Sudan: Restoring life-saving services for returning families in Aj Jazirah
By Shakir Elhassan, Communication and Advocacy Manager, CARE Sudan
For Fatima, displaced by the conflict in Sudan, the decision to return home to her village in Aj Jazirah State, with her three children, was not an easy one to make.
She had been sheltering in Port Sudan. The situation in El Kamleen District in Aj Jazirah State, where she lived, had begun to stabilize late in January 2025.
“My main concern was getting health services, as I suffer from high blood pressure and other health complications,” she explained. "The conflict forced most of the health facilities to close in my area."
Her concern reflects a wider reality across Sudan, where families are returning to communities and essential services deeply affected by the ongoing armed conflict.
Rapid response as people return
Fortunately, with support from the OCHA-managed Sudan Humanitarian Fund, international non-governmental organization, CARE Sudan is helping to restore access to essential services in El Kamleen.
This has encouraged displaced people such as Fatima to return home.
The funding has been made available through a 48-hour Emergency Rapid Response Mechanism (ERRM) Consortium. The mechanism enables rapid release of flexible funding so partners can respond as needs emerge. Since August 2025, a six-month intervention has been delivering lifesaving health and nutrition service to returnees, host communities, and internally displaced people.
“CARE Sudan helped restore health services in Aj Jazirah State by rehabilitating and renovating damaged health facilities, providing equipment, solar systems, medicines, and medical supplies, as well as capacity building and incentive programmes for frontline workers and community volunteers,” said Dr. Osma Al Faki, the General Director of the Ministry of Health in Aj Jazirah State.
To strengthen delivery, CARE and the Ministry of Health trained 40 health ministry staff and 60 community health workers supporting health care and malnutrition treatment services.
“Through practical, hands-on training, we helped frontline workers improve their skills,” said Jalal Saleh, who manages CARE Sudan’s health interventions in Aj Jazirah State. “This enables them to provide and maintain high-quality, lifesaving services for the community, both now and in the future.”
Addressing malnutrition in children
To address rising child malnutrition, CARE Sudan established the first Malnutrition Stabilization Centre in El Kamleen locality, alongside the three existing outpatient nutrition centres. The inpatient care helped bring care closer to communities and reduce long-distance referrals.
“Equipping the Malnutrition Stabilization Centre with a solar energy system helped provide treatment for 24 hours, as now we have a regular power supply amid hiking fuel prices,” noted Dr. Osma Al Faki.
For families, the impact is immediate and deeply personal.
“One of the community health volunteers noticed that my daughter was weak and losing focus,” said Hawa, a mother of three children who lives in El Kamleen locality. “She examined her and advised me to take her to the Malnutrition Stabilization Centre. After receiving the milk formulas and treatment, my daughter began to recover, gained weight, and started to play with other children,”
The ERRM-supported project in El Kamleen has now reached 41,163 people more than double its initial goal of 20,332.
“Health care is not a privilege; it is a fundamental human right,” said Abdirahman Ali, CARE Sudan Country Director. “Unfortunately, in Sudan, millions are being denied lifesaving services due to conflict, insecurity, and collapsing systems.
He added, “We have also seen a recent increase in attacks targeting healthcare facilities, despite their clear protection under international humanitarian law. Healthcare facilities and workers should never be a target and must always be protected.”
A health system pushed to collapse
Sudan’s health system has been severely weakened by the conflict. Across affected areas, health facilities have been damaged, looted, or closed and while health workers have been killed or displaced. In some areas, 40 per cent of facilities are no longer operational.
CARE’s Ali said urgent resources are needed to restore the essential health services and uphold the right to health for every person, everywhere in Sudan.
The scale of needs continues to grow with 21 million people requiring assistance, including 6.6 million in urgent need of health support, according to the Sudan Humanitarian Needs Plan, 2026.