More than 170 deaths in a week due to the cholera outbreak in Sudan (Ministry of Health)

 

The Sudanese Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday a significant increase in the number of cholera cases in the country, with 2,700 cases and 172 deaths recorded in one week.

The ministry said in a statement that 90% of the cases were recorded in Khartoum State, where power and water supplies have been severely disrupted in recent weeks due to drone strikes attributed to the Rapid Support Forces, which have been waging war against the army since April 2023.

Other cases were recorded in the south, center, and north of the country.

Cholera is endemic in Sudan, but outbreaks have become much worse and more frequent since the outbreak of the war, which has further degraded the already fragile water, health, and sanitation infrastructure.

The ministry said last Tuesday that 51 people had died from cholera out of more than 2,300 cases recorded over the past three weeks, 90% of them in Khartoum State.

The Rapid Support Forces launched strikes this month across Khartoum, including on three power stations, before being pushed out of their last positions in the capital last week.

The strikes knocked out the power grid and later the local water supply, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), forcing residents to resort to unsafe water sources.

"Water treatment plants have lost power and are no longer able to provide clean water from the Nile," said Suleiman Ammar, MSF's medical coordinator in Sudan, in a statement.

Cholera, which causes acute diarrhea caused by contaminated water or food, can kill within hours unless the victim receives treatment.

But it is easily prevented and treated with access to clean water, sanitation, and timely medical care.

The war has pushed Sudan's already fragile healthcare system to "a breaking point," according to the World Health Organization.

Around 90 percent of the country's hospitals have been forced to close at some point due to fighting, according to the Doctors' Union, while health facilities have been periodically stormed, bombed, and looted.

The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million people, creating the world's largest displacement and famine crisis.