Women wait for aid to be distributed in Sudan. ‘Huge challenges’ hamper fight against new cholera outbreak in Sudan Humanitarian Aid
UN aid workers are facing enormous challenges in battling a new cholera outbreak in Sudan after 16 months of brutal civil war, combined with floods and ongoing obstacles to humanitarian access to communities in need.
“Sudan’s needs are enormous: there is ongoing armed conflict, we are talking about people dying of hunger, we are talking about the problem of protecting civilians, we are talking about massive displacement of people on a daily basis,” said Christine Hambroek, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sudan.
Famine, cholera and other diseases
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in addition to cholera, internally displaced people continue to suffer from hunger in the Zamzam camp, located near the city of El Fasher.
Since the latest outbreak began on August 12, 658 cases of cholera have been reported, with 28 deaths. The previous outbreak occurred in May, when more than 11,300 cases and at least 300 deaths were reported.
WHO has warned that at least 12 of Sudan’s 18 provinces are now experiencing cholera outbreaks – in addition to malaria, measles and dengue fever. Resources and capacity of local health workers to identify outbreaks and respond to outbreaks remain limited, particularly in hard-to-reach areas such as Darfur and Kordofan states.
Read also:
Sudan: Escalation of fighting has led to catastrophic consequences for children
Kassala, Gedaref, Jazira at risk
Christine Hambroek warned that cholera was spreading rapidly in areas in Kassala, Gedaref and Jazira provinces where internally displaced people (IDPs) driven from their homes by violence and refugees from other countries were living.
“We are seeing quite a large number of cholera cases in Kassala,” she said. “Kassala is an important area for us, as it has a large refugee population and also internally displaced people. So far, there have been 119 cases of cholera in three refugee sites in Kassala. Five refugees have unfortunately died from the disease.”
Some vaccination successes
WHO has vaccinated more than 50,000 people in the first phase of cholera vaccination in Sudan, with hundreds of thousands more doses on the way.
“We aimed to cover 97 percent of the target population,” said Dr Shible Sahbani, WHO Representative in Sudan.
He added that the World Health Organization had received approval to purchase an additional 455,000 doses of cholera vaccine. “This is good news in the midst of a horrific crisis,” the WHO representative said.
Elsewhere in Sudan, access problems continue to hamper the humanitarian response. “We are still facing challenges, either because of miscommunication between decision-makers and those working on the ground, or because of problems related to flooding and the quality of roads,” said Dr Sahbani.