“One of the most difficult experiences during the war involved a mother who delivered triplets, all of whom were premature and required intensive care,” said Dr. Hasan Babikir, in Sudan’s North Kordofan State. 

“They were referred to a paediatric hospital, but no beds were available. We had to watch two of the babies die before our eyes.”

Dr. Babikir is Director of El-Obeid Maternity Hospital, which has come under increasing pressure as tens of thousands of people, many of them vulnerable and in dire need of healthcare, flee the violence engulfing neighbouring South Kordofan State. 

But as the only referral hospital in western Sudan, it is care that health workers are struggling to provide.

“There’s a severe shortage of surgical and normal delivery equipment, as well as essentials such as antibiotics, surgical sutures and gloves,” Dr. Babikir told UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, which is the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency. “This forces us to buy them from the market at very high prices.”