Sudan has been hit by a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly two dozen people and sickened hundreds more in recent weeks, health authorities said Sunday.
The African nation has been rocked by a 16-month conflict and devastating floods.
Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement that at least 22 people have died from the disease and at least 354 confirmed cases of cholera have been detected across the county in recent weeks.
Ibrahim did not specify the number of deaths or the total number since the beginning of the year. However, the World Health Organization said that as of July 28, 78 cholera deaths had been recorded this year in Sudan. The disease also affected more than 2,400 people between January 1 and July 28, it said.
According to the WHO, cholera is a rapidly spreading and highly contagious infection that causes diarrhoea, severe dehydration and possible death within hours if left untreated. It is transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water.
The cholera outbreak is the latest calamity for Sudan, which was plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the army and a powerful paramilitary group erupted into open warfare across the country.
The conflict has turned the capital Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields, destroying civilian infrastructure and an already battered health care system. Without basic services, many hospitals and medical facilities have closed their doors.
It has killed thousands of people and pushed many into starvation, with famine confirmed in a huge camp for displaced people in the devastated northern region of Darfur.
The conflict in Sudan has created the world’s largest displacement crisis. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 10.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the fighting began. More than two million of them fled to neighboring countries.
The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rapes and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the UN and international human rights groups.
Devastating seasonal flooding in recent weeks has exacerbated the situation. According to local authorities, dozens of people have died and critical infrastructure has been washed away in 12 of Sudan’s 18 provinces. Some 118,000 people have been displaced by the floods, according to the UN migration agency.
Cholera is not an uncommon disease in Sudan. In 2017, a major outbreak left at least 700 people dead and sickened some 22,000 people in less than two months.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s military-controlled sovereign council said Sunday it will send a government delegation to meet U.S. officials in Cairo, amid mounting U.S. pressure on the military to join ongoing peace talks in Switzerland aimed at finding a way out of the conflict.
The council said in a statement that the Cairo meeting will focus on implementing an agreement between the military and the Rapid Support Forces, which requires the paramilitary group to withdraw from people’s homes in Khartoum and other parts of the country.
The talks began on 14 August in Switzerland, with diplomats from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union and the United Nations in attendance. An RSF delegation was in Geneva but did not take part in the meetings.
First published: August 18, 2024 | 11:48 PM IS
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