Sudan’s approaching rainy season threatened to intensify a cholera emergency already complicated by conflict, damaged infrastructure and limited medical care. World Health Organization figures recorded 120 deaths and 1,102 suspected infections since May in remote war-affected areas.
The government formally identified the latest outbreak during the week of the report in West Kordofan. The state sits along the boundary separating territory held by Sudan’s army and by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Evidence of possible expansion had also emerged from North Kordofan, where reports listed almost 300 suspected infections and three fatalities.
Rain presented two connected risks. Contaminated water could expose more residents to the disease, while deteriorating roads and other access routes could make affected communities harder to reach. Millions of Sudanese residents did not have clean water available before the expected seasonal increase in rainfall.
The country’s health network had little capacity to absorb another wave. Dr Shible Sahbani, who leads the WHO operation in Sudan, reported that 40 percent of medical facilities could not function at all. Most of the other roughly 60 percent operated only partially, either delivering a narrow range of care or lacking enough services for patients nearby.
This was the country’s third cholera wave within three years. Authorities had declared the preceding episode finished in March, only about two months before the newest one began. Sudanese government statistics covering July 2024 to March 2026 attributed more than 124,400 infections and 3,500 fatalities to that earlier wave.
Sahbani said cholera historically returned in Sudan on a cycle of approximately three years. He attributed the recent pattern of nearly uninterrupted outbreaks to warfare, supply limitations and restrictions preventing access to communities. The struggle between the army and RSF had continued beyond three years and left much of the national healthcare system fully or partly unavailable.
Security conditions were also obstructing essential supplies. Strikes using drones, carried out by both combatants, had made aid delivery and ordinary trade increasingly hazardous in Kordofan. In El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, attacks against electrical facilities interfered with power and drinking-water provision, according to UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher. The United Nations had separately warned that RSF forces were preparing a ground offensive against the city.
The outbreak therefore unfolded across several overlapping crises. Treatment depended on facilities operating with reduced services; prevention depended on safe water systems exposed to power disruption; and surveillance depended on reaching communities isolated by fighting. The reported 1,102 total consisted of suspected cases, reflecting the practical difficulty of confirming illness across inaccessible territory. With seasonal rain expected to increase soon, those constraints made both controlling transmission and measuring its extent more difficult.
