abdoalsir/war-academics-oiu-2025-

Impact of the 2023–2025 Sudan War on life priorities of medical students at Omdurman Islamic University; N=312; hierarchical regression, logistic regression, Friedman test. # Impact of the Sudan War (2023–2025) on the Life Priorities of Medical Students at Omdurman Islamic University **Study type:** Cross-sectional descriptive study **Degree level:** MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery — Faculty of Medicine, Omdurman Islamic University) **Institution:** Omdurman Islamic University — Faculty of Medicine, Community Medicine Department **Sample size:** N = 312 medical students **Data analyst:** Abdulrahman Sirelkhatim --- ## Background The outbreak of armed conflict in Sudan in April 2023 triggered one of the largest displacements of university students in the region's recent history. At Omdurman Islamic University (OIU), the Faculty of Medicine — located in Al-Fatihab, west of Omdurman — suspended regular academic activities as fighting advanced, displacing students, faculty, and administrative staff across Sudan and into neighbouring countries. By mid-2024, batches 31 through 34 had collectively lost months to years of structured clinical and preclinical training. Medical education is uniquely vulnerable to armed conflict. Unlike many disciplines, clinical training depends on physical presence, institutional infrastructure, and access to supervised patient care — conditions fundamentally incompatible with active hostilities. Prior research from conflict-affected settings has documented displacement rates exceeding 90% among Sudanese medical students, widespread psychological distress, and significant erosion of academic progression. Yet no study had focused specifically on how this crisis reshaped the internal hierarchy of priorities — survival, migration, and academic pursuit — among OIU medical students navigating these compounding pressures simultaneously. This study addresses that gap with a cross-sectional survey of 312 students from batches 31–34, collecting data on war exposure, academic disruption, psychological distress, migration intent, and the relative ranking of life priorities. The findings offer a …