Healthcare System Collapses in Sudan's Capital
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You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. Sudan has been locked in a civil war for more than two years. It is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. More than 15 million people have been displaced. Another aspect of the humanitarian crisis is the collapse of the country's health care system in many places, including in the capital Khartoum.

The city was recently recaptured by the Sudanese army from the rebel group it's been battling, allowing the difficult conditions children and others endure to come to light. NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu takes us to a hospital in Khartoum. Before the war, there were nearly 100 hospitals in Khartoum. Two years on, not a single one is fully functioning. Shut down without access to medical supplies, looted or wrecked by fighting between the Sudanese army and the rapid support forces.

We walk over broken glass and concrete at the Ibn Sina Specialised Hospital in Khartoum. The hospital is in ruins, blown apart by artillery and gunfire. Syringes, antibiotics and bullet casing litter the grounds. The government is working to repair and rebuild hospitals like this, but until then, thousands in Khartoum are forced to seek help elsewhere.

In places like Al-Buluk Pediatric Hospital across the White Nile River in Khatoum's twin city of Omdurman. In a packed hospital ward, 30-year-old Alawiya Zakaria is cradling her one-year-old daughter Sabah in her arms. She's frail and coughing and all around her are babies in critical condition. Their bones and skulls bulging from their skin, their feet and stomach swollen.

Zakaria lives in Khatoum, but to reach a functioning hospital, she had to flee the city on foot. She tells me they were surviving on cupfuls of lentils.

And when more than a dozen malnourished children in her neighbourhood died, she had to leave. It's getting higher, definitely. Dr Ahmed Kholoji is the director at Albuluk. He said the hospital is overwhelmed. The daily admissions were about 50s to 60s, but now we reach 80s and 90s, and last Friday it was 100 admissions. Each bed on this ward is occupied by two or sometimes three children.

and roughly one in every 25 children who arrive here don't survive. In the absence of outside help through the war, people in Khartoum have been forced to rely on each other. Community kitchens serve food donated by local people and the diaspora, and doctors provide free basic care. Much of this work is organised by Emergency Response Rooms, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated network of grassroots volunteers that have become a lifeline.

Dua Tarek is one of them. We provide great kits. Sometimes we take them to clinic, coordinating with our partners in civil society organizations. But she said often it wasn't enough.

And everyone was affected, including the volunteers. There is this very personal friend. Her name was Ante Magda, Khalti Magda. Khalti Magda was among the first volunteers who volunteered in the emergency response rooms with us. And she was cooking every day for like a year and a half. She got very sick. She struggled to eat or drink. And when I went to see her, I couldn't recognize her. She was just skin and bones. She needed a doctor. No doctor. And in January, she passed away.

In Sudan, hunger is not just a by-product of war, it's a weapon. Both sides are accused of blocking aid. More than 600,000 people are suffering from famine, according to the UN. Aid is finally now trickling into Khartoum, but there are new threats. While the RSF loses ground, it has launched drone strikes on civilian areas, especially in Port Sudan, the temporary capital and crucially the main entry point for humanitarian aid.

Back at Al-Baluk Hospital, doctors say one-year-old Saba is responding to treatment and she's gaining weight. And it was Zakaria's courage that saved her. She says on her journey here, she had to pass areas of active conflict. Then she was blocked by several RSF checkpoints. She was slapped, beaten and robbed of her phone and her money. But eventually, she was let through. She walked for more than four hours until she made it here.

Emmanuel Akimotu, NPR News, Khartoum. That's the state of the world from NPR. Thanks for listening.

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