UNICEF warns over 3 mln people in Sudan at risk of cholera

KHARTOUM, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday warned that over three million people are at risk of cholera in Sudan.
“3.1 million people, including 500,000 children under 5, are at risk of cholera,” UNICEF said on social platform X.
According to UNICEF, the vaccination coverage in Sudan has plummeted to some 50 percent from 85 percent before the outbreak of the internal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.
More than 70 percent 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.
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. ■