How floods, hunger and disease are making Sudan’s humanitarian disaster worse

Special How floods, hunger and disease are making Sudan’s humanitarian disaster worse
Patients suffering from cholera receive treatment at a rural isolation centre in Wad Al-Hilu in Kassala state in eastern Sudan, on August 17, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 26 August 2024
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How floods, hunger and disease are making Sudan’s humanitarian disaster worse

How floods, hunger and disease are making Sudan’s humanitarian disaster worse
  • Beleaguered African nation’s collapsing healthcare system ill-prepared to face unfolding perfect storm of crises
  • Diseases will spread owing to lack of clean water, shortage of medicine and people with weakened immune systems

LONDON: Sudan’s prolonged conflict has brought devastation, but this year a new enemy has emerged: torrential rains and floods, killing over 100 people and reigniting a deadly cholera outbreak.

The situation has sparked a public health emergency in the violence-wracked African nation, where waterborne diseases like cholera, exacerbated by floods and poor sanitation, continue to surge.




A child suffering from cholera receives treatment at a rural isolation centre in Wad Al-Hilu in Kassala state in eastern Sudan, on August 17, 2024. (AFP)

The World Health Organization reported over 11,327 cholera cases and 316 deaths since June 2023, but the real numbers are likely higher. Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, Sudan’s health minister, officially declared a cholera outbreak on Aug. 17, just a day after the WHO report.

“Cholera is caused by bacteria that are transmitted through contaminated water and the fecal-oral route,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of the medical NGO MedGlobal. “There are hundreds of new cholera cases in southeastern states, worsened by the recent torrential rains and floods.”




Damaged trucks burried in the mud after the collapse of the Arbaat Dam, 40km north of Port Sudan following heavy rains and torrential floods on August 25, 2024. (AFP)

Sudan’s history with cholera runs deep. A 2017 outbreak infected over 22,000 people within two months, killing at least 700. Today, a worsening humanitarian crisis driven by conflict has led to a resurgence of diseases, including dengue fever and meningitis.

Heavy rains have flooded conflict zones including Al-Jazirah, Khartoum and Darfur, contaminating water sources and amplifying the spread of disease.

IN NUMBERS

  • 11,327+ Cholera cases from June 2023 to August 2024.
  • 316+ Deaths from cholera during the same period.

(Source: WHO)

The rain, forecast to continue into September, has killed 114 people and displaced thousands already weakened by war and acute food shortages, according to Sudan’s Health Ministry.

Floods have displaced 20,000 people in 11 of Sudan’s 18 states since June, according to the International Organization for Migration. The Nile and Kassala states, near Eritrea, have been particularly hard-hit.

Sahloul cautioned that cholera would continue to spread due to the collapse of Sudan’s healthcare system, lack of clean water, and a shortage of medicine.

The fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which broke out on April 15 last year, has claimed at least 15,000 lives and displaced 12 million people. Out of them, nearly 2 million are now refugees in three neighboring countries — Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.

The violence has decimated the healthcare system, with about 70 percent of hospitals in conflict zones no longer operational.

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan has been the largest in the world for many months now. More than half of the country’s 45 million people need urgent relief aid. Some food security specialists fear that as many as 2.5 million people could die from hunger by the end of this year.




The violence has decimated the healthcare system, with about 70 percent of hospitals in conflict zones no longer operational. (MSF)

In addition to cholera, Sudan faces another health crisis: the spread of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. The WHO has declared a public-health emergency following the rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries.

“The emergence of a new strain of mpox, clade 1, its rapid spread, and the reporting of cases in several neighboring countries are very worrying,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said in mid-August.

Sahloul of MedGlobal, which has been providing essential aid in Sudan, cited the “regional increase in mpox cases and the spread to nearby Central and East African countries, including Uganda,” which borders Sudan, as the main reason for the declaration.




