Darfur: Healthcare needs outstrip resources as Security Council extends Sudan sanctions

More than 700,000 displaced people in Tawila, in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, face severe shortages of healthcare, food, water and protection, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday as it called for an urgent increase in resources.The agency’s top official in Sudan, Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, visited hospitals, health centres and laboratories in every Darfur state except East Darfur during a 10-day mission in September.“I have witnessed the immense scale of health and humanitarian needs in Tawila and other parts of Darfur,” he said, praising health workers who keep serving their communities despite insecurity and shortages of funding and supplies.Hunger and dwindling medicinesMalnutrition was a major concern in the facilities he visited, and WHO expects it to worsen as poor rainfall, crop failures and a strong El Niño deepen food insecurity. Mental health services are severely limited, while stocks of medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases are running dangerously low.Darfur hosts 65 per cent of Sudan’s 8.6 million displaced people, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).Meanwhile, a humanitarian appeal needs a ...