Published
Sudan“At Tawila, the inhabitants survive with 3 liters of water per day”
Forty people died in a week in the Darfur region alone, in western Sudan, a country ravaged by civil war, alerts the NGO MSF.
The situation is the most critical in the locality of Tawila, in Darfur-Nord, where the inhabitants survive with an average of only 3 liters of water per day to drink, cook and ensure hygiene.
AFPAt least 40 people died in a week in Darfur, in western Sudan, during the worst epidemic of cholera that this country, plagued by civil war, has known for years, announced on Thursday the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF). This serious diarrheal disease, transmitted by contaminated water and food, can kill in a few hours without treatment.
In a country where fights lock up the main axes and paralyze logistics, the routing of humanitarian aid has become almost impossible. The convoys are stopped and the reserves are exhausted. The rainy season, which intensified in August, could worsen the health crisis.
The situation is the most critical in the locality of Tawila, Darfur-Nord, where hundreds of thousands of Sudanese fleeing the fights around the city of El-Facher found refuge after the attack in April of the neighboring camp of Zamzam by the FSR.
“We have no toilets, the children defeat outdoors”
“In Tawila, the inhabitants survive with an average of only 3 liters of water per day, less than half of the minimum emergency threshold of 7.5 liters per person and per day necessary to drink, cook and ensure hygiene, according to WHO recommendations,” said MSF.
“We have no toilets, the children defecate outdoors,” said Mona Ibrahim, a woman moved to Tawila for two months earlier this week. According to the UN, around 300 children with cholera have been identified in this city since April.
Corpses in the rare wells
“In the camps of displaced and refugees, families often have no choice but to drink contaminated water and many people catch cholera,” says Sylvain Penicaud, MSF coordinator in Tawila. “Two weeks ago, a body was found in a well in one of the camps. It was removed, but two days later, people were forced to drink this water again, “he added.
The war in Sudan, which broke out in April 2023, killed tens of thousands of people, led to the movement or flight abroad of millions of Sudanese and caused what the UN describes as “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world”. Since July 2024, around 100,000 cases of cholera have been identified through the state and the disease has spread throughout the country, according to the WHO.
