Sudan launches emergency vaccination drive amid cholera surge

With cholera cases surging across Sudan, Khartoum has launched a new vaccination initiative, hoping to slow the deadliest outbreak in recent years.

Health care workers in the capital announced that the 10-day drive will be open to all ages “from one year and above” across 105 medical facilities, according to Africanews on August 14. The campaign began on August 10 and targets over 15,000 people.

Since July 2024, cholera has infected over 83,000 people and killed 2,100, according to UN figures. In 2025 alone, authorities have logged 32,000 suspected cases. As a civil war rips through the country for the third consecutive year, officials say debilitated infrastructure and the displacement of over 12 million people, in addition to heavy seasonal rains, have fueled the spike.

The collapsed health system makes the alarming spread “extremely hard to trace and contain,” Sophie Dresser, director of programs at Mercy Corps-Sudan, told the AP.

While Khartoum’s last mass vaccination in July reached over 2.2 million people and helped flatten infection rates locally, the crisis could be accelerating elsewhere, according to humanitarian agencies. In Darfur, which has borne the brunt of the violence since the war’s onset in 2023, collapsed infrastructure, flooded settlements, and overburdened clinics are creating ideal conditions for the waterborne disease to spread unchecked.

The health ministry has reported 1,440 suspected cases and 74 deaths there.

Still, for the capital’s residents, the arrival of vaccine teams offers some hope in the otherwise declining crisis. “As a mother, I felt great relief that the cholera vaccine had arrived, and from that moment we have felt reassured,” said one woman called Razaz Abdullah.

Another resident, Resident Montaser al-Sayed, said he and his family recently returned home after being displaced by fighting. They feared cholera in the chaotic conditions but said the vaccination campaign reassured them.

 Yet aid workers remain cautious. The World Health Organization describes cholera as a “disease of poverty” because it spreads where there is poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. As Sudan’s apocalyptic civil war, which has killed more than 40,000 people and caused widespread famine, shows no signs of abating, contaminated water, collapsed infrastructure, and a lack of medicines have turned an easily treatable disease deadly.

Africanews/ AP/ Maghrebi