New warnings from humanitarian organizations highlight a dire situation for healthcare in Sudan, where ongoing mass atrocities are reported.
Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) stated on Thursday that 70% of Sudan’s medical facilities are either closed or barely functional, with no end to the civil war in sight.
The conflict, which began in April 2023 between the General Abdel Fattah al Burhan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has resulted in approximately 40,000 deaths and nearly 13 million displaced people, according to UN agencies.
The war has also led to widespread food insecurity, a risk of famine, and disease outbreaks like cholera, exacerbated by the collapsed healthcare system.
In their report, ‘Besieged, Attacked, Starved’, MSF warned that accessing healthcare is almost impossible due to systematic attacks, with remaining operational facilities under constant threat.
Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSF’s head of emergency operations, called on all warring parties to cease violence against civilian health facilities and infrastructure and to facilitate a large-scale humanitarian response.
Echoing these concerns, Save the Children reported on Thursday that attacks on hospitals nearly tripled after two years of war.
The group stated that at least 933 people, including children, were killed during the first half of 2025 while seeking medical care or accompanying a loved one in a hospital.
This figure represents a 60-fold increase over deaths recorded during the same period the previous year.
Major hospitals, clinics, health facilities, ambulances, and medical convoys have all experienced fatal attacks in Sudan, where half the population requires humanitarian assistance.
Francesco Lanino, Save the Children’s deputy country director of programs and operations in Sudan, expressed concern that the attacked hospitals are often the only remaining ones in their areas, leaving millions, including displaced people, without healthcare.
MSF specifically highlighted the violence in El Fasher, North Darfur, which has made healthcare access nearly impossible for residents and nearby displacement camps.
As of April, only one hospital with surgical capacity remained partially operational, serving an estimated population of over one million.
Many patients and caretakers have been killed inside MSF-supported facilities over the past year.
MSF urged warring parties to halt indiscriminate and ethnically targeted violence and facilitate an immediate, large-scale humanitarian response, particularly given threats of attacks on the hundreds of thousands of people in El Fasher, where fighting intensified in May 2024.
Last month, Sudan’s military accepted a UN proposal for a week-long ceasefire in El Fasher to allow aid delivery, though the RSF did not explicitly agree and renewed clashes this week.
MSF called on the international community, especially countries engaging with both warring parties, to take stronger action to address the crisis, emphasizing the need to place civilian protection at the core of their engagement to prevent further mass atrocities.