Over 3 million people in Sudan at risk of cholera: UNICEF

by IANS |

Khartoum, Oct 19 (IANS) The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that over three million people are at risk of cholera in Sudan.

"3.1 million people, including 500,000 children under five, are at risk of cholera," UNICEF said on social platform X on Friday.

According to UNICEF, the vaccination coverage in Sudan has plummeted to some 50 per cent from 85 per cent before the outbreak of the internal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.

More than 70 per cent of hospitals in conflict-affected areas are non-operational, and frontline healthcare workers have not been paid in months, it said.

Since the outbreak of the civil conflict, epidemic diseases such as cholera, malaria, measles, and dengue fever have spread, leading to hundreds of deaths, Xinhua news agency reported.

Sudan's Health Ministry declared a cholera outbreak in the country in August, attributing the spread of cholera to deteriorating environmental conditions caused by the conflict and the use of unclean water.