Al-Mandhari said in statements to Sky News Arabia that Sudan was already suffering before the war from real fragility and weakness in the health system, due to weak financial funding and a lack of medical personnel, so the current conflict exacerbates the health crisis, especially with its targeting of health facilities, infrastructure, and services such as water stations. The buildings contributed to the impact on housing and food.
In conjunction with the killing of more than 30 people in air and ground bombardments that affected a number of Khartoum neighborhoods on Monday and Tuesday; The international community has intensified its movements to hold accountable those who are obstructing efforts to stop the war that has been ongoing for about 170 days in the capital, Khartoum, and a number of other regions of the country. It caused the death of more than 7,000 and displaced about 5 million people.
The war created a devastating humanitarian crisis, and local medical teams warned of the spread of cholera and dengue fever.
The Regional Director of the World Health Organization identified the repercussions of the ongoing war on the health and humanitarian situation, in a number of points, saying:
- The war has caused 70 percent of hospitals and medical centers in the main conflict areas to cease, with about 20 percent of medical institutions far from the conflict being severely affected.
- Malnutrition levels have also increased dramatically recently, with large numbers of children, approaching 100,000, suffering from severe malnutrition.
- Many child vaccination programs have stopped, in addition to the significant impact on investigation and follow-up efforts for various diseases and epidemics, despite Sudan being affected by the heavy rainy season, which causes an increase in transmitted diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.
- There are 4 million pregnant or breastfeeding women who suffer from malnutrition, in addition to 4.5 million displaced people inside Sudan, especially in conflict areas.
- Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have been displaced outside Sudan to neighboring countries and need health care.
Warning about cholera and dengue fever
This comes at a time when medics in Sudan warned of an outbreak of cholera and dengue fever in the country, due to the start of seasonal rains and the impact of the raging war.
Health authorities confirmed that cases of cholera had been detected for the first time since the outbreak of war, and said that the first case was detected in Gedaref State in late August.
According to a statement by the Association of Doctors in Sudan, 3,398 cases of dengue fever were recorded in the states of Gedaref, Red Sea, North Kordofan, and Khartoum, in the period from mid-April to mid-September.
She explained, “There are reasons that contributed to the spread of the two diseases, including contamination of drinking water from unburied corpses, in addition to waste, and a lack of equipment in medical services before the rainy season.”
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