Workers gather to kickstart a hygiene and sanitation campaign initiated by health authorities in Sudan’s eastern city of Gedaref on August 24, 2024, to combat the spread of disease in the country. (AFP)

The virus, which causes flu-like symptoms and blistering rashes, can be deadly if left untreated. Sudan’s limited health infrastructure is already struggling to cope with multiple disease outbreaks, placing the country and its neighbors at risk.

With a fatality rate of 3.6 percent, clade 1 “is a dangerous disease caused by a virus that is from the same family of now-extinct smallpox,” Sahloul said.

“Like cholera, mpox is an infectious disease that spreads in an environment of displacement, crowding, and lack of access to personal hygiene and clean water.”

He added: “The spread of mpox in overcrowded camps and regions with poor sanitation could have catastrophic consequences.”




Sudanese already displaced by conflict, rest under a blanket at a makeshift campsite they were evacuated to following deadly floods in the eastern city of Kassala on August 12, 2024. (AFP)

Sahloul said both cholera and mpox “can undermine health security regionally and internationally, and may spread quickly to neighboring countries like Egypt, Libya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.”

The situation is especially concerning as “many of these countries have their own separate crises.”

Against this alarming backdrop, the international community has been calling for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to reach the affected areas in Sudan.

The US opened talks in Switzerland on Aug. 14 aimed at easing the human suffering and achieving a lasting ceasefire. The talks were co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, with the African Union, Egypt, the UAE and the UN completing the so-called Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan Group (ALPS).

According to an AFP report, an RSF delegation showed up but the SAF were unhappy with the format and did not attend, though they were in telephone contact with the mediators. The talks ended on Aug. 16 without a ceasefire but with progress on securing aid access on two key routes into the country.




People receive treatment at the Bashair hospital in Sudan's capital on September 10, 2023. (AFP)

The reopening of the Adre crossing from Chad is a key development for aid organizations. The crossing is the most effective route for delivering relief supplies into Sudan, where millions are in dire need of food, clean water, and medical care.

“The reopening will enable the entry of aid needed to stop the famine and address food insecurity,” said a joint statement from the five countries. The statement called on Sudan’s warring parties to coordinate with humanitarian groups to ensure aid reaches the most vulnerable people.

Sudan’s hunger crisis has left more than 25.6 million people vulnerable to infections, according to the UN. The breadbasket regions of Al-Jazirah and Sennar along the Blue Nile have been devastated. People there are going hungry for the first time in generations, according to a recent BBC report.

It says starvation is worst in Darfur, especially in El-Fasher, the only city in the region still controlled by the army and its local allies.

With limited access to clean water and sanitation, many Sudanese — especially in refugee camps — are at high risk of contracting cholera, mpox and other diseases. “The combination of displacement, crowding, and lack of clean water creates a perfect storm for outbreaks,” said Sahloul.




Sudan’s history with cholera runs deep. A 2017 outbreak infected over 22,000 people within two months, killing at least 700. (AFP)

UNICEF has reported that more than 17.3 million people in Sudan currently lack access to safe drinking water, while the International Federation of Medical Students Associations estimates that 829,000 deaths annually are linked to diseases caused by contaminated war and poor standards of sanitation and hygiene.

As Sudan grapples with cholera, mpox and a humanitarian catastrophe, the country’s people await an end to the violence that continues to fuel this public health disaster.

 


Syria state TV says Israel struck bridges near border with Lebanon

Syria state TV says Israel struck bridges near border with Lebanon
Updated 26 November 2024
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Syria state TV says Israel struck bridges near border with Lebanon

Syria state TV says Israel struck bridges near border with Lebanon
  • The defense ministry said “the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of Lebanese territory, targeting crossing points that it had previously hit” between the two countries

