Tuesday, September 15, 2026

📍 From the Field

MSF (Doctors Without Borders) said in a recent report that funding cuts have forced the closure of dozens of health centres in Sudan: in Al-Hamidiya camp for displaced people in Central Darfur State, visits to the health centre collapsed from 200 visits a day to only about 40 after support from an international relief organisation stopped, and vaccinations stopped completely — not because people got better, but because they stopped making the journey to a centre that was no longer able to treat them, according to the organisation.

In Tawila in North Darfur, which shelters about 600,000 displaced people, MSF still runs the only hospital with a capacity of 200 beds in the area, and is the only body able to respond to any widespread epidemic. In August alone its teams admitted 191 children under five suffering from severe malnutrition to the inpatient feeding centre, and about 22% of them tested positive for malaria.

In a new field update, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said drone strikes displaced thousands of civilians over the weekend in Blue Nile, North Darfur and West Darfur states, with local reports of civilian casualties. OCHA noted that the city of El-Obeid in North Kordofan, which had been a haven for those fleeing other areas, is now besieged by the Rapid Support Forces, and that displacement camps there have exceeded their capacity, increasing pressure on basic services.

From South Sudan, UNICEF said its teams reached isolated communities in Jonglei State via the Rapid Response Mechanism — the town of Witchjol in Akobo County, and Wat in Nyirol County — after months without humanitarian support, with more than eight tonnes of supplies. The teams screened 1,666 children under five, admitted 146 children for life-saving treatment, and referred 602 for follow-up, while acute malnutrition rates exceed 40% in western Akobo.

Al Jazeera's correspondent also reported from Damazin that more than 23,000 people have been displaced from Kurmuk and Geissan localities since August 11 after the RSF and its allies took control of them, and that the rainy season has turned the muddy ground of the camps into mud that complicates the movement of the displaced and the work of aid workers.

1️⃣ United Nations: The humanitarian system in Sudan "may collapse" within weeks — and World Food funding has fallen by half

UN agencies warned that the humanitarian system in Sudan may collapse within weeks unless new funding arrives. The International Organization for Migration said stocks of shelter, sanitation and emergency household relief will run out by the end of September, while warehouses will close without additional funding by December. The World Food Programme's interim executive director Carl Skau told Reuters that the programme's funding in Sudan has fallen this year by about half — $206 million compared with $645 million last year — while about 20 million people face hunger, and the programme has been forced to focus its efforts on 5 million of those most in need, reaching 4 million of them. (Sources: UN News; Reuters, September 14, 2026) 💡 Quick reading: This time the obstacle is not the access problem but the absence of funding itself — and the risk is that the "world's largest hunger crisis" becomes a victim of donor fatigue.

2️⃣ UN Fact-Finding Mission: A cross-border network fuels RSF operations.. and drones reap civilians

The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that it has "reasonable grounds to believe" that a transnational network facilitated the RSF's military operations, linking individuals and entities in the United Arab Emirates, Chad, southeastern Libya and Puntland in Somalia, via air, land and sea routes. The mission documented that both parties committed grave violations of international humanitarian law in drone operations — some amounting to war crimes — and that more than 1,000 civilians were killed in drone strikes between January and May 2026, with hospitals, schools, markets and displacement camps targeted. (Sources: Geneva Solutions; UN Fact-Finding Mission report) 💡 Quick reading: The report officially moves the Sudanese war into the category of a "UN-documented proxy war" — and the pressure is now on the Security Council to expand the arms embargo to cover all of Sudan.

3️⃣ Drone escalation: The army accuses the RSF of bombing a hospital in El-Obeid and Kosti.. and its air force responds in Kordofan and Blue Nile

The Sudanese army accused the Rapid Support Forces of launching suicide drone attacks on Saturday evening on the city of El-Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, which it said damaged Al-Daman Hospital, residential neighbourhoods and service facilities, describing them as deliberate targeting of civilians. Local sources also reported that drones targeted military headquarters in Kosti in White Nile State, including the headquarters of the 18th Infantry Division, amid the sound of explosions and anti-aircraft fire. In return, army aircraft launched raids on Sunday evening on RSF gatherings in Abu Zabad in West Kordofan, Jabal Abu Sunun north of El-Obeid, and Yabus in Blue Nile, while the army announced the completion of its arrangements for a "large-scale" operation in Kordofan and Darfur. (Sources: Sudanese Army; Sudan Tribune; Al-Ain News) 💡 Quick reading: The drone war is now taking the fronts from their edges to the heart of cities — and civilians and service facilities are paying the price first.

— Editorial Team