A cholera outbreak in Sudan’s capital Khartoum has killed at least 1,540 people in the past three days, the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate said on Friday, warning that the war-battered health system is close to collapse.
The syndicate’s preparatory committee said deaths in Khartoum and neighbouring Omdurman had “risen sharply” this week as hospitals run out of staff, medicines and clean water. About 80% of facilities in active conflict zones are shut and nearly half of those elsewhere have closed, it added.
Cases are also climbing outside the capital. Authorities recorded 91 infections and 10 deaths in Nyala, South Darfur, and 100 new cases with 15 deaths at Rahad Hospital in North Kordofan. Further outbreaks were reported in El Fasher, the Kassab camp for displaced people, El Daein and El Geneina.
Health officials fear the rainy season will accelerate the spread of cholera as well as measles and dengue, with damaged sanitation systems leaving many communities reliant on contaminated water.
Two years of fighting between General al-Burhan’s army (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have crippled health services, and repeated strikes on clinics have hampered efforts to treat patients and contain disease.
“Unless medicines, clean water and vaccines reach us quickly, total health-system collapse is imminent,” committee spokesman Sayed Mohamed Abdullah said.
Aid agencies have compared conditions in Sudan to humanitarian crises in Gaza, Ukraine and Somalia and are urging donors to expand emergency funding and secure safe corridors for medical supplies.