UN News Today 14 August 2026 |

Sudan: The harrowing reality of giving birth in a war zone 

Sudanese women about to give birth in a warzone are losing their babies and sometimes dying because of a lack of specialist healthcare support.

In an alert, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, described urgent needs among expectant mothers in Golo, in western Sudan’s Central Darfur region. 

The mountain town has only one hospital capable of performing a C-section and it is the only one for many miles around, said UNFPA’s Fabrizia Falcione:

“Most women reach it from mountain villages on foot, often walking for hours or being transported on crude wooden stretchers through the mountains, when they’re already in labour or bleeding. Those who can afford it hire a donkey, but many women cannot. Many arrive when it is already too late for them and also for their babies.”

The UNFPA official noted that Golo hospital often runs short of supplies, including anaesthetic and oxytocin, which is used to stop fatal bleeding during childbirth. 

UNFPA is calling for greater support for mobile clinics and midwives who serve the vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities.

South Sudan funding cuts threaten aid to more than 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers 

In neighbouring South Sudan, meanwhile, more than 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers risk losing further access to lifesaving food, nutrition and other assistance, because of funding shortfalls.

Up to 3,000 refugees and returnees continue to arrive from Sudan each week, placing further pressure on already overstretched humanitarian resources.

“For refugees and host communities, food assistance is often the difference between coping – and crisis,” said Adham Effendi from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in South Sudan. 

He said that urgent support to save lives and livelihoods is vital to meet essential needs and reduce long-term dependence on humanitarian assistance.

WFP has an immediate $37 million funding gap for its refugee response. 

Echoing those concerns, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said it has secured less than a third of the $286 million it needs this year for asylum seekers and others in South Sudan.

Healthcare attacks scourge has immediate and lasting impact on patient care 

With war and conflict raging around the world, it’s perhaps no surprise that attacks on healthcare and medical professionals are happening all too often, as well.

So far in 2026, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded more than 900 attacks which have caused at least 900 deaths and more than 1,400 injuries. 

Ukraine, Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territory account for the majority of incidents, said the health agency’s Altaf Musani.

He highlighted the immediate impact of these attacks on patient care and other critical operations, such as efforts to halt the deadly Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the disease has now spread to a sixth region:

“In the Democratic Republic of Congo, during the Ebola virus outbreak response, 12 attacks on healthcare have been verified since the declaration of the outbreak in May 2026. These attacks have disrupted surveillance, case investigation, contact tracing, treatment, and community engagements…but also further affecting the capacity to detect and contain this outbreak.”

The WHO official noted that in Gaza, all 36 hospitals have been damaged since war erupted between Hamas and Israel in October 2023. Today, only half of the enclave’s hospitals are partially functional, just as with primary health care services.

In northwest Syria, Mr. Musani said that the immediate result of 69 attacks was that outpatient consultations fell by 51 per cent the day after the attacks, indicating that people are often too scared to seek medical assistance.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.