Sudan: Violence forces MSF to evacuate Khartoum hospital

After over a year of violent incidents both inside and outside Khartoum's Turkish Hospital – including threats made against the lives of our staff – Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is evacuating its team from the hospital.

This decision has not been taken lightly. MSF had managed to provide continuous hands-on, life-saving treatment in the facility for almost 14 months, despite many, often deliberate, obstructions from the warring parties.

In the first six months of 2024 alone, the team had seen a staggering 10,600 patients in the emergency room. However, as a result of recent events, this hands-on support is now no longer possible.

“The situation in the Turkish Hospital, located in an RSF-controlled area, has become untenable,” says Claire Nicolet, head of MSF’s emergency response in Sudan.

“Multiple violent incidents have taken place inside and outside the premises over the past 12 months, and the lives of our staff have been repeatedly threatened.

“Most recently, on the nights of June 17 and 18, dozens of wounded combatants were brought to the Turkish Hospital, and our team was aggressively woken up as Kalashnikovs were fired into their bedrooms.

“This type of violence against our staff is unacceptable. Hospitals and health facilities should be protected and respected by the warring parties as sanctuaries for the sick and wounded where health workers can safely deliver medical care.

“They cannot have their lives put at risk as they try to save the lives of other people.”

Since the start of the war, the Turkish Hospital has been a crucial part of the health system, serving patients not only from Khartoum but also from as far away as Wad Madani in Al Jazirah state.

This is where MSF was also forced to suspend operations in May 2024 due to repeated security incidents and obstructions to bringing in staff and supplies – similar to those impacting Khartoum.

Stopping caesarean sections

Before MSF established an emergency room and expanded the capacity of the operating theatre at the Turkish Hospital in mid-May 2023, it was a specialist women’s and children’s hospital.

From January to June 2024, 1,338 babies were delivered with the assistance of the maternity team.

Crucially, almost 80 percent of all surgical procedures in the hospital over the past year were life-saving caesarean sections for women experiencing complications during pregnancy and childbirth. However, as a result of these repeated security incidents, all surgery in the hospital has now stopped.

MSF also provided ante-natal care, post-natal care, family planning, ran the paediatric intensive care unit, the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre for children with severe acute malnutrition, and the neonatal unit – the only neonatal unit in the whole of Khartoum. MSF’s hands-on support for these activities has also now been suspended.

Bashair Teaching Hospital in Khartoum, also supported by MSF, has faced multiple armed incursions over the past few months as well. Between October 2023 and January 2024, MSF was forced to suspend surgery in the hospital.

However, MSF continues to work in this hospital despite these incidents. The security situation across the board has deteriorated significantly and in Khartoum especially.   

MSF urges the warring parties to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure – including hospitals and other healthcare sites.

For facilities that can remain operational, it is vital that medical supplies and humanitarian workers are provided with the necessary permits to be able to move across frontlines.

However, due to the ongoing blockade imposed on humanitarian organisations by the Sudanese authorities, many facilities are struggling to remain open and the lives and health of millions of people in Khartoum and other parts of the country are at risk.