The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) has been enduring protracted conflicts and political instabilities that have led to complexities within its communities. These complexities resulted from natural disasters, human-made crises, or both.

To address these issues, EMPHNET conducted a webinar titled; Navigating Challenges in Humanitarian Action: The Example of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. This webinar was hosted on January 16, 2024, starting a series of webinars to tackle the challenges faced when responding to humanitarian crises across the region. Following up with the discussion initiated in that session, EMPHNET conducted the second session in the series titled; Eastern Mediterranean Region from Crisis to Solutions a month later, and on May 21, 2024, it conducted the third and last part of the series titled “Marking One Year of War in Sudan”.

The last episode focused on providing an overview of Sudan's humanitarian situation, challenges, and the interventions conducted by the Sudan Federal Ministry of Health and partners. It also offered a space to forecast the potential short-term and long-term impacts of the conflict on healthcare delivery and public health in Sudan.

Those insights were provided by three subject experts namely: Sudan Federal Minister of Health, H.E. Dr. Heitham Awadalla; Professor of Public Health at the Imperial College in London, Director of WHO Collaborating Center, and President of the Arab Public Health Association, Prof. Salman Rawaf; and WHO Representative in Sudan, Dr Shible Sahban. Furthermore, the session was facilitated by the Director of EMPHNET’s Public Health Emergency Management Center, Dr. Haitham Bashier.

In his presentation titled “Health System in Sudan: After a Nightmare Challenging Year, what is Next?”, H.E. Dr. Awadalla stated that the health system in Sudan was fragile and weak prior to the war. Its weakness was due to political instability, the COVID-19 pandemic, floods, epidemics sweeping the country, and the freezing of several global support projects. This situation only worsened after one year of war in Sudan, bringing immediate impacts on the health system, including partial or complete destruction of the health infrastructure, destruction and looting of Cold Chains, and 50% of Sudan’s land being deemed hard to reach, amongst other disparities.  He further added that there are anticipated long-term effects from the war on the health system in Sudan, including undercover age of vaccination and nutrition, more complications for people with chronic diseases, and the high outflux of trained and qualified personnel. He then went on to identify four health priorities that need to be addressed. These priorities include ensuring the availability of essential medical equipment, ensuring continuity of basic health services, ensuring continuity of maternity and child health programs, and last but not least, commanding the coordinated response across UN agencies and other NGOs.

He ended his presentation by listing the challenges encountered by the healthcare sector in Sudan. Top challenges include inaccessibility to hard-to-reach areas, lack of funding, and destroyed health infrastructure. However, he ended his presentation on a high note by stating that the health system did show resilience over the past year due to the solidarity of the Sudanese community and that it was able to withstand challenges.

From his end, Prof. Rawaf gave a heartfelt talk in which he stated that what is happening in Sudan is a self-inflicted injury and that for positive change to occur, the war needs to end. He also drew from the experience seen in Iraq, where the country did not recover even 20 years after the war. He stated that this slow recovery is due to the population movement and the fleeing of top-level health professionals and academic leaderships. He also confirmed that recovery will take time, yet he commended Sudan for its resilience. Ending his presentation on an advisory note, he stated that, for now, emergency responses need to be maintained, and people need to be trained in this area.   

In the last presentation for the session, Dr Sahban stated that Sudan is encountering the biggest displacement in the world, where one in six Sudanese is displaced either internally or across the border. He shared more alarming statistics, where he stated that Sudan recorded 27,000 injuries and 6000 fatalities during the war to date. Populations are also suffering from malnutrition, and all this is happening while NCDs continue to be a burden.  Today, a total of 15 million people need healthcare services, while only 5 million are targeted. Furthermore, only 40% of health facilities are functional in five states.  

He also added that response in such situations comprises three pillars: service delivery, coordination, and advocacy, which includes putting Sudan on the global agenda.

Following the presentations, Dr Basheir stressed the need for more advocacy for Sudan’s case and he also added that there is a need to mobilize more resources to fill the gap and needs of the health services. He announced that EMPHNET will be working with the Sudan Federal Ministry of Health to organize a forum to support the health sector in Sudan. Over 240 public health professionals attended the webinar, deeming it another success in the EMPHNET WEBi Series. 

Watch the webinar recording Here