Latest news with #Omdurman
Russia Today
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Mass graves uncovered in war-torn African state
At least 117 mass graves have been discovered across the Sudanese capital Khartoum, amid escalating civil conflict, local news agency Sudan Tribune reported on Saturday. A state government official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that the bodies were buried in improvised locations, including homes and open streets, because conventional cemeteries are now overrun or inaccessible due to the fighting. The graves vary significantly in size, with some containing only a few bodies and others reportedly holding dozens. Earlier this year, authorities began the process of exhuming bodies from mass graves in parts of Omdurman, the second-largest city of the country. In May, 465 bodies of civilians were also discovered in the Al-Salihah area of Omdurman. Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by fierce fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), with both factions vying for control amid a stalled transition to civilian rule. According to Reuters, citing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than four million people have fled Sudan since the outbreak of the war. Estimates of fatalities vary, though research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests that over 61,000 people were killed in the state of Khartoum alone during the first 14 months of the conflict. Local media have reported a death toll as high as 130,000. In March, the commander of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, declared that the country's two-year civil war was far from over, despite the national army regaining control of major infrastructure in the capital.
Al Jazeera
03-06-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
‘Corpses rotting in the Nile' as cholera tears through Sudan
After Sudan's army recaptured the national capital region of Khartoum in March, tens of thousands of people returned to check on their homes and reunite with loved ones. The joy of returning was tempered by the shock of seeing the damage caused during nearly two years under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), recognised by many Sudanese and the UN as the de facto authority in Sudan, since April 2023. In a region whose hospitals and food and medicine stores had been systematically plundered by the RSF, many returnees started falling sick. Many of the returnees had settled in Omdurman, one of the national capital's three cities, where living conditions were slightly better than in the other cities. This is because several localities in Omdurman never came under the RSF's control, insulating it from heavy clashes, pillaging, and looting. Omdurman quickly became overcrowded, with 'thousands of people [returning] from Egypt alone', according to Dr Dirar Abeer, a member of Khartoum's Emergency Response Rooms, neighbourhood committees spearheading relief efforts across the country. The crowding, Dr Abeer said, meant an accelerated spread of cholera, an acute, highly contagious diarrhoeal infection that is endemic to Sudan and can be fatal if not treated. 'In areas south of the Nile in Omdurman, there are a lot of corpses rotting next to [or in] the Nile, and this has [partially] caused the spread of infection,' said Badawi, a volunteer in Omdurman who declined to give his full name due to the sensitivity of speaking in a warzone. Cholera has become an epidemic in Sudan, spreading in several states, including White Nile and Gadarif, and killing hundreds in the last two weeks. As in Khartoum, the spread was fuelled by overcrowding and a lack of essential services in these regions. The waterborne disease could be stopped with basic sanitation and provisions, said Fazli Kostan, the project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. 'But that's not really possible right now,' he told Al Jazeera, referring to a lack of electricity to pump water since Omdurman's electricity grids went down on May 14. The RSF had fired a barrage of suicide drones that day, which took out major power stations and grids, consequently shutting down water treatment plants and causing a sharp rise in cases. Deprived of safe drinking and bathing water, people have resorted to drinking contaminated water from the Nile, as well as scooping up water from the ground after it rains, Badawi said. The SAF-backed Ministry of Health (MoH) reported a huge surge in daily cholera cases in the national capital region between May 15 and May 25, with at least 172 people dying between May 20 and May 27. The UN says daily cases spiked from 90 to more than 815 in the latter half of May. Those who contract the disease often rush to the nearest hospital, further straining an already overwhelmed and ill-equipped health sector. However, local volunteers said many people do not experience life-threatening symptoms and that they would be better off staying at home and isolating themselves. The overcrowding at hospitals has further exacerbated the spread of the disease and overstrained the already collapsing health sector, they explained. 'We do not have enough medication or medical tools, and the rate of people coming to the hospitals is far more than we can handle,' said Kareem al-Noor, a medic at al-Nao hospital in Omdurman. 