Africa · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
MSF Says Aid Cuts Force Clinic Closures Across Sudan, Leaving Patients Facing Longer Journeys
Aid cuts force dozens of Sudanese clinics to close, reducing access to care for millions. Patients travel longer and riskier journeys as remaining hospitals absorb rising demand.
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““serious disease outbreaks are already happening” in several parts of Sudan.”Read the original ↗
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“MSF is calling on governments and institutional donors to protect funding for essential health services”Read the original ↗
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Clinics close as funding cuts
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned that international aid cuts are forcing clinics across Sudan to close, leaving patients to make longer and more dangerous journeys for healthcare as remaining hospitals struggle to absorb growing demand.
“Between January and April 2026, admissions to MSF-supported facilities in Zalingei and Rokero”
MSF said that between January and April 2026, admissions to MSF-supported facilities in Zalingei and Rokero in Central Darfur rose by 22.5 per cent compared with the same period last year, and that in May 45 general healthcare centres in Central Darfur stopped receiving support after the organisation funding them ran out of money.
In Tanedba camp in El Gedaref state, MSF said the departure of a humanitarian organisation in June led to the closure of maternity and surgical wards, and pregnant women requiring caesarean sections now face journeys of up to three hours to reach the nearest city.
MSF said it has taken over the camp’s emergency room until the end of 2026, and it described the broader pattern as aid organisations withdrawing support and leaving clinics without the funding and medicines needed to operate.
MSF’s head of mission in Sudan, Muhammad Ibrahim, said, “War is driving Sudan’s needs; funding cuts are shrinking the response,” linking the closures to the country’s continuing war and humanitarian crisis.
Aid withdrawal hits camps
MSF said that in and around Um Rakuba camp in El Gedaref state, the number of aid organisations has fallen from about 35 in 2021 to fewer than 10, and it said the camp hosts about 17,000 refugees, most of them women and children.
Fabrizio Locuratolo, MSF’s humanitarian affairs manager, said, “Our hospital in Um Rakuba is now the only lifeline left for both refugees and the local Sudanese community,” as MSF reported that food rations are shrinking and protection programmes are being dismantled.
MSF reported that in Hamidiya displacement camp in Central Darfur, a health centre that previously provided maternity, paediatric, and mental health services is operating at sharply reduced capacity after an international aid organisation ended its support.
MSF said daily patient visits in Hamidiya fell from about 200 to barely 40, while vaccinations have stopped, and it warned that the decline reflects people stopping the journey to a centre unable to provide treatment.
MSF said a labourer in Darfur earns roughly $1 a day, while transport to a functioning clinic can cost $2, and one patient told MSF, “If there is no food, there can be no health.”
What MSF says is at risk
MSF warned that the funding crisis is intensifying since the closure of USAID was announced by the US government in 2025, and it said grants to many organisations working in Sudan ended in June this year.
“OECD preliminary figures show that aid from EU institutions fell by 13.8 per cent in 2025”
MSF said the pressure is compounded by reductions in assistance by European governments and a wider contraction in international aid budgets, citing OECD preliminary figures that aid from EU institutions fell by 13.8 per cent in 2025 and that global humanitarian aid fell by 35.8 per cent.
MSF said the UN’s $2.87bn response plan is barely 41 per cent funded, and it warned that withdrawing support from an already chronically underfunded crisis pushes remaining hospitals toward breaking point.
MSF’s emergency coordinator in Darfur, Sebastián Traficante, said, “Closing a clinic does not remove a single patient. It just sends them to the next facility,” describing how patients often arrive in more serious condition when hospitals may already be full.
MSF said it is calling on governments and institutional donors to protect funding for essential health services and provide flexible transitional financing to prevent facilities from closing, while also warning that critical gaps remain despite the presence of about 50 non-governmental organisations in Tawila for up to 600,000 displaced people.