DAMASUS: Syrian state television reported Israeli strikes on several bridges in the Qusayr region near the Lebanese border on Monday, with the defense ministry reporting two civilians injured in the attacks.
Israel’s military has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria since its conflict with Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon escalated into full-scale war in late September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities.
“An Israeli aggression targeted the bridges of Al-Jubaniyeh, Al-Daf, Arjoun, and the Al-Nizariyeh Gate in the Qusayr area,” state television said, with official news agency SANA reporting damage in the attacks.
The defense ministry said “the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of Lebanese territory, targeting crossing points that it had previously hit” between the two countries.
The attacks “injured two civilians and caused material losses,” it added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, based in Britain, said the attacks had “killed two Syrians working with Hezbollah and injured five others,” giving a preliminary toll.
Earlier, the monitor with a network of sources in Syria had said the “Israeli strikes targeted” an official land border crossing in the Qusayr area and six bridges on the Orontes River near the border with Lebanon.
Since September, Israel has bombed land crossings between Lebanon and Syria, putting them out of service. It accuses Hezbollah of using the routes, key for people fleeing the war in Lebanon, to transfer weapons from Syria.

 

 


Iraqis sentenced to prison in $2.5bn corruption case

Iraqis sentenced to prison in $2.5bn corruption case
Updated 26 November 2024
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Iraqis sentenced to prison in $2.5bn corruption case

Iraqis sentenced to prison in $2.5bn corruption case
  • A criminal court in Baghdad specializing in corruption cases issued the prison sentences ranging from three to 10 years, a statement from Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court on Monday sentenced to prison former senior officials, a businessman and others for involvement in the theft of $2.5 billion in public funds — one of Iraq’s biggest corruption cases.
The three most high-profile individuals sentenced — businessman Nour Zuhair, as well as former prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi’s cabinet director Raed Jouhi and a former adviser, Haitham Al-Juburi — are on the run and were tried in absentia.
The scandal, dubbed the “heist of the century,” has sparked widespread anger in Iraq, which is ravaged by rampant corruption, unemployment and decaying infrastructure after decades of conflict.
A criminal court in Baghdad specializing in corruption cases issued the prison sentences ranging from three to 10 years, a statement from Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said.
Thirteen people received sentences on Monday, according to member of Parliament Mostafa Sanad.
Most of them, 10, are from Iraq’s tax authority and include its former director and deputy, he added on his Telegram channel.
Iraq revealed two years ago that at least $2.5 billion was stolen between September 2021 and August 2022 through 247 cheques that were cashed by five companies.
The money was then withdrawn in cash from the accounts of those firms.
A judicial source told AFP that some tax officials charged were in detention, without detailing how many.
Businessman Zuhair was sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to the judiciary statement.
He was arrested at Baghdad airport in October 2022 as he was trying to leave the country, but released on bail a month later after giving back more than $125 million and pledging to return the rest in instalments.
The wealthy businessman was back in the news in August after he reportedly had a car crash in Lebanon, following an interview he gave to an Iraqi news channel.
Juburi, the former prime ministerial adviser, received a three-year prison sentence. He also returned $2.6 million before disappearing, a judicial source told AFP.
Kadhemi’s cabinet director Raed Jouhi, also currently outside Iraq, was sentenced to six years in prison — alongside “a number of officials involved in the crime,” according to the judiciary’s statement.
Corruption is rampant across Iraq’s public institutions, but convictions typically target mid-level officials or minor players and rarely those at the top of the power hierarchy.
 

 


11 killed in Kurdish-led attacks in north Syria: war monitor

11 killed in Kurdish-led attacks in north Syria: war monitor
Updated 26 November 2024
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11 killed in Kurdish-led attacks in north Syria: war monitor

11 killed in Kurdish-led attacks in north Syria: war monitor
  • Seven Turkiye-backed militants were also killed in the attack and in an operation by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that control swathes of northeast Syria.

BEIRUT: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Monday 11 people including civilians were killed in attacks by a Kurdish-led force on positions of Turkiye-backed militants in north Syria.
“A woman, her two children and a man were killed... in the bombing of a military position... used by Ankara-backed factions for human smuggling operations to Turkiye,” the Britain-based monitor said.
It said seven Turkiye-backed militants were also killed in that incident and in an operation by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that control swathes of northeast Syria.
SDF special forces infiltrated a Turkiye-backed group’s military position and killed three militants, said the monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.
The SDF also booby-trapped a military position as they withdrew, in an attack that killed another four pro-Turkiye militants but also four civilians including a woman and her two children, the Observatory said.
On Sunday, 15 Ankara-backed Syrian militants were killed after the SDF infiltrated their territory, the monitor reported earlier.
The SDF is a US-backed force that spearheaded the fighting against the Daesh group in its last Syria strongholds before its territorial defeat in 2019.
It is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), viewed by Ankara as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkish troops and allied armed factions control swathes of northern Syria following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, most of them targeting the SDF.


