Funding cuts are forcing dozens of health clinics in Sudan to close, aid
groups warn
[September 09, 2026]
By FATMA KHALED
CAIRO (AP) — An additional three dozen health facilities serving more
than 400,000 people in Sudan are closing this year due to global aid
cuts, worsening a dire humanitarian situation in a country torn by more
than three years of war, aid groups said Tuesday.
The cuts come to a health care system that once numbered 6,500 primary
healthcare facilities and 300 public hospitals, but that already was
decimated in the first year and a half of war. By September 2024, the
World Health Organization said that up to 70-80% of facilities in the
worst-hit areas were either closed or barely functioning.
Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when tensions between the army and
the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, escalated into full-scale
fighting across the country. The war killed at least 59,000 people,
displaced some 13 million and pushed parts of the country into famine.
More aid organizations are pulling out as clinics are left without
necessary medicine or funding, forcing patients to face costly
transportation and dangerous journeys to get treatment, said Doctors
Without Borders, or MSF.
“These cuts are stripping away what little capacity remains, closing
facilities, sending health workers home, and cutting off supply lines
for medicines and nutrition treatment. The system is already stretched
past its limit," said Mesfin Teklu Tessema, senior technical health
director for the International Rescue Committee, or IRC.
Fewer health facilities remain open as aid reaches fewer people
Mohammed Mahdi, IRC director for East Sudan, told The Associated Press
that funding cuts are forcing the closure of 36 IRC-supported facilities
and sites, cutting off access to essential services for an estimated
473,700 people.
“A small number of facilities are able to keep running for a short
period using other funding sources, but this bridge support is only
expected to last through the end of September,” Mahdi said of facilities
across Sudan.
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A Sudanese girl receives an oral cholera vaccine during a
vaccination campaign conducted by health ministry workers in
Khartoum, Sudan, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali, File)
Healthcare providers couldn’t find alternative funding needed to provide
healthcare services after grants to many organizations in Sudan ended in
June following the announcement of U.S. aid cuts last year, according to
MSF. Some major European donors also decreased their aid spending.
The Um Rakuba camp in Gedaref State in eastern Sudan, which shelters
around 17,000 displaced people, is now served by fewer than 10 aid
organizations operating in and around the camp, down from about 35 in
2021, according to MSF.
The MSF-supported hospital there “is now the only lifeline left” for
refugees and residents, said Fabrizio Locuratolo, MSF humanitarian
affairs manager in the statement.
Risks of outbreaks across the country
Ali Almohammed, MSF emergency health manager, warned that “serious
disease outbreaks are already happening” in several parts of Sudan. He
told the AP that measles reached a “major outbreak level” in Darfur,
with approximately 75% of measles patients being unvaccinated.
Sudan is also experiencing cholera and malaria outbreaks.
Multiple attempts have been made to end the war, including peace talks.
Most recently, the United States urged the U.N. to impose sanctions
against the warring parties as a means of pressuring them to negotiate
an end to the conflict.
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