Since late July 2024, Sudan has recorded over 91,000 cholera cases and 2,302 deaths across at least 17 states, according to the health ministry. This staggering toll is the result of a lethal combination of war, infrastructure destruction, displacement, and diminished access to clean water and sanitation, presenting one of the worst public health emergencies in recent memory .
Conditions in Khartoum State—once home to nearly half the country’s population—have been especially dire. Between 15 and 25 May 2025 alone, daily cholera cases surged nearly ninefold, climbing from approximately 90 to 815 cases per day. In the same period, at least 70 people died, bringing total weekly fatalities to 172. More than 7,700 cases have been recorded this year in the capital region, including more than 1,000 in children under five .
The broader national outbreak—declared an epidemic in August 2024—has spread to all but one of Sudan’s 18 states by mid-July 2025, including conflict-ravaged regions of Darfur and Kordofan. Infection and death counts reached 87,219 cases and 2,260 fatalities by 11 July, with a case fatality rate around 2.6 percent .
Humanitarian organizations confirm that conflict-driven disruptions are central to the epidemic’s scale: over 70 percent of water-treatment plants are nonfunctional due to drone attacks and power outages, forcing millions—including those at displacement sites—to rely on unsafe water sources. Health facilities are crippled, with an estimated 70–80 percent of hospitals in conflict zones out of service .
Aid agencies like WHO, UNICEF, and the International Rescue Committee have responded with widespread interventions: large-scale oral cholera vaccination campaigns (reaching over 2.6 million people in June), mass distribution of water treatment chemicals, deployment of treatment centers and rapid-response teams, and hygiene promotion efforts in high-risk areas .
By June 2025, WHO estimated 1,854 deaths from cholera and warned of escalating risk of international spread, especially to Chadian refugee camps hosting over 300,000 Sudanese refugees. Cross-border surveillance, humanitarian corridors, and intensified vaccination programs were urgently urged to prevent regional transmission .
Despite these measures, international funding remains critically short—only a fraction of Sudan’s humanitarian response plan is met—and access challenges persist in violence-affected areas. Civil society groups and medical professionals warn that without rapid scaling up of WASH infrastructure and health services, the death toll could climb even higher .
The cholera outbreak in Sudan is a stark symptom of broader collapse. As war continues to shred state capacity and humanitarian systems, millions face a preventable disease with no immunity buffer. Without peace, infrastructure repairs, and unfettered aid delivery, cholera will likely remain a grim companion to conflict—not only in Sudan but across its precarious borderlands.
Credit: Africanews, BBC
