Over 1 Million Children at Risk as Cholera Spreads in Sudan’s Khartoum State – UNICEF

PORT SUDAN, 28 May 2025, (UNICEF)* – More than 7,700 cholera cases – including over 1,000 cases in children under the age of five – and 185 associated deaths have been reported in Khartoum State since January 2025, according to health authorities.

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UNICEF and partners are working with the Federal Ministry of Health to curb the spread of the deadly disease and save lives.

Since the beginning of the brutal conflict, more than 3 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Khartoum State and the violence has upended the lives of millions.

With large parts of the state becoming more accessible, more than 34,000 people have returned to Khartoum State since the beginning of 2025.

Most are returning to damaged homes in areas where basic services – including critical water and sanitation – are largely unavailable.

More than one million children are estimated to live in the affected localities across Khartoum State.

Continuous attacks on power plants in Khartoum State over the past month have disrupted electricity supply and worsened water shortages, significantly impacting access to safe and clean water.

This has forced many families to collect water from unsafe and contaminated sources, increasing the risk of cholera and other deadly waterborne diseases, especially in overcrowded neighbourhoods and displacement sites.

Cholera cases have surged significantly from 90 reported cases per day to 815 reported cases per day between 15 and 25 May – a nine-fold increase over just 10 days.

Additionally, two out of the seven localities in the State – Jebel Aulia and Khartoum – are at the risk of famine and account for 33 per cent of the 307,000 acutely malnourished children in the State.

An estimated 26,500 of these children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of malnutrition.

For children already weakened by a lack of nutritious food, cholera or any other causes of severe diarrhoea can be fatal if not treated promptly.

“We are racing against time with our partners to provide basic healthcare, clean water, and good nutrition, among other lifesaving services, to children who are highly vulnerable to deadly diseases and severe acute malnutrition,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative for Sudan.

“Each day, more children are exposed to this double threat of cholera and malnutrition, but both are preventable and treatable, if we can reach children in time.”

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UNICEF is implementing a multi-pronged cholera response in Khartoum, targeting high-risk communities and supporting essential water infrastructure, including the provision of water treatment chemicals (polymer and chlorine) and a 1,000 kilovolt-amperes generator to sustain operations at Al Manara Water Treatment Plant, serving over one million people in Karrari and Old Omdurman.

UNICEF and partners are distributing household water treatment chemicals to curb community transmission, deploying water chlorinators across water points to provide safe drinking water, and mobilizing rapid response teams to support water chlorination and conduct disinfection activities.

UNICEF is also engaging communities, through dialogues and social media, to disseminate key messaging on the causes, symptoms, and prevention of cholera.

So far this year, UNICEF has delivered more than 1.6 million oral cholera vaccines to Sudan and is supporting immunization campaigns in affected areas.

UNICEF has supplied cholera treatment kits and is supporting the deployment of frontline workers to Cholera Treatment Centres to bolster the response.

UNICEF is also supporting the training of public health officers in infection prevention control, and of community members to monitor the situation on the ground.

UNICEF continues to support the delivery of lifesaving nutrition services through 105 outpatient management programmes at health facilities and 4 stabilization centres in Khartoum State.

• UNICEF urgently needs an additional US$ 3.2 million to fund an emergency cholera response in the Khartoum State in the areas of health, water, hygiene, sanitation, and social and behaviour change to curb the spread of the outbreak and prevent loss of life.
• To date, more than 2.5 million people have benefited from the WASH supplies UNICEF and its partners have distributed. UNICEF is also supporting the operation and maintenance of Al Manara Water treatment plant in Khartoum to continue providing safe water to the communities. UNICEF also supplied a high-power generator and pumping system to plant in Khartoum in February to supply water for nearly 1.9 million people in the State.
• In Khartoum State, more than 17,000 children under five with severe acute malnutrition have been treated since the beginning of 2025. UNICEF has delivered more than 30,000 cartons of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and therapeutic milk to all localities in the state. The current stock of RUTF will cover the needs in the State for three months. Additional quantities will be delivered in the upcoming months.
• Since the beginning of the cholera outbreak, officially declared on 12 August 2024, more than 65,200 cases and over 1,700 deaths were reported across 12 of 18 states in Sudan.
• In response to the outbreak, UNICEF has delivered over 13.7 million doses of oral cholera vaccines since 2023, including over 9.2 million doses in 2024 and nearly 1.6 million doses in 2025. The next batch of nearly 3 million doses is scheduled to arrive in country by the end of May 2025. They will be distributed in most affected localities in Khartoum and North Kordofan States.
• In addition to vaccines, UNICEF has extensively supported the procurement and delivery of critical supplies to Sudan, including oral rehydration salts, water purification tablets, acute watery diarrhoea kits and water tanks.