'The [remaining hospitals] are at full capacity and people are also waiting for treatment, crowded on the streets,' al-Noor added. Dr Abeer feels the SAF-backed health authorities are not doing enough to tackle the epidemic. While she acknowledged that the health sector was largely destroyed by the RSF, she believes the current health authorities could be doing more. Al Jazeera submitted written questions to Dr Montasser Towarra, the MoH spokesperson, asking him what measures the ministry is undertaking to help volunteers and to provide basic provisions. He had not answered by the time of publication. Sudan is also suffering an acute hunger crisis. Since the civil war, millions of Sudanese have struggled to feed their families due to spoiled harvests, the systematic looting of markets and food aid and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. According to the UN, about 25 million people – more than half the population – currently suffer extreme food shortages. Hunger can weaken bodies and lead to an acute increase in contagious diseases, according to Alex De Waal, an expert on Sudan and famine. He noted that civilians – especially children – have always been more likely to die from diseases if they are also on the brink of starvation. 'We could see an excess of hundreds of thousands of deaths [due to these factors] over the next year,' warned De Waal. The UN has also warned that up to one million children could die from cholera unless the spread is thwarted quickly. The only way to thwart the health crisis is to repair basic provisions such as electricity and sewage systems to improve sanitation, said De Waal. However, he believes that repairing essential services is not a priority for the army, which remains the de facto authority. Al Jazeera sent written questions to SAF spokesperson, Nabil Abdullah, to ask if the army is planning on repairing vital resources such as bombed electricity grids. Abdullah said, 'These questions are not for the army, but for the Ministry of Health.' Tawarra from the MoH also did not respond to these questions. De Waal suspects the army is prioritising combat operations against the RSF. 'My sense is the army is too stretched financially and organisationally to prioritise anything other than fighting the war,' he told Al Jazeera.
The National
29-05-2025
- General
- The National
Cholera outbreak deepens fears for children in Sudan's capital
A developing cholera outbreak in Sudan 's war-ravaged capital has claimed 70 lives in two days, officials said on Thursday, as a UN agency warned that more than a million children are at risk in the city. The Khartoum Health Ministry said it recorded 942 new infections and 25 deaths on Wednesday, following 1,177 cases and 45 deaths on Tuesday. The surge in infections is widely blamed on drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that knocked out the water and electricity supply across the Nile-side capital. The capital has been a major battleground throughout two years of war between the Sudanese armed forces and the RSF, which last week lost its last footholds in the capital's greater region. Two months ago, the army regained control of the heart of the capital, ending the presence the RSF had had there since the opening days of the war. The Sudanese capital comprises three cities; Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri; Khartoum is the name commonly used to refer to the three combined. Wartime destruction Cholera, an acute diarrhoeal illness caused by ingesting contaminated water or food, can kill within hours if untreated. It is easily preventable and treatable when clean water, sanitation and timely medical care are available. But the capital's health and sanitation infrastructure are barely functioning. Up to 90 per cent of hospitals in the conflict's main battlegrounds have been forced out of service by the fighting. The federal Health Ministry reported 172 deaths from cholera in the week to Tuesday, 90 per cent of them in the capital. The disease is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become worse and more frequent since the war broke out in April 2023. Unicef, the UN agency for women and children, said in a Thursday report that 7,700 cases of cholera have been reported in the capital area, including 1,000 of children under five, since January this year. Cholera-related deaths numbered 185 in the capital over the same period, it said. Risk to children More than 1,700 people died of cholera in 12 of Sudan's 18 states since August 2024, when authorities declared an epidemic, said Unicef. The total number of cases stands at 65,200, it added. It said the threat of famine looms over two areas in the capital: Jabal Aoulyah and Khartoum. The two are home to a third of the 307,000 children suffering from malnutrition, it said. "Estimates point to more than one million children living in the worst-affected areas of the state of Khartoum," it added. Of these, 26,500 are suffering acute malnutrition. "For children weakened by hunger, cholera or any other disease can be deadly unless immediately treated," it added. Aid agencies are warning that without urgent action, the spread of disease is likely to worsen with the arrival of the rainy season next month, which severely limits humanitarian access. The war between the RSF and the army has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million since it broke out. The displaced include at least three million who fled the capital.
