Sudan health minister declares cholera epidemic

Port Sudan, Sudan – AFP

Sudan’s health minister on Saturday declared a cholera epidemic after weeks of heavy rain in the war-torn country, in a video released by his ministry.

“We are declaring a cholera epidemic because of the weather conditions and because drinking water has been contaminated,” Haitham Ibrahim said in the video.

He said the decision was taken in conjunction with authorities in the eastern state of Kassala, United Nations agencies and experts after the “discovery by the public health laboratory of the cholera virus”.

The northeast African country has been engulfed in a war since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The conflict has unleashed one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than 25 million people — upwards of half the population — facing acute hunger.

Famine has been declared in a displacement camp in the vast western region of Darfur.

For weeks the country has seen torrential rainfall, with Kassala state badly hit. The authorities there have appealed for “immediate” and “urgent” international aid.

Thousands of people have been displaced by flooding, causing an increase in sickness including diarrhoea, especially in children.

Cholera causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps, and generally arises from eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organization.

It can cause severe dehydration, leading in some cases to death within a few hours.