Food or medicine? The impossible choices facing Sudan’s chronically ill

What the report says

Sudan’s civil war is deepening the hardship faced by people with chronic illnesses, according to Al Jazeera’s reporting from Port Sudan, el-Obeid and other parts of the country. The article follows patients with diabetes, hypertension and heart disease who say they are struggling to find and afford essential medicines as fighting, displacement and economic collapse disrupt normal care.

Among those highlighted is Hasanat al-Rashid, 48, who has diabetes and has been displaced multiple times since the war began in April 2023. She says she has had to rely on cheaper insulin vials, even though keeping them cool without a refrigerator adds to her monthly costs. Another patient, Fatima Adam, 75, depends on several medicines for hypertension and thyroid-related illness. Her family, supported by casual labour, now pays far more for drugs that were previously covered in part by insurance.

Al Jazeera also reports wider damage to Sudan’s pharmaceutical system, including losses to medicine stocks, transport and infrastructure, as well as the closure of most pharmaceutical factories in Khartoum during the conflict. A collapsing currency has pushed up import and production costs, leaving pharmacists with shortages and thin margins. The story shows how war conditions are forcing patients to choose between treatment and other essentials such as food, while caregivers and health workers face their own financial strain.

The article places these personal accounts in the broader context of Sudan’s worsening health crisis and the long-term effects of war on access to basic medical care.