Funding Shortfalls Threaten Sudan’s Health Clinics

Across Sudan, a growing chorus of humanitarian organisations is sounding the alarm: the cash that keeps many of the country’s health clinics afloat is dwindling, and the result could be a cascade of closures.

Since early 2025, donor fatigue, coupled with the lingering economic fallout of years of conflict, has left key funding streams—especially from the United Nations, European governments and a handful of private foundations—significantly reduced. According to a joint statement from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and several local NGOs, at least thirty‑four clinics that serve remote towns and internally displaced people are now operating on a shoestring budget.

“We are staring at a very real possibility that these facilities will have to shut their doors within weeks,” said Fatima El‑Hassan, a senior coordinator with the Sudanese Red Crescent. “For the people who rely on them for anything from routine vaccinations to treatment for chronic illnesses, it feels like the rug is being pulled out from under them.”

The clinics in question provide a lifeline in areas where the public health system has been crippled by decades of war. They offer maternal‑health services, basic emergency care, immunisations and treatment for water‑borne diseases such as cholera—a disease that flared up again in Khartoum last summer.

Experts warn that closing even a single clinic can ripple across an entire region, forcing patients to travel hundreds of kilometres for the most basic care. In Darfur, where insecurity already makes travel perilous, the loss of a single health outpost could push thousands into a health‑crisis vacuum.

Funding cuts are not uniform; some clinics have lost up to 60 % of their allocated budgets, while others are left with only enough to pay salaries for a few weeks. The shortfall means that essential medicines are disappearing from shelves, refrigerators that store vaccines are breaking down, and community health workers are being forced to go without pay.

Humanitarian groups are scrambling to fill the gap. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has launched an emergency appeal for $120 million, but so far pledges have fallen short of the target. Meanwhile, regional actors such as the Gulf Cooperation Council have hinted at new contributions, though none have been confirmed.

For families like that of 7‑year‑old Aisha, who lives in a makeshift camp outside El‑Fashir, the prospect of losing her local clinic is terrifying. “She gets her vaccinations here,” her mother explained, “and if this stops, I don’t know where we will go for a simple fever.”

As the deadline for funding decisions approaches, aid agencies are urging the international community to act swiftly. “Every day of delay costs lives,” El‑Hassan emphasized. “We cannot afford another wave of preventable disease, especially not now.”