Sudan's healthcare system on brink of collapse after cuts, medical charity warns

Sudan's fragile health system is on the brink of collapse as global funding cuts have led to the closure of healthcare facilities nationwide, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has cautioned.

Key points

• According to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), international aid fell globally by 21.3% in 2025 compared to the previous year.
• When compared to the same time last year, between January and April 2026, MSF saw admissions jump by 22.5% in facilities it supports in central Darfur.
• In the Um Rakuba camp – additionally in Gedaref – the number of aid agencies working there has dropped from 35 in 2021, to less than 10.
• Reports from North Kordofan state on Tuesday say at least 11 individuals have been killed in a drone attack on the army-controlled town of Umm Ruwaba.
• As an example, it offered Gedaref state's Tanedba camp, where 18, 400 residents who have fled their homes live.

Dozens of organisations were unable to find alternative funding after the US – the largest donor to Sudan – closed USAID, its body for delivering foreign aid, last year, the medical charity remarked.

MSF pressed world leaders gathering at the UN General Assembly in New York to take action.

For context, the war that erupted in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Backing Forces (RSF) has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with more than 33 million residents needing medical assistance.

MSF remarked while the US was still the largest donor to Sudan, existing grants to numerous USAID-funded organisations ran out in June – as European governments were additionally reducing international assistance.

According to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), international aid fell globally by 21.3% in 2025 compared to the previous year. A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan. Sudan's invisible children – born in war with no legal identity.

"War is driving Sudan's needs; funding cuts are shrinking the response, " remarked Muhammad Ibrahim, the head of charity in Sudan.

"MSF's work in Sudan is privately funded. But when funding disappears from other health services, clinics close, patients have fewer places to go, and pressure shifts to the facilities that remain, including ours."

This has meant that patients often have to create dangerous and long trips to secure treatment.

"After a longer and more expensive journey, patients often arrive in a much more serious condition, and the hospital may already be full, " explained Sebastián Traficante, MSF's emergency co-ordinator in the western region of Darfur. It has experienced much of the fighting over the last three years.

In May alone, 45 healthcare centres in the area had halted receiving funding, it stated.

According to MSF, the closure of frontline services was putting other hospitals under severe strain – as they were losing their capacity to function and medicines were disappearing.

As an example, it offered Gedaref state's Tanedba camp, where 18, 400 residents who have fled their homes live. Its maternity and surgical wards have closed down after a humanitarian organisation left in June.

Consequently, MSF is now running an emergency room there, but pregnant women who need surgery to deliver a baby, have to travel three hours to the nearest city.

According to the charity, the camp at present hosts around 17, 000 residents, most of whom are women and children.

"If support does not increase, more patients will face longer journeys, fewer treatment options and greater risk of arriving too late for care, " MSF's UK humanitarian representative Liz Harding remarked.

Meanwhile as the health system was struggling with funding, attacks on healthcare workers were continuing, MSF remarked.

In 2025, Sudan saw 1, 620 individuals killed in attacks on medical facilities – which the charity stated accounted for 82% of all global deaths from attacks on healthcare worldwide.

According to the UN, more than 19.5 million individuals are additionally experiencing "crisis levels" of food insecurity and more than five million are facing "emergency levels of hunger".

Notably, the fighting demonstrates no sign of easing – despite the anticipated arrival of international diplomats in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, for consultations aimed at ending the civil war.

Reports from North Kordofan state on Tuesday say at least 11 individuals have been killed in a drone attack on the army-controlled town of Umm Ruwaba. According to medical sources, the projectile struck a crowded courtyard in a court complex. More from the BBC on Sudan's civil war.

'There was a state of terror': Sudan hospital worker describes fleeing before alleged massacre.

'I saw them driving over injured individuals' – the terrifying escape from war in Sudan.

'The weapons were loud, but there was always music': Sudanese band play on through the war.

Notably, a pregnant woman's diary of escape from war zone: 'I prayed the baby wouldn't come'.

Go to BBCAfrica.com, external for more news from the African continent.

Taken together, the developments around sudan' s healthcare system on brink of collapse after cuts, medical charity warns point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.