…MSF warns of ‘catastrophic’ situation as disease spreads across Darfur and beyond
By Bunmi Yekini
By 11 August, Sudan had recorded nearly 100,000 suspected cholera cases and over 2,470 related deaths, making it the country’s deadliest outbreak in years — and it is unfolding in the middle of a brutal war.
In Darfur alone, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treated more than 2,300 patients and recorded 40 deaths in just the past week, in facilities run jointly with the Ministry of Health. The crisis is being fuelled by severe water shortages, forcing displaced families to rely on unsafe sources.
“In displacement and refugee camps, families often have no choice but to drink from contaminated sources and many contract cholera,” said Sylvain Penicaud, MSF’s project coordinator in Tawila, North Darfur. “Just two weeks ago, a body was found in a well inside one of the camps. It was removed, but within two days, people were forced to drink from that same water again.”
Tawila, where about 380,000 people have fled fighting around El Fasher, is at the epicentre of the outbreak. Its hospital’s cholera treatment centre, built for 130 patients, had to squeeze in 400 during the first week of August. Many were placed on mattresses on the floor. On average, people there survive on just three litres of water per day, less than half the minimum emergency threshold set by the World Health Organization.
Elsewhere, the outbreak is spreading fast. In Central Darfur’s Golo, an MSF-run 73-bed cholera centre was overwhelmed within days, with 137 patients arriving on 3 August alone. New cases have also been confirmed in Zalingei, Rokero, and Sortony. In South Darfur’s Nyala, treatment centres are waiting for vaccines and running low on water purification tablets.
“The health centres are full,” said Samia Dahab, a resident of Otash displacement camp in Nyala. “Some areas have water, others have kiosks that are far or empty. Some water is salty, and we drink it unboiled, unsure if it’s safe.”
The crisis is compounded by heavy rains contaminating water sources and damaging sewage systems. People fleeing violence are also carrying the disease into new areas, including neighbouring Chad and South Sudan. In Damazin, Blue Nile state, an MSF centre expanded from 50 to 250 beds to handle an influx of returnees from South Sudan. Many patients there face the double threat of cholera and acute malnutrition.
“The situation is beyond urgent,” said Tuna Turkmen, MSF’s head of mission in Sudan. “The outbreak is spreading well beyond displacement camps now, into multiple localities across Darfur states and beyond. Every day of delay costs lives.”
Turkmen urged an immediate scale-up of the international response, with a dedicated outbreak coordination mechanism, mass vaccination campaigns, and expanded water and sanitation services.
“Survivors of war must not be left to die from a preventable disease,” Turkmen said.