The results are heavy: more than 40 dead, including six children and five health professionals, according to the Bureau of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sudan. Al Mujlad Hospital, targeted by strikes, has suffered significant damage.
“We cannot say it stronger: attacks against health must stop everywhere,” reacted on Tuesday on the social network X, the director general of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, while the humanitarian community has been sounding the alarm on the collapse of the health system in this northeast country for months.
A agony health system
The attack on the Al Mujlad hospital comes in a context that the United Nations describes as “health emergency”. According to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs, 65 % of Sudanese no longer have access to adequate health care. In conflict areas, between 70 % and 80 % of medical establishments no longer work.
Children are on the front line. More than half of people in need are under 18, and are particularly exposed to epidemics. Pediatric structures, when they still exist, are struggling to respond to the influx of patients and the shortage of drugs.
El Fasher, besieged city
In Darfur, a region in western Sudan plagued by famine, violence continues to cause waves of travel. According to the International Organization for Migration (OIM), more than 1,200 people fled the city of El Fasher and the neighboring camp for the displaced people from Abu Shouk between June 18 and 21. Since April, more than 400,000 people have been moved in northern Darfur.
“Newly inappropriate people have visited other parts of the locality of El Fasher, where the active conflict and the serious access difficulties continue to prevent us, as well as our partners, from reaching people in need,” said UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. The UN once again urged the parties to the conflict to guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers and to allow unhindered access to civilians.
Lack of funding
The worsening of the humanitarian crisis is also linked to the collapse of international financing. The budget cuts hit the UN agencies head on. The United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency (FNUAP) had to withdraw from more than half of the 93 health establishments which he supported in the country. “This serious shortage of resources jeopardizes essential services and safe spaces for women and girls,” alerted Mr. Dujarric, stressing that the FNUAP only received a quarter of the funding necessary for the year.
The World Food Program (PAM) reports, for its part, a surge in prices: since April, the average cost of the food basket has increased by 14 % and now exceeds 113 % that recorded in May 2024. The combination of shortages, supply breaks and loss of livelihoods plunges millions of people in an ever more acute hunger.
Faced with this dramatic painting, the United Nations insists on the urgency of massive and sustainable financial support. Nearly 25 million people are suffering from serious food insecurity in Sudan today, more than half of the population.