Free Malaysia Today
29-05-2025
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
RSF conduct first drone attack on Port Sudan, says army spokesperson
The conflict between the army and the RSF has unleashed waves of ethnic violence. (AP pic) CAIRO : Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces carried out a drone attack on a military air base and other facilities in the vicinity of Port Sudan Airport, a Sudanese army spokesperson said on Sunday, in the first RSF attack to reach the eastern port city. No casualties were reported from the attacks, the spokesperson said. The RSF has not commented on the incident. The RSF has targeted power stations in army-controlled locations in central and northern Sudan for the past several months but the strikes had not inflicted heavy casualties. The drone attack on Port Sudan indicates a major shift in the two-year conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF. The eastern regions, which shelter a large number of displaced people, had so far avoided bombardment. The army has responded by beefing up its deployment around vital facilities in Port Sudan and has closed roads leading to the presidential palace and army command. Port Sudan, home to the country's primary airport, army headquarters and a seaport, has been perceived as the safest place in the war-ravaged nation. In March, the army ousted the RSF from its last footholds in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, but the paramilitary RSF holds some areas in Omdurman, directly across the Nile River, and has consolidated its position in west Sudan, splitting the nation into rival zones. The conflict between the army and the RSF has unleashed waves of ethnic violence and created what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with several areas plunged into famine. The war erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the army and RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. It ruined much of Khartoum, uprooted more than 12 million Sudanese from their homes and left about half of the 50 million population suffering from acute hunger. Overall deaths are hard to estimate but a study published last year said the toll may have reached 61,000 in Khartoum state alone in the first 14 months of the conflict.
Al Bawaba
28-05-2025
- Health
- Al Bawaba
Cholera outbreak in Sudan kills 212, infects over 5000 in a week
Published May 28th, 2025 - 06:24 GMT Sudanese Health Minister added that Sudan is currently recording up to 1,000 new cases of cholera daily ALBAWABA- A deadly cholera outbreak is sweeping across Sudan, killing at least 212 people and infecting more than 5000 in the past week alone, Sudanese health authorities confirmed on Tuesday. Also Read Cholera outbreak kills 172 in 7 days in Sudan The country's Health Minister added that Sudan is currently recording up to 1,000 new cases of cholera daily, with the epicenter concentrated in Khartoum and Omdurman, and rising cases reported in multiple other regions. Cholera Response in Khartoum: Sudanese Health Minister Confirms Sufficient Medical Supplies and Ongoing Vaccination Efforts In a statement to the press, Sudan's Federal Minister of Health, Dr. Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, confirmed that the cholera outbreak in Khartoum State is… — Sudanese Echo (@SudaneseEcho) May 28, 2025 Sudan's Federal Health Minister, Dr. Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, announced that the cholera outbreak in Khartoum is under control, crediting a coordinated effort between federal and local health authorities. He affirmed that medical supplies are sufficient, boosted by the arrival of 150 tons of intravenous fluids, and that a vaccination campaign is underway across all state districts to curb further spread. Dr. Ibrahim also linked the outbreak to the collapse of basic sanitation services following the retreat of rebel militias from Khartoum, saying deteriorating environmental conditions had allowed the disease to spread rapidly. However, he expressed optimism that sustained intervention and preventive efforts will soon ease the crisis. Despite recent emergency interventions that have reportedly begun to reduce the rate of new infections and increase recovery rates, the scale of the outbreak remains alarming. Also Read Israel attacks Sanaa airport, destroys last remaining Houthi plane A nationwide cholera vaccination campaign is expected to launch in early June. Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned that Sudan's already fragile healthcare system cannot cope with the surge. MSF teams treated nearly 2,000 suspected cases last week, but many patients arrive too late for treatment, said MSF Sudan coordinator Joyce Bakker, describing scenes in cholera centers as 'deeply disturbing.' The World Health Organization has emphasized the urgent need for clean water, sanitation, and adequate healthcare. The outbreak comes amid Sudan's ongoing war, which has killed over 20,000 people and displaced more than 14 million since 2023. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
