The government declared a cholera epidemic last year, with 24,609 cases and 699 deaths recorded by October [Getty]
Sudanese health officials said on Thursday that over 400 cases of cholera had been detected in the southern city of Kosti, following a reported drone attack on a nearby power station.
The surge in cases was attributed to a “shortage of water due to power outages,” the health ministry in White Nile state said in a statement.
On Sunday, eyewitnesses told AFP drones had struck the Um Dabakar power station which supplies the city, 275 kilometres (170 miles) south of the capital Khartoum.
“The station has stopped working,” an engineer told AFP, which could not verify the source of the attack.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a brutal war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
It has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted over 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned last month that “a disturbing pattern of attacks on critical civilian infrastructure” including power stations were disrupting access to clean water and electricity for millions of people.
The government declared a cholera epidemic last year, with 24,609 cases and 699 deaths recorded by October.
Cholera causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps, and is generally contracted by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organization.
It can kill within hours when not treated, though it can be treated with simple oral rehydration and antibiotics for more severe cases.
The health ministry on Thursday said it had mobilised 100 medical personnel and provided more than 6,000 intravenous solutions.
The war has destroyed Sudan’s already fragile healthcare system, with 80 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas forced shut, according to official figures.
White Nile state, which extends from just south of Khartoum to the South Sudanese border, was rocked by violence this week when a three-day assault by the RSF on villages some 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Kosti killed over 200 people.
The United Nations agency for migration reported on Thursday that over 6,500 families were displaced during the first two days of the attack around the town of Al-Qutaina.
Sudan’s Emergency Lawyers network, which documents rights abuses, said more than 200 people were killed, though the army-backed government put the death toll at 433 people.
