The humanitarian situation in Sudan continues to spiral, with a deadly cholera outbreak compounding the suffering already inflicted by the ongoing conflict. UN agencies issued a dire warning on Friday, calling for immediate intervention to save lives as fighting rages and displacement escalates.
“People told me multiple times that when they were fleeing from Zamzam [displacement camp], armed people would threaten them while they were in flight, saying sure, ‘Flee, go to that place, run here, run there, we will follow you, we will find you’,” said Jocelyn Elizabeth Knight, a Protection Officer with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, during a press briefing in Geneva.
Knight recalled a harrowing encounter with a child who shared his fears about the trauma of displacement. “A tiny boy told me, ‘You know, during the day things are okay here, but I’m afraid to go to sleep at night in case the place where we’re living is attacked again’.”
In the western region of Darfur, those escaping violence are now sheltering in abandoned public buildings, struggling to survive with minimal access to clean water and sanitation facilities.
UNHCR reports that the violence and forced displacement show no signs of slowing down. Attacks continue to plague communities in Darfur and the neighbouring Kordofan region, many of which are already reeling from previous atrocities.
Civilians Trapped In Hostile Conditions
The war has severely limited humanitarian access, making it almost impossible for aid agencies to reach affected populations. This situation is only set to worsen with seasonal rains rendering major roads unusable for months.
Farmers, too, are caught in the chaos. The conflict has decimated agricultural production, leaving vast areas at risk of famine or already battling famine-like conditions.
New figures from UNHCR show that over 873,000 Sudanese refugees have fled the violence in Darfur and sought safety in Chad. Eastern Chad now hosts the highest number of registered Sudanese refugees, with refugees accounting for one in three people in the region.
Alongside the fighting, Sudan is battling another life-threatening crisis: a cholera epidemic that has quickly spread across the country.
“Cholera has swept across Sudan with all the states reporting outbreaks,” said Dr. Ilham Nour, Senior Emergency Officer with the UN World Health Organization (WHO). Since July last year, close to 100,000 cases have been reported.
In Chad, where many Sudanese refugees have sought shelter, the highly contagious disease is claiming lives. As of early August, 264 cases and 12 deaths have been confirmed in the Dougui refugee settlement. Suspected cases are also being reported in surrounding villages and the Treguine settlement.
Dossou Patrice Ahouansou, UNHCR’s Principal Situation Coordinator for Eastern Chad, emphasized the urgent need for global attention.
“We still have more than 230,000 refugees at the border in very difficult situation. Without urgent action including enhancing access to medical treatment, to clean water, to sanitation, to hygiene and most important, relocation from the border, many more lives are on the line.”
Dossou Patrice Ahouansou
To stem the outbreak, UNHCR has halted refugee relocations from border areas. The agency is urgently appealing for $130 million in flexible funding to deliver life-saving aid to around 800,000 people in Darfur. These funds will also support efforts to combat cholera and relocate nearly 240,000 Sudanese refugees from the Chad-Sudan border to safer locations.
Meanwhile, another threat looms: unexploded ordnance. The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has warned that civilians in urban centres are being maimed or killed by explosive remnants of war. “The sad reality of this ongoing conflict is it is not happening in rural areas, it’s mainly happening in urban areas, in the areas which are highly populated,” explained Mohammad Sediq Rashid, Chief of UNMAS Sudan.
With war, disease, and displacement converging, the crisis in Sudan demands urgent global attention.
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