By Bunmi Yekini
Khartoum, Sudan –After a four-month suspension prompted by violent incidents, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has resumed medical activities at Bashair Teaching Hospital in south Khartoum, citing the urgent need to respond to a worsening cholera outbreak and dire healthcare gaps in the war-affected capital.
Exactly two years after MSF first began operations at the hospital, the international medical humanitarian organization has returned in partnership with Sudan’s Ministry of Health to restart essential services.
“Our team in Bashair Hospital has been working to ensure that the 20-bed cholera treatment unit is ready to receive patients,” said Slaymen Ammar, MSF’s medical coordinator for Sudan. “Training for over 60 hospital staff members has been completed and cholera-related medical supplies have arrived at the hospital. Restarting and expanding critical health services in Bashair Hospital and beyond can’t wait – it was needed yesterday.”
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MSF suspended work at the hospital in January 2025 after armed men entered the facility, a culmination of multiple security incidents, including the killing of a patient inside the hospital in late 2024.
The organization first joined local medics and volunteers at the hospital on May 9, 2023, shortly after war broke out in April of that year, leading to the collapse of many healthcare services across Khartoum. Within the first five weeks, the emergency room treated over 1,000 patients, with more than 900 suffering trauma-related injuries.
In August 2023 alone, MSF and the Bashair team treated over 200 wounded people in just two days after nearby bombings. When maternity services resumed the following month, 40 babies were delivered within two weeks, including seven caesarean sections.
Despite multiple suspensions caused by violence and a ban on transporting surgical supplies, MSF continued to work alongside hospital staff and volunteers to meet massive healthcare needs.
Today, while the situation in Khartoum is relatively calmer, many hospitals remain either non-functional or damaged due to prolonged conflict. MSF is now also supporting mobile clinics in central and south Khartoum and preparing to restart other medical operations across the region. The organization continues to operate in Omdurman at Al Buluk and Al Nao hospitals, both of which include cholera treatment units and water and sanitation support services.
“The needs in Khartoum remain immense,” said Claire San Filippo, MSF’s emergency coordinator for Sudan. “The current cholera outbreak is only one of the challenges facing people still living in Khartoum or returning from other parts of the country. Humanitarian assistance must be scaled up, access facilitated and medical care protected to ensure that all those who need it, in Khartoum and in the rest of Sudan, can access healthcare.”