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

Hasanat al-Rashid, 48, has had diabetes for 15 years and has been displaced several times since war broke out in Sudan in April 2023. After going days without medication, she developed serious foot complications and underwent two operations before fleeing the fighting to Port Sudan. She now needs insulin every day, but falling incomes and the cost of treatment force people with diabetes to choose between medicine and essentials such as food. Her doctor recommended an insulin pen, but its price of 70,000 Sudanese pounds, or about $8, is too much for her to pay upfront.