The city of Omdurman, along with large swaths of Khartoum State, is witnessing a harrowing cholera outbreak that has spread with alarming speed and intensity.
In the absence of safe water sources, many residents have turned to untreated water drawn directly from the Nile. This has unfolded amid a crippling shortage of medical personnel, intravenous fluids, and essential medicines in isolation centres and hospitals, facilities that have been overwhelmed, with wards, tents, courtyards, and open spaces teeming with patients in distressing and tragic scenes.
The number of confirmed cholera cases surged from 500 to over 2,729, with 172 related deaths recorded by May 27, according to the Federal Ministry of Health’s Emergency Operations Centre. 90 per cent of these cases and fatalities were reported in Khartoum State, particularly in southern districts and in Omdurman, northwest of the capital. UNICEF has warned that over one million children are at risk as the epidemic continues to escalate across the state.
The media office of the Khartoum State Ministry of Health told Atar that “a total of 1.452 homes and shelters in Omdurman, Karari, Bahri, and Jabal Awlia localities have been disinfected, 4,360 chlorine tablets distributed, and health promotion activities have reached 2,679 individuals.”
The ministry, however, declined to disclose the precise number of deaths or the current tally of patients in isolation.
The Sudanese Doctors Network issued an urgent appeal to the health authorities, particularly the Ministry of Health, to act swiftly in response to the growing crisis
According to a statement by the Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, preliminary figures indicate at least 1,011 deaths due to cholera: 346 in Khartoum, 57 in North Kordofan, 33 in River Nile State, 30 in the Northern State, 45 in Al Jazirah, and more than 500 in Omdurman alone.
The syndicate described the situation as critical in its May 27 update, citing a severe shortage of intravenous solutions, a dwindling medical workforce, the near-total unavailability of disinfectants and sterilization tools, and the lack of clean water, all compounded by overwhelmed hospitals and isolation centres unable to cope with the influx of patients.
The Sudanese Doctors Network issued an urgent appeal to the health authorities, particularly the Ministry of Health, to act swiftly in response to the growing crisis. The outbreak has intensified at Al-Naw Hospital in Omdurman, where over 521 cases had been admitted as of May 22, including nine deaths reported that same day.
According to the network, 183 patients have been isolated at Al-Naw Hospital alone, while new cases continue to be recorded at Bashair Hospital, the Turkish Hospital in southern Khartoum, and Al-Ban Jadeed Hospital in East Nile locality.
Al-Naw Hospital in Karari locality has received the highest number of cases. Witnesses reported that some patients are being treated under dire conditionson the streets and in full view of the public, outside the designated isolation areas. The Karari Resistance Committees Coordination reported that public transport stations have been relocated and commercial shops around Al-Naw Hospital shut down, amid rising fears of community transmission.
The Sudanese Doctors’ Preliminary Committee warned that cholera is now threatening lives in seven states. The group also reported thousands of cases of acute watery diarrhea, the majority of which are suspected to be cholera, compounded by an acute shortage of intravenous fluids, medical supplies, and healthcare workers.
A doctor at Al-Naw Hospital in Omdurman told Atar that the medical team is treating patients according to the internationally recognized cholera protocol, based on prevailing symptoms. The rising recovery rate, she added, confirms that the outbreak is indeed cholera, rather than another illness such as acute diarrhea or poisoning.
Hospital failures amid cholera surge
Umbadda Hospital. Photo: Atar correspondent
Atar has obtained photographs from the two isolation centres affiliated with Al-Naw and Umbadda hospitals, both overwhelmed by patients and their caregivers. Videos circulating on social media show patients’ bodies sprawled on the ground near the entrances, while companions hold up IV bags due to a lack of proper stands. Atar has verified the videos were taken at the isolation centre located to the west of Al-Naw Hospital. Many patients have taken shelter under trees, lying directly on the bare ground, some bringing blankets from home to shield themselves from the blistering heat and sweltering conditions.
According to a volunteer at Al-Naw Hospital, the highest concentration of cases has been reported in western Al-Harat, Al-Jumou’iya, and Al-Salha in southern Omdurman.
