Cholera outbreak in Sudan kills 170 since May, UN says

Cholera continues to spread across Sudan, with more than 2,000 suspected cases and 170 reported deaths since May, primarily in the Kordofan region, the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said Monday.

In a humanitarian update, OCHA said aid organizations are continuing to provide life-saving assistance wherever and whenever possible despite difficult operating conditions.

“Cholera is spreading in Sudan. More than 2,000 suspected cases and 170 reported deaths since May -- mainly in the Kordofan region,” the agency said.

The UN and its humanitarian partners continue scaling up the cholera response, supporting nearly 80 surveillance sites, 16 treatment centers, eight oral rehydration points, and prevention activities for more than 270,000 people in the affected areas, the statement added.

However, OCHA warned that funding shortages are severely limiting the scale of the response and appealed for additional donor support.

According to the agency, the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Sudan has received about $1.1 billion, or roughly 40% of the nearly $2.9 billion required to meet humanitarian needs this year.

On July 10, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the cholera outbreak was expanding across the Darfur and Kordofan regions after 114 deaths and more than 1,330 cases were reported, adding that the toll was likely to rise.

The WHO has described Sudan as the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 33 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including 21 million requiring health services. It said 13.4 million people have been displaced, including 9 million internally and 4.6 million in neighboring countries.

On July 5, the Sudan Doctors Network said more than 200,000 people, including 20,000 children, in areas west of the city of Bara in North Kordofan were facing catastrophic humanitarian and health conditions due to the spread of cholera and measles, compounded by severe shortages of medicine and food supplies.

In addition to Darfur and Blue Nile state in southeastern Sudan, fierce fighting has continued in the three Kordofan states, North, West, and South, between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since Oct. 25 last year.

Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the army and the RSF over plans to integrate the paramilitary force into the military. The war has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing millions more.