MSF's Emergency Response in Sudan

In January, MSF found that a child was dying every two hours in Zamzam camp.

For Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), minutes matter when lives are on the line. And right now, a catastrophic malnutrition crisis is unfolding as ongoing war in Sudan displaces more than 10 million people from their homes.

We have been sounding the alarm on the humanitarian emergency at Zamzam camp since February, when a rapid assessment revealed the staggering reality of child mortality among the 300,000 displaced people taking shelter there.

Of the more than 46,000 children we screened at the camp in February, 30 per cent were found to suffer from acute malnutrition, eight per cent with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Among more than 16,000 pregnant and breastfeeding people, we found 33 per cent were acutely malnourished, 10 per cent with SAM. For both groups, these figures are double the emergency threshold of 15 per cent, indicating there is a massive, life-threatening emergency in Zamzam camp.

At the moment, MSF is the sole medical provider in parts of Sudan and one of the only international aid agencies responding to the enormous malnutrition crisis. Meanwhile, the fighting is getting worse as people count on us for critical healthcare.

Friend, in a malnutrition emergency, minutes matter. Right now, our patients in Sudan have extremely limited access to medical care and little food or clean water. When people are suffering from malnutrition, illnesses that could once be treated are now considered deadly.

We’re reaching out to you today because you’ve generously supported our medical humanitarian movement in the past. In Sudan, we urgently need to scale up our response to a massive degree as the fighting escalates.

“In Zamzam camp, there is an acute disaster on a catastrophic scale,” says Claire Nicolet, head of MSF’s emergency response in Sudan. “The situation is critical, the level of suffering is immense, but despite this being known about for nearly three months, nowhere near enough has been done to help those who are struggling to survive,” she says.

Our teams have already scaled-up our response by opening a second health clinic, enrolling over 11,000 children in our nutrition programme, and opening a 25-bed field hospital to treat the most critical cases. Currently, there are 23 people receiving inpatient treatment – this includes 12 who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and four who are being treated for suspected measles.

We are planning to start a vaccination campaign against measles and to expand our activities to provide support for pregnant women. However, this is not enough to meet the needs. Additional healthcare is not being provided in the camp and it is vital that it is restored as a matter of urgency.

Even before the start of the war, people in the camp received very little support. Food rations were much lower than international standards, there was insufficient clean water and there were only two other health clinics in the vast camp before MSF opened its first one in 2022, both of which are now barely functional.

MSF teams in Sudan are doing everything they can to meet the moment and adapt our response as our patients’ needs increase. To ensure our staff’s safety and needs, we’re having to shift locations, restore power to medical facilities and evaluate needs for medical supplies and materials.

The lack of food combined with a breakdown in health services requires international support at the highest emergency levels. MSF staff report that with the onset of lean season in June, they are worried about a rapid deterioration in this already drastic malnutrition crisis.

Make every minute count in our emergency response in Sudan. Please donate today to stand with us as we provide vital assistance for tens of thousands of people.