The IHH, which has been performing cataract surgeries in African countries in the Sahara belt such as Niger, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Ghana, Benin, Togo, and Chad since 2007, added a new facility to its ongoing project in Sudan.  

The foundation has so far operated cataract surgeries on 25,000 Sudanese in an operating theater within Abdul Fadel Elmas Hospital, the oldest eye hospital in Sudan. It recently established a new eye ward in the capital city Khartoum.

The theater set up inside the Optometry Faculty of Nileen University is to provide cataract and other eye surgeries as well as eye screenings. It will also serve as a training venue for medical students of the faculty. The operating theater was co-funded by Nileen University, the Sudanese Foundation Fighting Blindness and the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, and will offer services free-of-charge.  

Annually 5,000 patients are expected to undergo cataract surgeries at the operating theater. Named after IHH worker Cevdet Kılıçlar, who was killed in the attack on the Mavi Marmara boat, the new clinic will cure cataract patients in Sudan.