Cholera outbreak in Sudan claims at least 22 lives, says health minister

CAIRO (AP) — A cholera epidemic has broken out in Sudan, killing nearly two dozen people and sickening hundreds more in recent weeks, health authorities said Sunday. The African country is shaken by a 16-month conflict And devastating floods.

Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement that at least 22 people had died from the disease and that at least 354 confirmed cases of cholera had been detected across the country.

Ibrahim did not give a timeframe for the deaths or the total number since the beginning of the year. However, the World Health Organization said there had been 78 deaths from cholera in Sudan this year as of July 28. Between January 1 and July 28, more than 2,400 more people had contracted the disease, it said.

Cholera is a rapidly developing, highly contagious infectious disease that causes diarrhea that, if left untreated, leads to severe dehydration and possibly death within hours, according to the WHO. The disease is transmitted by ingesting contaminated food or water.

The cholera outbreak is the latest disaster for Sudan, which was plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and a powerful paramilitary group spilled over into open war across the country.

The conflict has turned the capital Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields and destroyed both civilian infrastructure and the already fragile health system. Due to a lack of basic services, many hospitals and medical facilities have had to close.

Thousands of people have died and many have been driven to death by starvation; famine has already been confirmed in a huge camp for displaced people in the devastated northern region of Darfur.

The conflict in Sudan has led to the world's largest refugee crisis. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 10.7 million people have had to leave their homes since the fighting began. More than two million of them fled to neighboring countries.

The fighting has been marked by atrocities, including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, which the UN and international human rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Devastating seasonal floods in recent weeks have added to the misery, killing dozens of people and washing away key infrastructure in 12 of Sudan's 18 provinces, local authorities said. The floods have left around 118,000 people homeless, according to the UN migration agency.

Cholera is not uncommon in Sudan. A previous major outbreak in 2017 killed at least 700 people and sickened around 22,000 people in less than two months.

Tarik Jašarević, a WHO spokesman, said the outbreak began in the eastern province of Kassala and then spread to nine locations in five provinces.

In comments to The Associated Press, he said data showed most of the cases detected were unvaccinated. He said WHO is currently working with Sudanese health authorities and partners to implement a vaccination campaign.

Sudan's military-controlled Sovereign Council announced on Sunday that it would send a government delegation to Cairo to meet with American representatives. in view of growing US pressure that the military participate in the ongoing peace talks in Switzerland, the aim of which is to resolve the conflict.

A council statement said the focus of the Cairo meeting would be on implementing an agreement between the military and the Rapid Support Forces that requires the paramilitary group to withdraw from people's homes in Khartoum and other parts of the country.

The talks began on August 14 in Switzerland. Diplomats from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union and the United Nations took part. An RSF delegation was in Geneva but did not attend the meetings.