Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has warned that a catastrophic health crisis could be on the horizon for Sudan as humanitarian conditions worsen following escalation of violence.

Development Dairies reports that health workers and facilities across the country are struggling to keep their doors open as extreme violence and insecurity are driving shortages in medical staff and supplies.

Since the beginning of the conflict in April, over 5,000 Sudanese have been killed with millions more displaced, both within the country and across seven national borders.

According to Doctors Without Borders, they have so far conducted over 1,500 major surgical interventions in a single hospital in Khartoum, with 90 percent of them being treated for gunshot and blast wounds.

During the month of August alone, in a single Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital in Omdurman, over 2,100 trauma cases were treated, almost half of the total emergency room consultations of that facility.

‘Vaccinations have been interrupted. Living conditions, including access to water and sanitation, have plummeted’, the humanitarian organisation said in a statement.

‘Food insecurity has spiked to unprecedented levels. Across many of MSF’s projects, we are seeing a disturbing rise in the number of patients suffering from measles, acute watery diarrhoea, malaria, and malnutrition’.

The health response in Sudan can and must go much further to meet the extent of the needs.

Development Diaries reiterates its call on all parties to the conflict to recommit to their obligations under international humanitarian law, as they did under the Jeddah Declaration, to ensure civilians are protected.

Photo source: MSF