The causes of death have multiplied due to the effects of of the war since April 2023, which left widespread destruction in the health sector infrastructure in Darfur states, including hospitals, health centers, pharmacies, warehouses and drug stores in the region. This resulted in the lack of health care services, a shortage of medicine, and a significant increase in the its prices. It is worth noting that the World Health Organization had previously called on donors to support the health sector in Sudan with an estimated $178 million in order to address the health crisis that the country is experiencing.
In this regard, this report monitors the impact of the war on the drug stock in the Darfur region and and the interventions of national, international, and UN organizations to cover this shortage, in addition to the efforts of community initiatives.
Destruction of Drug Warehouses
Drug stores and warehouses in the various states of Darfur were subjected to destruction and looting of all their contents of medicines and medical supplies. In West Darfur, the rotating medicine warehouses, health insurance warehouses, medical supplies. whereby, in Central Darfur the central pharmacy of Zalinjei Teaching Hospital, IMC and NCA organizations warehouses were destroyed. while the medical supplies warehouses, the rotating medicine warehouses, the Ministry of Health warehouses at the railway neighborhood were also destroyed. While East and North Darfur states did not witness looting of medicine warehouses, their health facilities were bombed by the armed forces’ warplanes and artillery from both sides of the conflict.
Medicine Shortages
Previously, the country’s states received their share of medicines and medical supplies on a regular basis according to the administrative system in place at the Federal Ministry of Health; which has been distribute by the current war, especially for the most affected states, especially Darfur in particular an employee at the Ministry of Health in South Darfur told SalaaMedia that before the war, the state received monthly quantities of emergency medicines that included (free treatment, anesthesia and medicines for children under five), in addition to global support medicines (AIDS, tuberculosis, reproductive health) and medicines for malaria, leishmaniasis and sandflies. While the share of medicine provided by the Ministry of Health has been absent from the four Darfur states since the Rapid. Support Forces took control of the state.
The Emergency and Epidemic Department of the Ministry of Health in South Darfur stated that the Ministry has not received the medicine supply for the autumn emergency since the outbreak of the war in 2023, while the administration of Rahid Al-Bardi Hospital said that the last quantity of emergency medicines of life-saving medicines reached it was in late 2022.
The Federal Ministry of Health indicated that in June 2024, it was able to deliver 20 tons of life-saving medicines to North Darfur State via airdrops by the armed forces’ warplanes, including (intravenous solutions, life-saving medicines, anesthesia medicines, and various other medical consumables). It revealed arrangements to deliver an additional 30 tons of malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, cancer, and kidney dialysis and transplant consumables.
Federal Ministry of Health, Haitham Mohamed said that in March 2024, the Ministry was able to deliver 150 tons of essential medecines to the town of El-Fashir under an agreement between the Rapid Support Forces and the Joint Force of the armed movements in Darfur; however, the flow of medecines to the region stopped after the movements abandoned neutrality and joined the fighting alongside the armed forces in April 2024.
Interventions
The World Health Organization stated that 26 international organizations working in the health sector in Darfur provided support to more than 420 health facilities in 47 localities, including 115 facilities in Central Darfur, 114 in North Darfur, 76 in West Darfur, 64 in South Darfur, and 53 in East Darfur. The World Health Organization explained that 70% of the supported facilities are fully operational and 18% are partially operational; expressing its plans to add another 6% to the operational list, while 5% of the health facilities are completely our of service. At the same time, it indicated that the organizations’ support included 58% of primary health care centers, 14% of primary health care units, in addition to 11% of health centers in neighborhoods, 8% of mobile clinics and 6% of hospitals.
Meanwhile, Concern announced in September 2023 that it had delivered 9 tons of medical supplies to 10 health facilities in Kulbus and Jebel Moon localities in West Darfur State. Louise Foster, Concern’s Country Director in Sudan, said that the health facilities the organization reached four months after the war began had not had any stocks of supplies since the fighting began on April 15, with many of them running out of essential medicines and supplies to treat malnutrition. On the other hand, SUDO concluded an agreement to provide medicines and medical supplies, actively refer cases, main centers, pay incentives to workers, and provide free treatment services to IDPs, the local community, and refugees at Center Zero in Kalma camp, which houses refugees from South Sudan.
The SalaMedia team contacted Dr. Abdulsalam Mustafa Saleh, the Director General of the Ministry of health, assigned by the civil administration in West Darfur, stated that 61% of the state’s 241 health facilities had stopped service due to the war, noting that they were uable to to re-operate about 40% of them thanks to the support of international organizations.
Local Community Efforts
Emergency rooms in a number of Dafur states have begun to move to address the shortage of medicines that the region is suffering from. The Kuma Women’s Emergency Room implemented the Women’s Supplies Project, through which it provided a quantity of women’s needs in addition to the medicines and intravenous solutions required for caesarean sections. While the Emergency Room supported the health centers in Nyala town, a project to maintain the kidney dialysis center machines.
Through the follow- ups carried out by the SalaMedia team, it becomes clear that the current crisis of drug shortages and high prices in Darfur is intertwined with various factors, including the ongoing war; however, the region has been suffering from a shortage of drug supplies since before the war.
Interventions seeking to provide medicines through international organizations and local efforts will certainly not cover the needs of the affected population, in addition to the difficulty of obtaining it due to the difficulty of transportation across the region’s various states and localities for natural and security reasons, which increases the already widespread humanitarian suffering.