A fast-moving cholera outbreak in Sudan’s West Kordofan state has killed at least 16 people, according to local health officials, as authorities scramble to contain the disease in a region already battered by nearly two and a half years of civil war.
Health officials in the El Adiya locality say the outbreak, believed to have begun in late August, has produced roughly 70 confirmed cases so far, though separate figures from a regional health official put the toll at around 104 cases and 10 deaths since early September — a discrepancy officials attribute to the difficulty of tracking cases amid the ongoing conflict and collapsed health infrastructure.
West Kordofan is one of several hotspots in a wider cholera emergency gripping Sudan. Health authorities estimate close to 2,900 cases and nearly 250 deaths have been recorded nationwide since June, spread across six states, as the war continues to cripple the country’s ability to respond to outbreaks of preventable disease.
In response, health workers have launched a vaccination campaign in West Kordofan targeting an estimated 675,000 people across the towns of En Nuhoud, El Fula and Wad Banda. A parallel ten-day campaign is under way in Tawila, North Darfur, aiming to reach at least 95,000 residents, with support from the World Health Organization.
A senior health official in the region is reported to have acknowledged that “the war and limited resources continue to make containing new outbreaks difficult,” while pledging continued surveillance and coordination with international health bodies, including the WHO and UNICEF, on medical supplies and vaccine distribution.
Medical workers on the ground describe severe shortages of staff, medicine and basic supplies in the affected areas, complicating efforts to treat patients and contain further spread. Cholera, a highly contagious waterborne disease, spreads rapidly in conditions marked by displacement, disrupted sanitation and limited access to clean water — all features of Sudan’s protracted conflict.
Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that Sudan’s war, now well into its third year, has created conditions for disease outbreaks to flourish, with millions displaced internally and across borders into neighbouring countries, including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan. The latest deaths in West Kordofan add urgency to calls for expanded humanitarian access across the country.