GEDAREF: In war-ravaged Sudan, the plight of cancer patients has reached a desperate increase as they navigate harrowing journeys and crippling obstacles to access life-saving treatment amidst a shattered healthcare system.
Mohammed Al-Juneid, 65, and his wife shared the struggle faced by many Sudanese families. Displaced by conflict and grappling with his wife’s cancer diagnosis, Al-Juneid spoke to AFP from Gedaref, where they sought refuge amid the country’s escalating violence. He recounted their daunting quest for medical care beyond the ravaged facilities nearby.
“Even if we make it to Meroe in the north, who knows how long we’ll have to wait until it’s her turn,” Al-Juneid lamented, highlighting the dire conditions that have forced patients to embark on perilous journeys across front lines to find overwhelmed and under-equipped hospitals.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s healthcare system has been decimated by clashes between the army and paramilitary forces, leaving fewer than 30 percent of hospitals operational at minimal capacity, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In Gedaref, a city that has absorbed over half a million displaced people, the lone oncology facility struggles to cope with the influx of patients. The East Oncology Hospital, a 27-bed facility, has seen its patient load surge dramatically, receiving 900 new patients in 2023 compared to its typical annual intake of 300 to 400.
“For tens of thousands of patients with chronic illnesses, that has meant embarking on long, dangerous odysseys across front lines, often just to reach an overwhelmed and under-equipped health care facility,” a WHO report highlighted.
For patients like Fatheya Mohammed, a schoolteacher undergoing chemotherapy in Gedaref, access to essential diagnostics such as CT scans remains a distant hope due to financial constraints exacerbated by war-induced economic hardships. “They give me chemo injections here,” Mohammed said, “but I urgently need CT scans that are only available in Kassala, which might as well be half a world away.”
Sudan’s two main oncology centers in Khartoum and Wad Madani have shuttered due to the conflict, leaving smaller facilities like those in Gedaref to bear the overwhelming burden of treating cancer patients amidst dire shortages of medicines and medical equipment.
“In Meroe, the last hope for patients needing radiation treatment, we have two radiation machines that work 24 hours a day,” a doctor at the Eldaman Oncology Center revealed, speaking anonymously due to restrictions. “If one of them goes down, even for maintenance, it causes an even bigger backlog of patients,” he added, underscoring the critical strain on Sudan’s remaining healthcare infrastructure.
The mounting humanitarian crisis has drawn international concern, with the WHO warning that “about 65 percent of the Sudanese population lack access to health care,” exacerbating the suffering of millions displaced by conflict.
