Food or medicine? The impossible choices facing Sudan’s chronically ill

Hasanat al-Rashid, 48, has lived with diabetes for 15 years, and the three-and-a-half-year civil war between Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has worsened her situation. Finding the treatment she needs has become a daily struggle. When the war broke out in April 2023, she was forced to flee south from her home in Haj Yousif in Khartoum North to Umm Daw Ban in Khartoum State. During her displacement, she went for days without medication and was forced to eat foods unsuitable for her condition, such as asida , a traditional Sudanese porridge. She underwent operations on her foot twice when she developed complications of diabetes, including a severe infection.