Sudan | Cholera outbreak kills at least 22

(Cairo) Sudan is being hit by a cholera outbreak that has killed more than two dozen people and sickened hundreds more in recent weeks, health officials said Sunday. The African country has been rocked by a 16-month conflict and devastating floods.

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

Mr Ibrahim did not specify the number of people killed or when they died so far this year. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said, however, that 78 people had died from cholera in Sudan this year as of July 28. The disease also sickened more than 2,400 people between July 1^er January and July 28, the organization said.

Cholera is a rapidly progressing, highly contagious infection that causes diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration and possible death within hours if left untreated, according to WHO. Cholera is transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water.

The cholera outbreak is the latest calamity for Sudan, which plunged into chaos last April when simmering tensions between the army and a powerful paramilitary group exploded into open warfare across the country.

The conflict has turned the capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas into battlefields, destroying civilian infrastructure and an already battered health system. Deprived of basic facilities, many hospitals and medical facilities have closed.

The clashes have killed thousands of people and pushed many more to starvation, with famine already confirmed in a sprawling camp for displaced people in the devastated northern region of Darfur.

The conflict in Sudan has created the world’s largest displacement crisis. More than 10.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the fighting began, according to the International Organization for Migration. More than two million of them have fled to neighboring countries.

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

Devastating seasonal floods in recent weeks have compounded the misery. Dozens of people have been killed and critical infrastructure washed away in 12 of Sudan’s 18 provinces, according to local authorities. About 118,000 people have been displaced by the floods, according to the UN migration agency.

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

WHO spokesman Tarik Jašarević said the outbreak began in the eastern province of Kassala before spreading to nine locations in five provinces.

He said in comments to The Associated Press that data showed most of the cases detected were in unvaccinated people. He said WHO was now working with Sudanese health authorities and partners to implement a vaccination campaign.

Sudan’s military-controlled Sovereign Council said on Sunday it would send a government delegation to meet with U.S. officials in Cairo, amid growing U.S. pressure on the military to join ongoing peace talks in Switzerland aimed at finding a way out of the conflict.

The council said in a statement that the Cairo meeting would focus on implementing an agreement between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which required the paramilitary group to withdraw from the homes of residents in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The talks began on August 14 in Switzerland with diplomats from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union and the United Nations in attendance. A delegation from the Rapid Support Forces was in Geneva but did not participate in the meetings.