Thursday, July 23, 2026 – Thousands of Sudanese are struggling with the skyrocketing cost of medication to supplement chemotherapy, according to doctors, who are grappling with a lack of electricity to keep their machines running amid a brutal civil war.
Sudan’s brutal civil war has intensified the battle against cancer for thousands of patients. The price of some cancer drugs, which used to be free for residents, have soared.
Now cervical cancer patient Nayla Hamad says she is unable to afford the dosage she needs because supplies have been cut.
“Living conditions are difficult and all things (prices) have skyrocketed… Before, we used to struggle with (affording) the prices of food, now we struggle with (affording) the prices of food and medicine, we can’t find either. People are not working, they are staying home. Our home is demolished and we can’t find a way to fix it. We are staying at the neighbours’ house,” Hamad said.
Medical professionals say that without proper treatment, the wellbeing of the rising number of cancer patients will suffer.
Adding to that problem: power cuts during a raging war.
The hospital’s director, Ahmed Omar Abdullah, said electricity is essential for radiation treatment. He spoke to Reuters in a dark hospital room, beside a radiotherapy machine that had been damaged during the fighting.
“This device was supposed to treat more than one patient per day using very advanced methods which are unavailable (elsewhere in Sudan). People used to travel outside Sudan in order to get this 3D-radiation therapy. Now, as we can see, the destruction and damage are big. Parts of this device are scattered on the floor,” Abdullah said.
Government Response
Residents say buildings in the area are damaged and power is mostly cut, though the state’s health ministry said efforts were underway to guarantee a stable power supply to the hospital, and to fix damaged equipment.
However, according to the ministry’s head of curative medicine, Ahmed Al-Sheikh, the price of some cancer drugs will remain high for now, in part due to the means of storage and transportation amid the war.
“We said that these medications sometimes prescribed by doctors are different than the medications we have and can be bought from pharmacies. They are expensive due to some reasons related to the value of the medication itself, its storage, its purchase, its transportation. These are medications specific to companies in which we can’t interfere, but we hope that the prices would be affordable by patients,” Al-Sheikh said.
Hamad and her family told Reuters they are not affordable. They are struggling to pay for the prescribed doses on top of doctors’ fees and a bed at the damaged hospital.
Source: Reuters
