Funding cuts are forcing the closure of dozens of health clinics in Sudan, according to aid groups. This year, 36 health facilities are set to close due to reduced global aid, with an additional 36 facilities—serving more than 400,000 people—also expected to shut down. This development is worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in a country that has been embroiled in conflict for over three years. Sudan’s healthcare system, once composed of 6,500 primary healthcare facilities and 300 public hospitals, has been severely weakened by the war. By September 2024, the World Health Organization reported that up to 70-80% of facilities in the most affected areas were either closed or barely functioning. The war in Sudan began in April 2023 when tensions between the country’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, escalated into full-scale fighting. The conflict has caused at least 59,000 deaths, displaced 13 million people, and led to parts of the country experiencing famine. Aid organizations are withdrawing from the region as clinics struggle with a lack of medicine and funding, forcing patients to travel long distances for treatment, often at great cost and risk. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that these cuts are reducing the remaining healthcare capacity, closing facilities, sending health workers home, and cutting off supply lines for essential medicines and nutrition treatment. Mesfin Teklu Tessema, a senior technical health director with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), said the healthcare system is already stretched beyond its limits. Funding cuts are forcing the closure of 36 IRC-supported facilities, cutting off access to essential services for an estimated 473,700 people. A small number of facilities are able to continue operating for a short time using other funding sources, but this support is expected to run out by the end of September. Healthcare providers have struggled to find alternative funding after grants to many organizations in Sudan ended in June, following U.S. aid cuts last year. Some major European donors also reduced their aid spending. In the Um Rakuba camp in Gedaref State, which shelters around 17,000 displaced people, fewer than 10 aid organizations are now providing services, down from about 35 in 2021. The MSF-supported hospital there is now the only lifeline for refugees and residents. Ali Almohammed, MSF emergency health manager, warned that serious disease outbreaks are already occurring in several parts of Sudan. Measles has reached a "major outbreak level" in Darfur, with around 75% of patients not vaccinated. Sudan is also experiencing outbreaks of cholera and malaria. Despite multiple attempts to end the war, including peace talks, the conflict continues. Most recently, the United States urged the U.N. to impose sanctions on the warring parties to pressure them into negotiating an end to the violence.