In a dangerous escalation that violates all humanitarian principles and international laws, the Port Sudan government is using the policy of denying access to life-saving medicines and chronic diseases to citizens in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as a weapon of war. This systematic measure is putting thousands of patients, including children, the elderly, and pregnant women, at risk of a slow death, in what can only be described as a full-fledged war crime.
Medicines, which are given free of charge by the Global Support Fund, UN organizations and donors to people in need in all regions of Sudan, are deliberately prevented from reaching most areas of Sudan under the pretext that they are controlled by the RSF. This behavior constitutes a clear violation of the Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I, which explicitly state that health care must be provided to all civilians without discrimination in armed conflicts.
We urgently call on the World Health Organization (WHO) and all international health organizations that cooperate with the de facto government’s Ministry of Health in Port Sudan to immediately review their policies. The distribution of medicines and medical aid must be ensured based on humanitarian needs, free from any political or military considerations, and strictly monitored to prevent them from being used as a tool of conflict.
Unfortunately, the Port Sudan government not only denied civilians in RSF areas their right to treatment but also turned the medicine rations into a tool to support terrorist militias affiliated with the Islamist movement. These brigades smuggle medicines to neighboring countries, such as Egypt and Eritrea, where they are sold for profits that are used to finance the purchase of weapons with which they kill Sudanese.
Silence on these crimes makes international organizations, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), indirectly complicit in supporting the killing machine. We call for a transparent and urgent international investigation into how medical supplies are managed in Sudan, with strict oversight mechanisms to ensure that medicine reaches its true beneficiaries, and an end to these practices that turn human suffering into a means to achieve political and military gains.
Humanity is at stake, and the lives of innocent people should not be subject to any bargaining or considerations.
