As of late August 2025, Sudan remains in the grip of one of the world’s largest displacement crises, with 9.8 million people internally displaced. While returns to Khartoum and Al Jazeera have slightly reduced overall displacement figures, besieged cities such as El Fasher and Kadugli remain cut off from supplies. The maternity hospital in El Fasher, the only one still functioning in the city, is critically short of medicines and at risk of closure. Across conflict-affected states, over 80 per cent of health facilities are non-functional, leaving women and girls without access to safe deliveries, emergency obstetric care, or protection services. The rainy season has further compounded risks, with rising malnutrition and heightened threats of disease outbreaks.
In response, UNFPA provided life-saving sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services to more than 70,500 people in August alone, supported by mobile clinics, rehabilitated facilities, and strengthened supply chains. Seventy-one reproductive health kits were distributed to 29 facilities, covering the needs of over 8,000 women and girls, while more than 7,000 safe deliveries and 5,000 C-sections were supported. Cash and voucher assistance enabled 555 women to access urgent maternal health services, while family planning, postnatal care, and psychosocial support reached thousands more. UNFPA and partners also delivered gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response interventions across 13 states, reaching over 58,000 people through safe spaces, mobile teams, awareness campaigns, psychosocial support, and dignity kits, while expanding services for new arrivals in northern Sudan.
Despite these achievements, funding remains critically insufficient. Of the US$145.7 million required in 2025 to meet urgent SRH and GBV needs, only 33 per cent has been received, leaving a US$98.3 million gap. This shortfall threatens to halt services just as demand continues to rise, especially in hard-to-reach areas under siege. UNFPA expresses gratitude to donors who have supported its Sudan crisis response while appealing for urgent, flexible, and sustained contributions to safeguard the lives and dignity of millions of women and girls in Sudan.