Sudan women facing ‘epidemic of sexual violence’: UN

Sudan women facing ‘epidemic of sexual violence’: UN
Updated 25 November 2024
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Sudan women facing ‘epidemic of sexual violence’: UN

Sudan women facing ‘epidemic of sexual violence’: UN

PORT SUDAN: The United Nations humanitarian chief raised the alarm on Monday over an “epidemic of sexual violence” against women in war-torn Sudan, saying the world “must do better.”
“I feel ashamed that we have not been able to protect you, and I feel ashamed for my fellow men for what they have done,” Tom Fletcher, who heads the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said on his first visit to Port Sudan.
The Red Sea city has become Sudan’s de facto capital since April 2023, when Khartoum was engulfed by war between the regular military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than 11 million people and created what the UN says is the worst humanitarian crisis in recent memory.
Nearly 26 million people — around half the population — face the threat of mass starvation, as both warring sides have been accused of using hunger as a weapon of war.
During his visit, Fletcher met army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and discussed efforts to “increase the delivery of aid across borders and across conflict lines.”
Aid workers and humanitarian agencies say Burhan’s army-aligned government has enforced severe bureaucratic hurdles to their work.
At an event in a Port Sudan school to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Fletcher said the world “must do better” by the women of Sudan, who have been exposed to systematic sexual violence.
The UN’s independent international fact-finding mission for Sudan last month documented escalating sexual violence, including “rape, sexual exploitation and abduction for sexual purposes as well as allegations of enforced marriages and human trafficking.”
“The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission.
“The situation faced by vulnerable civilians, in particular women and girls of all ages, is deeply alarming and needs urgent address,” he added.


EU offers Morocco €200 million in quake reconstruction aid

EU offers Morocco €200 million in quake reconstruction aid
Updated 25 November 2024
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EU offers Morocco €200 million in quake reconstruction aid

EU offers Morocco €200 million in quake reconstruction aid
  • Relations between Morocco and the EU are strained after the European Court of Justice annulled fishing and agricultural deals between the two parties over products from disputed Western Sahara

RABAT: The European Union plans to offer Morocco 200 million euros ($210 million) to help with post-earthquake reconstruction, EU commissioner for neighborhood and enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said on Monday, as the two parties navigate judicial headwinds.
The 6.8 magnitude quake, Morocco’s deadliest since 1960, struck on Sept. 8, 2023, killing more than 2,900 people and damaging vital infrastructure. Morocco said it would invest In a post-earthquake reconstruction plan that includes the upgrade of infrastructure in five years.
The EU will increase its total quake reconstruction aid to Morocco to 1 billion euros, Varhelyi told a press conference in Rabat following talks with foreign minister Nasser Bourita.
Morocco was a “reliable” partner, receiving 5.2 billion euros in EU investments over the last five years, he said.
Relations between Morocco and the EU are strained after the European Court of Justice annulled fishing and agricultural deals between the two parties over products from disputed Western Sahara.
The long-frozen conflict, dating back to 1975, pits Morocco, which considers Western Sahara its own territory, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front independence movement, which seeks a separate state there.
Following the verdict, the European Council and the Commission said they attached “high value” to relations with Morocco.
The EU’s relationship with Morocco needs to be protected from judicial harassment, Bourita said, adding that “there will be no partnerships at the expense of Morocco’s territorial integrity.”
The challenges facing Morocco-EU relations contrast with the stronger economic and political ties Rabat has forged with Madrid and Paris, after the two former colonial powers backed a Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara. ($1 = 0.9499 euros)