The Sudanese army and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have inflicted “horrendous violence” on people across Sudan, according to a new report by the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The report draws on medical and operational data, highling patterns of violence observed by MSF teams – who support some of the few functioning hospitals in Sudan – between 15 April 2023, when war first erupted, and 15 May 2024.
The report says MSF teams have treated thousands of war-wounded patients in locations affected by crossfire fighting, large-scale bombing, and shelling that has hit homes, health facilities, and essential infrastructure.
MSF-supported hospitals have been shelled, and on one occasion, in July 2023, a healthcare worker at the Al-Saudi Maternity Hospital in Khartoum was shot dead inside the maternity ward.
“Across Sudan, people’s access to lifesaving care has been drastically affected due to critical shortages, widespread obstruction and looting of medical supplies, insecurity and attacks against patients and medical staff, breaches of medical protocols in hospitals, and structural damages to healthcare infrastructure,” the report states.
Now in its second year, the conflict in Sudan has produced the world’s largest displacement crisis, uprooting over 10 million people, and the biggest hunger crisis too. One study has predicted 2.5 million starvation deaths by September.
Sexual and gender-based violence has been “pervasive” throughout the conflict, according to MSF, but cases are underreported because of stigma, fear of retaliation by perpetrators, and a lack of confidential spaces where attacks can be reported.
Data from MSF centres supporting Sudanese refugees in Chad point at the large-scale use of sexual violence, with 135 survivors disclosing rapes, abduction, and exploitation mostly by armed men between July and December 2023.
The report also describes violent attacks – including forced displacement, unlawful killings, and other forms of inhuman treatment – committed by the RSF and affiliated groups against the Masalit community of West Darfur state.
“A retrospective mortality survey undertaken by MSF among Sudanese refugees in Chad showed excess mortality among Sudanese refugees in three refugee camps,” the report states. “In particular, the population in Ourang camp exhibited a 20-fold increase in mortality rates from April 2023 onwards compared to the pre-crisis phase.”
This article was first published by the New Humanitarian:
