Nearly two years have passed since the outbreak of conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Since April 2023, the humanitarian situation – already deeply concerning – has deteriorated dramatically. More than 11.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to violence, seeking refuge in other parts of the country or beyond its borders.
Hunger has reached catastrophic levels, with over half the population struggling to access food daily. An estimated 25.6 million people are facing food insecurity, including 8.5 million in emergency conditions.
One of the immediate consequences of conflict is the urgent need for medical care. In situations of instability and crisis, healthcare services, medical facilities, and health personnel are often targeted or unable to meet the overwhelming demand for assistance. This is precisely what is happening in Sudan.
Around 80% of medical facilities are either non-functional or have been forced to shut down due to ongoing hostilities. As a result, people are left without access to essential healthcare, further worsening an already precarious health situation – particularly for children, who are most at risk of malnutrition and disease outbreaks such as cholera.
The shortage of medical personnel, including doctors and nurses, further exacerbates the crisis. The lack of medicines means that treatable diseases and infections go unattended, while chronic conditions remain unmanaged. In emergencies like the one unfolding in Sudan, humanitarian organisations like INTERSOS must not only respond swiftly on the ground but also navigate significant logistical and security challenges that could otherwise delay the delivery of life-saving assistance.
Thanks to our collaboration with Action Medeor, an international organisation specialising in logistics, we successfully delivered a large shipment of medicines to the Darfur region in western Sudan in December. This consignment, totalling 1.6 tonnes of medical supplies, contains essential medicines used daily in hospitals and healthcare facilities. “With these medicines, we aim to support several healthcare centres across Darfur, providing assistance to approximately 15,000 people,” explains Andrea Dominici, Director of the Regional Emergency Office.
The latest shipment began its journey in Tönisvorst, a city in northwestern Germany. The cargo was transported by truck to Frankfurt Airport, where it was flown to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then onward to N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. From there, the supplies continued overland for 800km eastward to Adré, on the Sudanese border, before reaching Al Geneina, the capital of the Darfur region.
INTERSOS will use these medical supplies to improve access to healthcare for thousands of people affected by the conflict, supporting several clinics in the region. Specifically, our humanitarian team is working to rehabilitate a health centre in Mangarsa and deploy a mobile clinic in Foro Baranga. This mobile unit will focus on treating common diseases and injuries, managing chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and providing reproductive healthcare, including prenatal and postnatal services.
In early 2025, a second shipment is planned in partnership with Airlink, ShelterBox, and Action Medeor. This time, in addition to medical supplies, the consignment will also include essential relief items. These will be distributed to more remote locations, including Tawila in North Darfur, where INTERSOS humanitarian teams are assisting displaced civilians in urgent need of aid.