KHARTOUM: At least 158 cholera deaths have been recorded in Sudan’s South Darfur since the end of May, the health ministry of its paramilitary-controlled state government said Saturday.
More than two years of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left much of Darfur in the hands of the RSF and without access to live-saving aid.
The last pocket of territory in army hands, around the North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, has been under siege by the RSF since May last year and UN agencies have spoken of appalling conditions for the remaining civilians trapped inside.
Since South Darfur recorded its first cholera case at the end of May, cases have been reported in all five of the region’s states but South Darfur still accounts for more than half of them, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
The state health ministry said it had recorded a total of 2,880 cases so far, 158 of them fatal, with 42 cases, two of them fatal, on Friday alone.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said the Darfur outbreak is Sudan’s worst in years and threatens to spread to neighboring South Sudan and Chad.
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that spreads through food and water contaminated with bacteria, often from faeces.
It can kill within hours when not attended to, though it can be treated with simple oral rehydration, and antibiotics for more severe cases.
MSF said mass displacements of civilians sparked by the war had aggravated the Darfur outbreak by denying people access to clean water for essential hygiene measures, such as washing dishes and preparing food.
The delivery of humanitarian aid has also become almost impossible.
