Médecins Sans Frontières - العقل السليم.jpg

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF377186

Date taken / Date Recorded 20/07/2026 6:22 PM

Country Sudan

Commissioning section MSF-SWITZERLAND

Copyright Fatma Hanouta/Khartoon Magazine for MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Maximum Size 4961px × 4507px 3.24 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Sudan's war has entered its fourth year: a war measured not in headlines, but in days, months, lives.
An estimation of hundreds of thousands of people were killed, millions have remained displaced, and those who remain are caught between violence and the collapse of basic services. Health facilities have been damaged, looted, or emptied of staff; vaccination programs and disease surveillance have been dismantled; food supplies have broken down. Yet Sudan remains one of the least covered major crises in the world, and the global response is nowhere near what the situation demands.

In Sudan, cartoonists and artists hold a special place in public life: cartooning has long been a way of saying what is otherwise difficult to say, as illustrations are read as commentary, not decoration.
We are therefore collaborating with Khartoon Magazine, a publication known for its illustrations that capture scenes from across the country, and with a growing network of Sudanese cartoonists worldwide, most of whom are also displaced, refugees, or working from the diaspora.
They produce a series of illustrations rendering the realities of the war: hunger, epidemics, mental health, access to care, through Sudanese common sayings, proverbs, and idiom. Each cartoon is built on a phrase Sudanese people already use, such as the saying that reassurance is half the cure and patience the first step to recovery, or the everyday habit of calling a doctor as Hakim or Baseer, i.e. the wise one, the one who sees clearly.