PORT SUDAN, Sudan, May 27, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Sudan's health ministry reported 
on Tuesday a spike in cholera cases in the war-torn country, with 2,700 
infections and 172 deaths in one week.

In a statement, the ministry said 90 percent of cases were reported in 
Khartoum state, where water and electricity supply have been severely 
disrupted in recent weeks by drone strikes blamed on the paramilitary Rapid 
Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army since April 2023.

Cases were also reported in the south, centre and north of the country.

Cholera is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become far worse and more 
frequent since the war broke out, wrecking already fragile water and 
sanitation and health infrastructure.

Last Tuesday, the ministry said 51 people had died of cholera out of more 
than 2,300 reported cases over the past three weeks, 90 percent of them in 
Khartoum state.

The RSF this month launched drone strikes across Khartoum, including on three 
power stations, before being completely pushed out of their last holdout 
positions in the capital last week.

The strikes knocked electricity and subsequently the local water network out 
of service, according to Doctors without Borders (MSF), forcing residents to 
turn to unsafe water sources.

"Water treatment stations no longer have electricity and cannot provide clean 
water from the Nile," Slaymen Ammar, MSF's medical coordinator in Khartoum, 
said in a statement.

Cholera, an acute diarrhoeal illness caused by ingesting contaminated water 
or food, can kill within hours if untreated.

Yet it is easily preventable and treatable when clean water, sanitation and 
timely medical care are available.

Sudan's already fragile healthcare system has been pushed to "breaking point" 
by the war, according to the World Health Organisation.

Up to 90 percent of the country's hospitals have at some point been forced to 
close because of the fighting, according to the doctors' union, with health 
facilities regularly stormed, bombed and looted.

The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 
million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.