A new cholera outbreak in Sudan has killed 120 people since May, while 1,102 suspected cases have been recorded in isolated war zones, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday (July 1). More than three years of war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have devastated the country’s health system.
This third cholera outbreak began just two months after the previous one was declared over in March. Between July 2024 and March 2026, more than 124,400 people were affected and 3,500 died, according to government figures.
Endemic in the East African country, cholera previously occurred “cyclically every three years”, explained the head of the WHO in Sudan, Shible Sahbani. But the country now faces near-continuous outbreaks “due to conflict, access constraints and insufficient supplies.”
The rainy season in Sudan is expected to intensify in the coming weeks, a period during which cases of cholera are exploding, while millions of people do not have access to drinking water.
The rainy season, an aggravating factor
The Sudanese government declared the latest outbreak this week in the sensitive West Kordofan state, the dividing line between army and paramilitary areas of control. Continuous deadly drone strikes by both sides are making access to the region increasingly dangerous, pushing hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine.
According to the WHO, the epidemic appears to be spreading, following the announcement of nearly 300 suspected cases and three deaths in neighboring North Kordofan, where the UN warned that the RSF was preparing for a deadly ground offensive against the state capital, El-Obeid.
Drone strikes on the city’s power plants are “already disrupting access to life-saving drinking water and electricity”, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday, warning of the risk of mass atrocities.
Since the start, in April 2023, of the war, which would have left more than 200,000 dead according to estimates by humanitarian organizations, almost all hospitals have been forced to completely or partially cease their activities. According to Shible Sahbani, “40% of health structures no longer function at all, and almost 60% of the others only partially function.”
