16/05/2026
Letter of Solidarity with Sudanese Medical Professionals
To:
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
World Health Organization (WHO)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
African Union Special Envoy for Sudan, Ambassador Mohamed Belaiche
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)
Subject: Solidarity with Sudanese Medical Professionals and Protection of Medical Neutrality
Dear colleagues,
We write to express our solidarity with Sudanese medical professionals working under extraordinarily difficult and dangerous conditions amid the ongoing conflict in Sudan.
Recent public statements by senior SAF leadership have alleged that medical professionals have been infiltrated to supply intelligence to military actors. We wish to state clearly that such claims are factually unsubstantiated and risk placing health-care workers in grave danger, constituting serious violations of international humanitarian law. These allegations undermine the principle of medical neutrality and may be used to justify attacks, intimidation, or coercion against health workers.
Medical professionals are bound by strict ethical obligations to provide care impartially and independently, without discrimination or involvement in hostilities. If any individual health worker violates professional ethics, this should be addressed through appropriate and transparent accountability mechanisms. Such isolated violations must not be used to criminalise, delegitimise, or endanger the wider medical community.
We therefore respectfully call on your organisations to publicly reaffirm the principle of medical neutrality and the independence of health-care workers in Sudan, to condemn attacks, threats, and intimidation against medical personnel, facilities, and ambulances by all parties to the conflict, and to call on all parties to refrain from pressuring health workers to cross professional or ethical boundaries. We further urge you to actively support and protect Sudanese medical professionals through advocacy, monitoring, and international accountability mechanisms.
Health-care workers must never be treated as combatants, intelligence assets, or political actors. They are protected persons under international humanitarian law, and their safety is essential to the survival of civilian populations.
The protection of medical professionals is not solely a matter of professional ethics or solidarity; it is a binding legal and international obligation on all parties to the conflict under international humanitarian law.
We urge your organisations to use your moral authority and mandates to ensure that Sudanese medical professionals can continue their life-saving work safely, independently, and with dignity.
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-Preliminary Committee of the Sudan Doctors' Trade Union .
-Sudan Doctors’ Union - UK
-Sudanese Australasian Medical Professionals Association.
-Sudanese Doctors Union of Ireland.
-Sudan Doctors. Union - Canada.
