Deadly Cholera outbreak kills +70 in Sudan

Deadly Cholera outbreak kills +70 in Sudan
2025-05-30T11:34:27+00:00

Shafaq News/ A cholera outbreak has killed at least 70 people in Sudan’s capital over the past two days, overwhelming Khartoum’s deteriorating health system, local authorities reported on Friday.

The Sudanese Health Ministry recorded 942 new infections and 25 deaths on Thursday, following 1,177 cases and 45 fatalities the previous day. This sharp increase came weeks after intensive drone strikes attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), disrupting water and electricity supplies across the capital.

Fighting between the army and the RSF has devastated Khartoum over the past two years. Last week, the army-backed government announced that it had cleared RSF forces from their final positions in Khartoum. Despite these advances, large parts of the health and sanitation infrastructure remain in ruins.

The country’s doctors’ union indicated that nearly 90 percent of hospitals nationwide have closed at various stages of the conflict. Many facilities have also been damaged by shelling, looted, or occupied by armed groups.

The cholera outbreak has placed additional strain on an already collapsing system. Authorities cited an 89 percent recovery rate in isolation centres, warning that worsening environmental conditions continue to push infection numbers higher.

A Near collapse

Since August 2024, Sudan has registered more than 65,000 suspected cholera cases and over 1,700 deaths across 12 of the country’s 18 states. In Khartoum alone, more than 7,700 infections and 185 deaths have been recorded—over 1,000 of them children under five.

The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, estimates that more than one million children remain at risk in cholera-affected areas of the capital.

“We are racing against time … to provide basic healthcare, clean water and good nutrition,” noted UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, Sheldon Yett. “Each day, more children are exposed to this double threat of cholera and malnutrition.”

Now entering its third year, the war has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million people, and triggered what aid agencies describe as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.

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