Doctors Without Borders announced 40 deaths due to cholera in Sudan within one week, confirming that the country is currently witnessing the worst outbreak of the disease in years driven by the ongoing war. The organization stated in a Thursday statement that its teams treated more than 2,300 cholera patients in the Darfur region alone at centers run by the Ministry of Health, noting that people are facing this epidemic as a new crisis on top of their previous suffering due to the war ongoing for more than two years. Residents of Darfur in western Sudan suffer from a severe water shortage, making basic hygiene measures such as washing food and utensils almost impossible. The organization reported that the “Tawila” area in North Darfur is the worst affected, where about 380,000 people have fled the ongoing fighting around the city of El Fasher, according to the United Nations.

By the end of last July, the organization had treated hundreds of cholera cases, one month after it began responding to this outbreak. The organization pointed out that people receive no more than 3 liters of water per person per day, which is much less than the emergency minimum set by the World Health Organization of 7.5 liters for drinking, cooking, and hygiene. With the rising number of cases and depletion of resources, the organization emphasized the urgent need to provide clean water and sanitation services to reduce deaths. Sylvain Beniko, project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said that families in displacement camps are forced to drink contaminated water, leading to cholera infection. He noted that two weeks ago, a body was found in a well inside one of the camps, and people had to drink from the same well after the body was retrieved within two days.

Tuna Turkman, head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in Sudan, confirmed that about 100 kilometers from the city of Tawila, cases were reported and the situation exceeded emergency levels. Turkman stressed that the cholera outbreak in Sudan is spreading “beyond the camps to multiple areas inside and outside Darfur.” He also warned the international community that delays in urgent action cost lives every day, expressing Doctors Without Borders’ readiness to cooperate with the Sudanese Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization to implement mass vaccination campaigns throughout Darfur. A year ago, the Sudanese Ministry of Health officially announced the cholera outbreak in the country, with 99,700 suspected cases and more than 2,470 deaths linked to the disease recorded until August 11.