A War on People: MSF Report Reveals Catastrophic Toll in Sudan
Moatinoon
The war in Sudan has led to a collapse in the protection of civilians, with the community facing indiscriminate violence, killings, torture, and sexual violence, amid persistent attacks on health workers and medical facilities, according to a report released by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The report, "A War on People - The Human Cost of Conflict and Violence in Sudan," covering the period since the outbreak of the war, details how the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their supporters are inflicting horrendous violence on people across the country. Since the fighting began in April 2023, the war has had a catastrophic impact, with hospitals attacked, markets bombed, and homes completely destroyed.
Estimates for the total number of injured or killed during the war vary. However, MSF, which operates in eight states across Sudan, revealed that Al Nao Hospital in Omdurman, Khartoum state, treated 6,776 patients for violence-related injuries between August 15, 2023, and April 30, 2024, an average of 26 people per day. MSF has treated thousands of patients for conflict-related injuries across the country, most due to explosions, gunshots, and stabbings, according to the report.
The report contains shocking accounts of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly in Darfur. An MSF study of 135 survivors of sexual violence, treated by their teams between July and December 2023 in refugee camps in Chad, found that 90% were abused by armed perpetrators. Additionally, 50% were abused in their own homes, and 40% were raped by multiple attackers.
The report also contains detailed testimonies of targeted ethnic violence against people in Darfur. In Nyala, South Darfur, people described how, in mid-2023, RSF and allied militias went house to house, looting, beating, and killing people, targeting the Masalit and other non-Arab ethnicities.
A patient in Nyala, South Darfur, told MSF: "The men were armed with guns and dressed in RSF camouflage... I was stabbed many times and fell to the ground."
The patient continued, "When they left my house, they looked at me lying on the ground, barely conscious. I heard them say, He will die, dont waste your bullets, as one of them pressed his foot on me."
Throughout the war, hospitals have been routinely looted and attacked. In June, the World Health Organization said that in hard-to-reach areas, only 20 to 30% of health facilities remained functional, and even then, at minimal levels. MSF reported documenting at least 60 incidents of violence and attacks on its staff, assets, and infrastructure.
Al Nao Hospital in Omdurman, supported by MSF, has been shelled three times, while an explosion caused by an airstrike in May killed two children after the roof of the intensive care unit at the MSF-supported Babiker Nahar Childrens Hospital in El Fasher collapsed. The hospital was forced to close.
