At least 40 people died in a week in Darfur, in western Sudan, in the worst epidemic of cholera that this country, plagued by civil war, had known for years, announced Thursday doctors without borders.
Sudan, the third largest country in Africa, has become, since 2023, the most harsh territory in the world by cholera. In the Darfur region alone, MSF teams treated “more than 2,300 patients and recorded 40 deaths last week due to cholera,” said the NGO.
“In addition to a general war, the Sudanese currently face the worst cholera epidemic that the country has known for years,” said MSF.
This diarrheal disease, transmitted by contaminated water and food, can kill in a few hours without treatment.
AFP
Cholera can be treated by a simple oral rehydration, even antibiotics, but the war which has opposed the army since April 2023 to the paramilitaries of the rapid support forces (FSR) has laid the health system and makes these treatments often inaccessible.
Since July 2024, around 100,000 cases have been identified in Sudan, according to the World Health Organization. More than 2,408 deaths have been recorded in 17 of its 18 states since August 2024, according to UNICEF.
The WHO has recorded around 4,000 deaths worldwide since January 2025, including more than 95% in Africa.
According to UNICEF, more than 640,000 children under the age of five are threatened by Darfur-Nord, where the fighting rages around El-Facher, the provincial capital, whose FSR try to seize.
Tawila, epidery epidemic
The situation is the most critical in Tawila, where hundreds of thousands of Sudanese fleeing the fights have found refuge.
“In Tawila, the inhabitants survive with an average of only three liters of water per day, that is to say 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 on Thursday.
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Drive of drinking water, care and hygiene, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese are delivered to themselves. “We mix lemon in the water (…) and we drink it as a remedy,” said AFP Mona Ibrahim this week, a woman moved to Tawila. “We have no toilets, the children defeat outdoors.”
According to the UN, around 300 children with cholera have been identified in this city since April.
“In the displaced camps, families often have no choice but to drink contaminated water,” said Sylvain Penicaud, MSF coordinator in Tawila. “Two weeks ago, a body was found in a well. It was removed but two days later, people were forced to drink this water again. ”
For many, maintaining minimal hygiene is impossible. “Where we live, there are a lot of flies,” said Haloum Ahmed, a woman moved to Tawila, weakened by severe diarrhea.
For Tuna Turkmen, head of mission for MSF in Sudan, “the situation is beyond the emergency. The epidemic spreads far beyond the displaced camps. »»
In the country at war, the routing of humanitarian aid has become almost impossible.
The rainy season, which intensified in August, could worsen the health crisis.
In Damazin, the capital of the state of the Blue Nile, in southeast Sudan, MSF observes a fatal combination of cholera and malnutrition: “Between August 3 and 9, six patients with deceased cholera also suffered from acute malnutrition,” said MSF.
In El-Facher, at least 63 people died in malnutrition in one week, an official of the Ministry of Health told AFP on Sunday. Nearly 25 million people suffer from acute food insecurity in Sudan, where famine has already won several regions.
