Sudan Twitter account for the latest info on donations https://twitter.com/Doctors Without Borders_Sudan.  
• In Umbada locality in Khartoum state, donations of a stock of drugs, medical supplies, wound treatment, and paediatric kits to Al Rahji hospital. These donations were transferred from our Omdurman stock, which is located around 15 kilometres away from the hospital. 
• In Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur state, we donated fuel to the Zalingei Teaching hospital to run generators and ambulances. 
• We donated medical supplies to the ministry of health designated surgical referral hospital Al-Kamlin in Al-Jazeera state.
   

Urgent call to protect civilians and health centres 

Doctors Without Borders is making an urgent call for civilians to be protected from the ongoing indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks that are taking place. We urge all parties to the conflict to guarantee safety for medical staff and patients, so that they can access healthcare facilities without fearing for their lives. We additionally request that all parties to the conflict ensure that all health facilities – including hospitals, clinics, warehouses and ambulances – are protected. They should never be a target.

Doctors Without Borders in Sudan provides life-saving and impartial medical care to all those who need it, based on medical need alone, but currently, we cannot move due to the intensity of the conflict. We reiterate our plea for all those participating in the violence to respect medical personnel, health facilities and ambulances and to spare the lives of civilians and humanitarian workers.