Sudan doctors report widespread cholera outbreak in six states

 May 26, 2025 (KHARTOUM) – A preliminary committee of Sudan’s doctors’ union announced on Monday a widespread cholera outbreak across six states, coinciding with a decline in medical services.

The new wave of cholera has particularly affected Omdurman in Khartoum state, where residents have resorted to unsafe water sources after water stations ceased operations, the committee said. It attributed the water station shutdowns to power outages caused by drone attacks on electricity plants by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Adiba Ibrahim al-Sayed, a member of the doctors’ committee, told the Sudan Tribune that cholera cases were continuously rising in Khartoum, Al Jazirah, River Nile, Northern, Sennar, and North Kordofan states.

She said precise figures on infections were hard to obtain but reported that deaths had reached 346 in Khartoum state, 57 in North Kordofan, 45 in Gezira, and 33 in River Nile state.

Separately, a member of the Ambadah emergency response room in Omdurman told Sudan Tribune the area was seeing a “noticeable outbreak” of watery diarrhoea and intestinal illnesses due to contaminated drinking water. Suspected cholera cases in Ombada, west of Omdurman, had reached 291, with 25 deaths, he said.

He warned of a potential “health disaster” without rapid intervention and called for logistical support and safe drinking water. He also urged authorities to dispatch rapid response teams to identify and stop water contamination and to supply medicines and intravenous fluids.

In Eastern Nile locality, an emergency room member reported over 65 cholera cases at Al-Ban Jadeed Hospital in recent days. “There is a widespread outbreak of cholera in the area,” he told Sudan Tribune, adding that his team was also trying to track cases in Umm Dawwan Ban hospital.

Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, now head of the “Smoud”, Civil Democratic Alliance of Revolutionary Forces, said he had contacted regional and international health and humanitarian bodies about Sudan’s “catastrophic health situation.” Hamdok called for urgent intervention to “save the Sudanese people and contain this disaster.”

Fears are growing that the cholera outbreak could lead to a health system collapse, with up to 80% of healthcare facilities in conflict zones and nearly 45% in other areas already out of service, according to medical sources.