KEY 2023 MEDICAL FIGURES
697,600
outpatient consultations
102,300
emergency room admissions
4,610
surgical interventions
In April 2023, intense fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and soon spread across most of Sudan, killing and injuring thousands of people and uprooting millions from their homes. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams, already working in 11 states in Sudan, quickly responded to people’s health needs, despite obstructions including bans on transportation of medical supplies and travel.
Most hospitals in Khartoum were forced to stop functioning and those remaining open were overwhelmed. MSF donated supplies and brought in a surgical team to Bashair teaching hospital, converted the Turkish hospital so it could receive mass casualties and began supporting Al Nao hospital in Omdurman, treating patients injured by gunshots, stabbings and shrapnel, as well as non-trauma-related conditions. We also worked in Umdawwanban and Alban Al- Jadeed hospitals in Khartoum state.
The conflict forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee Khartoum to Wad Madani, Al-Jazirah state, where MSF teams provided medical consultations. People also moved to Gedaref and Kassala states, where we increased an existing response.
Soon after conflict erupted, Darfur became an epicentre of violence. The MSF-supported South hospital in El Fasher, North Darfur, received 136 wounded patients in the first 48 hours of fighting. We rapidly transformed the small maternity facility into a hospital with an operating room and emergency room that could receive mass casualties. In Nyala, South Darfur, an MSF compound and warehouse were attacked and looted early on, forcing us to suspend activities in and around Nyala. In West Darfur, the MSF-supported El-Geneina teaching hospital was looted and extensively damaged. The city became so dangerous that no access was possible for several months.
By the end of the year, over seven million people were displaced. Ethnically targeted violence is estimated to have killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people in El-Geneina alone. A sustained ceasefire has not been achieved and MSF continues to respond to humanitarian needs.
Throughout 2023, MSF teams maintained our activities in several states in eastern Sudan.
