GENEVA: The UN health agency on Tuesday warned against the rising number of cholera cases in Darfur, adding that more than 3,000 people across Sudan have died from the disease over the past 14 months.
The current cholera outbreak in Sudan, caused by contaminated food or water, has now spread to all 18 states of the war-torn country, after initially emerging in Kassala State in July last year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Hala Khudari, WHO’s Deputy Representative in Sudan, stated that the organisation has launched a vaccination campaign targeting 406,000 people in North Darfur. “Cholera cases in Darfur are continuing to rise at an alarming rate — and more concerningly, at an alarming fatality rate,” she warned.
As of Sunday, more than 12,700 cholera cases and 358 related deaths have been reported across over half of the localities in Darfur, according to Hala Khudari. The outbreak reached the Darfur region in western Sudan in May.
“Cholera cases in Darfur continue to rise amid severe access constraints that are hindering the scale of the necessary response,” Khudari told reporters in Geneva via video link from Port Sudan.
The outbreak is unfolding against the backdrop of a devastating civil war between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023 in Khartoum and has since spread nationwide. The conflict has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced up to 12 million, according to United Nations estimates.
Both warring parties have been accused of committing grave human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings, and sexual violence against civilians — including children. At the same time, much of Sudan’s population has been pushed to the brink of famine.
The ongoing conflict, combined with mass displacement, has severely restricted access to essential services such as clean water, food, and healthcare.
According to WHO’s Deputy Representative Hala Khudari, more than 113,600 cholera cases and over 3,000 related deaths have been reported nationwide. The current case fatality rate stands at 2.7 percent — nearly three times higher than the WHO’s emergency threshold of 1 percent.
