KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Health officials in Sudan have launched a 10-day cholera vaccination campaign in the capital, Khartoum, to curb what humanitarians call a rapidly spreading outbreak of the diarrheal disease fueled by civil war, displacement and heavy rainfall.
Associated Press video footage on Wednesday showed officials administering the vaccine to children and others. Healthcare worker Aziza Berima said the campaign in Khartoum began Sunday and targets over 150,000 people.
Resident Montaser al-Sayed said he and his family recently returned home after being displaced by fighting. They feared cholera in the chaotic conditions but said the vaccination campaign reassured them.
“As a mother, I was relieved," said another resident, Razaz Abdullah.
Cholera is spreading at an alarming rate and the collapsed health system makes it "extremely hard to trace and contain,” Sophie Dresser, director of programs at Mercy Corps-Sudan, told the AP.
Last month, the United Nations humanitarian office said over 32,000 suspected cholera cases have been reported in Sudan this year. Since the outbreak was declared in July 2024, more than 83,000 cases and 2,100 deaths have been reported, the U.N. said, citing Sudan's health ministry.
The U.N. says cases are rising in Sudan’s more remote western region of Darfur. The health ministry has reported 1,440 suspected cases and 74 deaths there.
Although vaccination campaigns launched last year across some areas in Sudan, the disease has continued to spread in recent months amid the ongoing fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army.
The civil war erupted in April 2023 in Khartoum before spreading across the country. The fighting has killed over 40,000 people, displaced as many as 12 million and pushed many to the brink of famine.
The World Health Organization describes cholera as a “disease of poverty” because it spreads where there is poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. The diarrheal disease is caused when people eat food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It is easily treatable with rehydration solutions and antibiotics, but in severe cases the disease can kill within hours if left untreated.
A spike in cholera cases had been reported in Khartoum, where 172 people died and more than 2,500 others were infected in a week in late May. A 10-day vaccination campaign at the time reached over 2.2 million people, the WHO reported in July.
Aid organizations warn that the situation, including heavy rains, is concerning in other areas of Sudan including North Kordofan, White Nile and River Nile provinces.
“In places like Darfur and Kordofan, people are living in crowded shelters with poor sanitation and little access to clean water or medical care, conditions where cholera thrives," Dresser said.
Hazem Hassan And Fatma Khaled, The Associated Press
