Khartoum: Europe and the Arabs

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned of the growing threat of cholera facing one million children in Khartoum State, Sudan, noting that reported cases have increased ninefold in just ten days.
According to the UN's daily bulletin, since the beginning of the year, more than 7,700 cholera cases—including more than 1,000 among children under the age of five—and 185 associated deaths have been reported in Khartoum State, according to Sudanese health authorities. The number of cases increased significantly between May 15 and 25, from 90 reported cases per day to 815.
UNICEF said that 34,000 people have returned to their homes in the state since January, but most of them to areas that severely lack basic services, including water and sanitation. She stressed that ongoing attacks on power plants in the state over the past month have led to power outages and worsened water shortages, forcing many families to collect water from unsafe and contaminated sources. This has increased the risk of cholera and other deadly waterborne diseases.
In this regard, UNICEF Representative in Sudan, Sheldon Yate, said that every day, "more children are exposed to this double threat of cholera and malnutrition, both of which are preventable and treatable if we can reach children in time."
He said that the Fund and its partners are "racing against time" to provide basic healthcare, clean water, and nutrition, among other life-saving services, to children "who are highly vulnerable to deadly diseases and severe acute malnutrition."
UNICEF announced that it is implementing a multi-faceted cholera response in Khartoum, targeting at-risk communities, including by distributing household water treatment chemicals, deploying chlorine devices at water points, and educating local communities about the disease and its prevention. UNICEF has delivered more than 13.7 million doses of oral cholera vaccines since 2023, including more than 9.2 million doses in 2024 and approximately 1.6 million doses in 2025.
The next batch, containing approximately three million doses, is scheduled to arrive in the country by the end of this month and will be distributed in the most affected areas of Khartoum and North Kordofan states. However, the Fund stated that it urgently requires an additional $3.2 million to fund the emergency cholera response in Khartoum state.
It is worth noting that since the beginning of the cholera outbreak, which was officially declared on August 12, 2024, more than 65,200 cases and more than 1,700 deaths have been reported in 12 of Sudan's 18 states.