Airstrike Targets Military-Held Urban Area; Over a Hundred and Seventy Cholera Casualties Reported in a Week's Time
In Sudan, a troubled nation mired in a two-year-old war, a dual crisis emerged this week as paramilitary forces allegedly hit two strategic targets with a drone strike and the country grappled with a deadly cholera outbreak.
Citing a military source, the French news agency AFP reported that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia bombed a fuel depot in Kosti and the general quarter, causing a fire at the depot. Witnesses on the scene observed thick plumes of smoke and heard explosions. Kosti, about 350 kilometers south of Khartoum, is situated in the White Nile State.
In the midst of this conflict, Sudan's healthcare system is faltering. The Federal Center for Emergency Operations in Sudan reported a sharp increase in cholera cases, with 2,729 cases and 172 deaths recorded within a week. Khartoum State alone accounted for 90% of new infections, as per the same source.
Prior reports had documented 51 deaths within the first three weeks of May in this war-torn country, where, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 70% of the population has been displaced, and 90% of water pumping stations are out of service.
The Sudanese Medical Syndicate raised the alarm, estimating that the number of victims was much higher than official figures, with hundreds of deaths in the capital alone. In a statement, it also highlighted the severe shortage of intravenous solutions, clean water sources, and sterilization equipment and disinfectants in hospitals.
This cholera outbreak is compounded by the ruined healthcare infrastructure and the dearth of skilled medical personnel. Khartoum, in particular, has been facing water scarcity issues since the RSF conducted several drone strikes, one of which disrupted three power plants, leaving the capital without power for several days.
As a result, water treatment stations are no longer operational, and residents like Bashir Mohamed in Omdurman have resorted to drinking untreated water directly from the Nile, according to AFP. This untreated water is the primary source of the cholera outbreak, as explained by a doctor at Al-Naou Hospital in Omdurman.
Although cholera is endemic in Sudan, the frequency and virulence of infections have escalated due to the damaged healthcare infrastructure and conflict. This acute intestinal infection spreads through contaminated food and water, often from fecal matter. It can cause fatalities within hours without treatment.
Faced with a massive influx of patients, volunteers in emergency intervention rooms are desperately seeking more experienced healthcare professionals to bolster medical teams in hospitals. However, the ongoing conflict and lack of funding continue to pose significant challenges to the healthcare sector in Sudan.
- The sudden increase in cholera cases in Sudan, amidst the ongoing war and a broken healthcare system, highlights the need for more focus on health-and-wellness issues, as well as the importance of ensuring access to medical-conditions treatment and resources.
- The dual crisis in Sudan this week, with a deadly cholera outbreak and a recent drone strike, underscores the impact of war-and-conflicts on general-news topics such as health-and-wellness, especially in countries where basic infrastructure is already struggling.
- As Sudan grapples with a cholera outbreak and a devastated healthcare system due to the war, the combination of medical-conditions, health-and-wellness, and politics becomes intertwined, raising questions about the global community's response to wars' long-lasting effects on health and welfare.
