MSF: ‘Horrendous violence taking catastrophic toll on Sudan’s civilians’

The war in Sudan has led to a collapse in the protection of civilians with communities facing indiscriminate violence, killings, torture and sexual violence, amid persistent attacks on health workers and medical facilities according to a new report released by Médecins Sans Frontières yesterday. The report describes how both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their supporters are inflicting horrendous violence on people across the country. The war has wrought a catastrophic toll since fighting began in April 2023, with hospitals attacked, markets bombed, and houses razed to the ground.

Drawing on medical and operational data collected from April 15, 2023, to May 15, 2024, the report, A war on people – The human cost of conflict and violence in Sudan, highlights the patterns of horrendous violence observed by MSF teams, the features of abuse characterising this conflict, and the ensuing health consequences for affected populations.

“Estimates for the total number of people injured or killed during the war vary. But MSF, which works in eight states across Sudan, revealed that in just one of the hospitals we support, Al Nao hospital in Omdurman, Khartoum state, 6,776 patients were treated for injuries caused by violence between 15 August 2023 and 30 April 2024, an average of 26 people per day. We have treated thousands of patients for conflict related injuries across the country, most for injuries caused by explosions, gunshots and stabbings,” the report says.

The MSF report outlines the horrific levels of violence on people, even as many international humanitarian organisation are not responding in the country, and calls on the warring parties to immediately stop the fighting and allow for humanitarian aid to be drastically scaled up.