ISTANBUL

More than 170 people died of cholera in war-torn Sudan in one week, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

A ministry statement said that 2,700 people contracted the disease in just one week, of whom 172 died.

The ministry said 90% of the cholera cases were recorded in Khartoum State, where energy and water supplies were disrupted in recent weeks amid fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

According to the latest figures released by the ministry, the total number of cholera cases in Sudan reached 60,993, with 1,632 deaths.

In August 2024, Sudanese authorities declared cholera a national epidemic.

Recently, the Sudanese army has regained control of most areas in Khartoum State, which includes the capital’s three cities – Khartoum, Bahri, and Omdurman – as well as the East Nile area.

In Sudan’s 17 other states, the RSF now controls only parts of North and West Kordofan and pockets in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, in addition to four out of five states in the Darfur region.

Since April 2023, the RSF has been battling the army for control of Sudan, resulting in thousands of deaths and creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and 15 million displaced, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US scholars, however, puts the death toll at around 130,000.