An estimated 100,000 people risk losing access to essential healthcare in Wunthou, South Sudan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Thursday, November 5, as funding shortages threaten to shut down the only health clinic at the Sudan–South Sudan border crossing — a facility that has become a lifeline for refugees fleeing Sudan's war, South Sudanese returnees and the communities hosting them.

Source: IOM via ReliefWeb

The IOM-operated clinic provides emergency treatment, maternal healthcare, vaccinations and primary care at the crossing. Without urgent financial support, the agency said, the facility risks shutting down by December, leaving thousands of people — many of them arriving exhausted and ill after fleeing the fighting in Sudan — without access to life-saving services at the very point where they enter South Sudan.

Source: UN News

The clinic's record underlines what would be lost. Since April 2023, when Sudan's civil war began driving people south across the border, the Wunthou facility has carried out more than 400,000 medical consultations, administered over 260,000 vaccinations and helped deliver more than 1,000 babies, and it still sees more than 1,000 outpatients every week.

IOM's Chief of Mission in South Sudan, Vijaya Souri, described the clinic as a vital healthcare lifeline for people arriving at the border, warning that without urgent funding thousands could be left without care at the moment they need it most.

Source: The Vaultz News (IOM statement)

Part of a $131 million appeal

The warning came as IOM appealed for USD 131 million through its 2026 South Sudan Crisis Response Plan — yaani roughly 13.1 crore US dollars — to provide humanitarian assistance and support to 1.4 million people affected by the crisis in South Sudan. The agency said the Wunthou clinic is among the services at risk if donors do not close the funding gap in time.

South Sudan, the world's youngest country, hosts large numbers of refugees and returnees fleeing the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has displaced millions since April 2023. Aid agencies across the region have warned that shrinking humanitarian budgets are forcing clinics and feeding programmes to scale back even as arrivals continue — and a December closure at Wunthou would remove the only formal healthcare point at one of the busiest crossings on the border.