On 23 October 2023, WHO's Mohamed Alhassan, Ola Awadalla, and Ahmed Haroun monitor water quality at Algadeema school, a site where internally displaced families were living in Sudan. Around 218 families were living in the school, which made it one of the largest Internally Displaced Persons' centres in the area. Cases of cholera were reported from the site. WHO, Sudan's Ministry of Health and other partners worked to support the population taking shelter at the school and to help control the spread of cholera. Photo credit: WHO
Khartoum/Geneva: Almost 10 months since conflict escalated in Sudan in April 2023, the strife-torn African nation needs life-saving health services urgently. Access to critical health services is severely limited, with 70–80% of health facilities in conflict-affected areas either inaccessible or non-functional. This places significant strain on and risks overwhelming the remaining facilities due to the influx of people seeking care.
People are dying from lack of access to basic and essential health care and medicines, including managing severe acute malnutrition and treating chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure and cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Pregnant women and children are also at increased risk of illness and death given the disruptions to maternal and child healthcare services, including access to life-saving childhood vaccinations.
Sudan’s health crisis is made worse by food insecurity. The latest reports on the deteriorating situation indicate that nearly 18 million people – 37% of the population – are food insecure, including 4.9 million people who already face emergency levels of food insecurity. Acute hunger and malnutrition will have a lasting generational impact on the population’s health. They also increase vulnerable groups’ risk of medical complications and death from disease outbreaks such as cholera and measles.
The ever-deteriorating humanitarian situation has led to the world’s largest displacement crisis. About 8 million people in Sudan have been displaced by the conflict, with 6 million people internally displaced and 1.8 million people displaced to neighbouring countries.
A displacement crisis of this magnitude has significant impacts on the health needs of displaced and host populations. As well as being at higher risk of disease due to overcrowded settings, people have limited access to safe drinking water, food and essential life-saving health services.
Conflict, population movements, and access constraints for implementing partners have left the disease surveillance system fragmented. WHO says this has created serious gaps in health partners’ shared understanding of infectious disease outbreaks and their ability to respond rapidly to such outbreaks. Since the ongoing cholera outbreak was declared in September 2023, 11 of Sudan’s 18 states have reported cholera, with 10,500 cases and 300 deaths recorded by 31 January 2024. While cases appear to show a decreasing trend overall, the actual number of cases and deaths may be much higher, since surveillance system accuracy is affected by access limitations.
Under the Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024, close to 15 million people need urgent health assistance. Due to security, access, and resource availability challenges, only one-third of those in need – 4.9 million of the most vulnerable individuals – have been targeted by the Health Cluster.
The Health Cluster, led by WHO, will require financial partners to meet 100% of the US$ 178 million funding request for 2024 to meet the health needs of the highly vulnerable target population. WHO has called on the international community to advocate for unhindered access for partners and to rapidly scale up and sustain support to address the urgent needs of the most vulnerable populations in Sudan.
Alongside this, WHO said it is working on a no-regrets basis to implement an agile and adaptable response given the fluid security situation. WHO said it is also expanding its capacity for cross-border operations to deliver critical support to implementing partners working in inaccessible and hard-to-reach areas.
– global bihari bureau
