A cholera outbreak has killed at least 70 people in just two days in Sudan’s war-torn capital, health officials said Thursday, as the city grapples with a deepening public health crisis amid a two-year conflict.
The Health Ministry for Khartoum state said it recorded 942 new infections and 25 deaths on Wednesday, following 1,177 cases and 45 deaths a day before.
The surge in infections comes weeks after drone strikes blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) knocked out the water and electricity supply across the capital.
The capital has been a battleground throughout the two years of war between the Sudanese army and the RSF.
The army-backed government announced last week that it had dislodged RSF fighters from their last bases in Khartoum State, around two months after retaking the heart of the capital from the paramilitaries.
The city remains devastated, with health and sanitation infrastructure barely functioning.
Up to 90% of hospitals in the conflict's main battlegrounds have been forced out of service by the fighting.
The cholera outbreak has piled further pressure on the health care system.
The federal health ministry reported 172 deaths in the week to Tuesday, 90% of them in Khartoum state.
Authorities say 89% of patients in isolation centers are recovering, but warn that deteriorating environmental conditions are driving a surge in cases.
Cholera is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become worse and more frequent since the war broke out.
Since August 2024, health authorities have recorded more than 65,000 cases and over 1,700 deaths across 12 of Sudan's 18 states.
Khartoum state alone has seen more than 7,700 cases, more than 1,000 of them in children under five, and 185 deaths since January.
"Sudan is on the brink of a full-scale public health disaster," the International Rescue Committee's Sudan director, Eatizaz Yousif, said.
"The combination of conflict, displacement, destroyed critical infrastructure and limited access to clean water is fuelling the resurgence of cholera and other deadly diseases," she said.
Aid agencies warn that without urgent action, the spread of disease is likely to worsen with the arrival of the rainy season next month, which severely limits humanitarian access.
The war between the paramilitaries and the regular army has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million since it erupted in April 2023.
At least 3 million people fled from Khartoum state alone, but more than 34,000 have returned since its recapture by the army in recent months, according to U.N. figures.
Most have returned to find their homes devastated by the fighting, with no access to clean water or basic services.
According to the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, more than 1 million children are at risk in cholera-affected areas of Khartoum.
