Two years after the conflict, Sudan’s health system is at its breaking point. As the rainy season approaches, the country faces a complete storm of disease outbreaks, malnutrition and collapse services when humanitarian access is at risk and health funds are dry.
Today, more than 30 million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance, including the need for health services of more than 20 million people. But anxiety, shortages of life-saving drugs and medical supplies, and repeated attacks on health facilities and personnel have made it nearly impossible for millions of people using care. The hospital has either closed the door or is only partially functioning. People are dying from illness, malnutrition, conflict-related injuries, and shortages of essential medicines, vaccines and life-saving services.
“This crisis is tearing the health system in Sudan,” said Dr. Hannan Balky, regional director of the eastern Mediterranean. “Hospitals are running out of supplies. Health workers are under threat, and diseases are spreading in areas that we barely reach. The rainy season increases health risks and further limits access to those in need.
The results are already shown. More than two-thirds of Sudan’s provinces are fighting the outbreak of more than two-thirds of disease at once, including cholera, dengue, measles and malaria. When vaccination campaigns are disrupted, children are dying from preventable diseases.
Malnutrition is rising, especially among young children and mothers. Hunger is confirmed in at least five regions, with forecasts showing expansion in 17 regions where 24.6 million (half of the population) are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025.
Since April 2023, we have examined 156 attacks on healthcare that have killed 318 people and injured 273 people. These attacks are blatant violations of international humanitarian law and continue to erode the remaining capacity to provide care.
Despite these unprecedented constraints, who and their partners are doing everything they can to provide? Since the conflict began, WHO supported health services have reached over 1 million patients and helped maintain 52 hospitals across Sudan’s 18 states. More than 10 million children have been vaccinated against measles and rubella, with 11.5 million children against polio and nearly 12.8 million against cholera.
A stabilization center supported by those who have treated nearly 50,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with medical complications. In November 2024, with WHO support, Sudan launched its first malaria vaccine, targeting 148,000 children in the states of Gedalev and Blue Nile over a year.
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It also expanded its support for clinical management and other life-saving interventions and mental health and psychosocial support for gender-based and sexual violence survivors, particularly among displaced people.
It has also provided over 2,250 tonnes of medical supplies to 18 Sudan’s states since the start of the conflict in April 2023 through cross-border operations from Chad and South Sudan.
Furthermore, working with Sudan’s Ministry of Health goes beyond humanitarian assistance in development. Recently, responses in Sudan’s health support and emergency (share) project have begun, marking a strategic partnership between the WHO, the World Bank, the Ministry of Health of Sudan and UNICEF. The purpose of this project is to support emergencies, and the development should restore the functions of hospitals and primary health centers to provide essential health and nutrition services and support the functions of the health system.
However, the scale of need is still far outweighed the response.
In 2025, we had a US$135 million response plan, with a fifth of which being funded and only a small portion of what we need in an urgent manner.
“Brave health workers in Sudan are achieving the impossible without doing much,” Dr. Balky said. “They need protection, safe access, tools to save lives. Time is running out.”
We urgently call on all political parties to the Sudan conflict to ensure unhindered, sustained humanitarian access and respect international humanitarian law. Healthcare is a human right, but in today’s Sudan, it is a lifeline where there is a risk of being cut off.
