The army-controlled seaside city of Port Sudan has become a haven from the conflict raging to the west, but its health system is on the verge of collapse due to power outages, limited supplies, and personnel shortages that are now being worsened by strike doctors.
Doctors and nurses in the Red Sea city claim they have not been paid in four months because conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has ravaged the Sudanese government’s budget.
“It’s exhausting because there are so many patients and so much pain,” said Omar al-Saeed, a striking nurse at Port Sudan Teaching Hospital.
“All we ask is that they pay people something small so that they can keep going.”
War broke out in April, four years after former President Omar al-Bashir was deposed in a popular revolt. Tensions between the army and the RSF, which launched a combined coup in 2021, escalated amid disputes over a transition plan to a civilian government.
The UN disclosed that over 100,000 people have fled to Port Sudan, overwhelming the city’s hospitals and shelters, while violence is concentrated in Khartoum and the country’s west.
The UN’s top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, has warned that the war is driving “a humanitarian emergency of epic proportions” in Sudan and that various illnesses, including malaria, measles, and dengue fever, are on the rise.
Sudanese hospitals have long been underfunded, and medical worker strikes have been common. The conflict, which has devastated numerous hospitals in battle zones, has driven the system to its knees.
Doctors in Port Sudan have had to deal with power outages, high humidity, and pharmaceutical shortages, while patients are held in close quarters despite the fact that many have respiratory ailments, according to hospital officials.
“We are in a crisis, and we pray that God eases it on us,” says Ayat Mohamed, supervisor at the Dar Abnaa Al-Shamal medical facility, which is dealing with overflow from hospitals with striking employees.
