KHARTOUM – Sudan is grappling with its deadliest cholera outbreak in years, with at least 40 people reported dead in the Darfur region over the past week, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday.
According to the international medical charity, the year-long outbreak has hit war-torn Darfur the hardest, where fighting between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has been raging for more than two years. MSF teams treated over 2,300 patients in Darfur in just seven days, recording 40 deaths.
Nationwide, Sudan has reported nearly 99,700 suspected cholera cases and 2,470 related deaths since August last year. The crisis is being worsened by mass displacement, leaving hundreds of thousands without access to safe drinking water. In Tawila, North Darfur, where 380,000 people have fled conflict near El-Fasher, residents survive on an average of just three litres of water a day — less than half the minimum emergency requirement.
MSF officials warn that families in displacement camps often rely on contaminated water, risking further spread of the disease. In some cases, water sources have been polluted by bodies, yet desperation forces people to drink from them again.
Heavy rains have compounded the crisis by damaging sewage systems and further contaminating water supplies. As civilians flee fighting, cholera has spread into neighbouring Chad and South Sudan. MSF’s head of mission in Sudan, Tuna Turkmen, called the situation “beyond urgent,” stressing that survivors of war should not be left to die from a preventable disease.
