Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim has declared a cholera epidemic due to contaminated drinking water and weather conditions.
Sudan has been hit by a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly two dozen people and sickened hundreds more in recent weeks, health officials said.
Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement Sunday that at least 22 people have died from the disease and at least 354 confirmed cases of cholera have been detected across the war-torn country in recent weeks.
On Saturday, the country declared a cholera epidemic in Sudan, saying the outbreak was due to “climate conditions and contaminated drinking water.”
He said the decision was taken jointly with authorities in the eastern state of Kassala, United Nations agencies and experts after the “discovery by the public health laboratory of the cholera virus.”
Margaret Harris, a World Health Organization (WHO) official, told a news conference on Friday that 11,327 cases of cholera with 316 deaths had been reported in Sudan so far.
“We hope to have more than what has been reported,” he added.
According to WHO, cholera is a rapidly spreading and highly contagious infection that causes diarrhoea, severe dehydration and possible death within hours if left untreated. It is transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water and can cause death within hours if left untreated. Children under five are at particular risk.
Cholera is not an uncommon disease in Sudan. In 2017, a major outbreak left at least 700 people dead and sickened some 22,000 people in less than two months.
But the outbreak of the disease is the latest calamity for the region.
Devastating seasonal flooding in recent weeks has also exacerbated the situation. According to local authorities, dozens of people have died and critical infrastructure has been washed away in 12 of Sudan's 18 provinces. Some 118,000 people have been displaced by the floods, according to the United Nations migration agency.
Complicating matters, the civil war, which began in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and a powerful paramilitary group erupted into open warfare across the country, has plunged the region into chaos.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), under the command of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as “Hemedti,” have been vying for power and control of the African country of 46 million people.
The conflict has turned the capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas into battlefields, destroying civilian infrastructure and an already battered health system. Without basic services, many hospitals and medical facilities have closed their doors.
The war has also killed thousands, displaced more than 10.7 million people and pushed many into starvation, with famine already confirmed in a sprawling camp for displaced people in the devastated northern Darfur region.
A new round of talks to end Sudan's 16-month conflict began in Switzerland on Wednesday, despite the absence of the military.
The United States, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations are trying to convince the Sudanese military and the RSF to enter into ceasefire talks.
On Sunday, Sudan's military-controlled sovereign council said it would send a government delegation to meet U.S. officials in Cairo, amid mounting U.S. pressure on the military to join ongoing truce talks in Switzerland.