Currently, the state hosts several isolation centres for cholera patients, including Al-Naw Hospital, Mohammed Al-Ameen Children’s Hospital (under Omdurman Hospital), Al-Buluk, Al-Fath, Al-Jazeera Islang, Umbadda Hospital, Al-Fiteehab, and Al-Salha. Additional centres have been established in Al-Ban Jadeed Hospital in East Nile locality, as well as Bashair and the Turkish Hospital in southern Khartoum, despite these facilities facing acute shortages in staff, medicine, and equipment. The isolation centre at Al-Naw Hospital sits in the hospital’s courtyard that was repurposed for this function nine months ago, according to a hospital volunteer.
Patients have begun dying in public spaces while desperate family members administer IV fluids under trees.
Khartoum State has become heavily reliant on local volunteers and both international and national organizations to sustain even the most basic health services. Volunteers are making every effort to secure essential items such as intravenous fluids.
Revolutionary Resistance Committees in Omdurman’s District 8 reported that overcrowding at Omdurman Hospital’s isolation unit has forced some cholera patients to be treated on the sidewalks, a dire humanitarian crisis and a stark indicator of the collapsing health system.
On Monday, May 26, the committees warned that the outbreak had begun spreading in District 8 and that the isolation unit at Omdurman Hospital was completely overrun, with no available space for new patients.
Several volunteers working in isolation centres accused Khartoum State’s Ministry of Health of deliberately downplaying the scale of the catastrophe. They told Atar that residents have recently been gripped by panic as patients have begun dying in public spaces, on the streets and in mosques, while desperate family members administer IV fluids under trees or outside cafés.
Volunteers at Al-Naw Hospital reported that Ministry of Health ambulances have started transferring patients to the Model Umbadda Hospital.
A member of Omdurman’s emergency response team told Atar that the situation at Al-Naw has deteriorated significantly over the past week. Although security measures were tightened at the hospital’s gates, they were implemented without a coherent plan or effective coordination.
“The local authorities and their team appeared, removed nearby kiosks and cafés, only for everything to return to the way it was the very next day, as if nothing had happened,” he said.
The volunteer described the conditions in the isolation centres as catastrophic, citing severe shortages in medical personnel while the Ministry of Health fails to provide essential support. He emphasized that the widely shared photos and videos do not even begin to reflect the true scale of the humanitarian disaster unfolding on the ground. Some cholera patients are reportedly wandering the streets because they have nowhere to go, no available beds, no medical staff to care for them, and no access to treatment.
To cope, volunteers have organised themselves into several task forces: one team is handling sanitation at the isolation units, another is collecting donations to supply IV fluids, and a third is spreading awareness throughout Omdurman on the dangers of cholera and methods of prevention. They also distribute face masks, sanitizers, and gloves free of charge both inside and outside hospital premises.
At Al-Ban Jadeed centre in East Nile, we found six cases left in an ambulance parked inside the hospital
“But even these grassroots efforts are being obstructed for no apparent reason,” the volunteer remarked.
“After printing and posting awareness posters in the hospitals and on the streets, we were surprised to find that the hospital administration had removed them all. So we printed more and handed them out directly to residents,” he said.
He added that the volunteer teams had visited various isolation centres and hospitals across Khartoum in an effort to transfer patients to facilities in less-affected areas, after Bashair and the Turkish Hospital stopped admitting new cases due to exceeding their capacity.
“At Al-Ban Jadeed centre in East Nile, we found six cases left in an ambulance parked inside the hospital,” the volunteer reported. “The hospital administration accepted 12 patients from us and then halted admissions altogether.”
At the cholera isolation centre of Mohamed Al-Ameen Hospital, affiliated with Omdurman Hospital, the situation has deteriorated further, according to a physician working at the facility.
The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, confirmed that several corpses remained in the hospital yard for three consecutive days, with no one to bury them. The deceased patients had arrived at the hospital unaccompanied, and their bodies were left untouched for fear of contagion.
Sources at Omdurman Hospital reported that Khartoum State authorities gave organizations providing care to cholera patients an ultimatum: either cease recording and publishing patient numbers, or vacate the hospital.
Medical sources, who also requested anonymity, told Atar that some of these organizations, among them international agencies, refused to comply and instead suspended their services at Omdurman Hospital.
Khalda Ahmed, the mother of a cholera patient, expressed her reluctance to admit her son to the isolation centre saying she would rather keep him by her side than send him into a facility she described as severely lacking in proper care and medical personnel.
| Centre | Cases | Deaths | Transfers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al-Naw Isolation Centre | 200 | 35 | 40 |
| Bashair Hospital | 45 | — | — |
| Umbadda Hospital | 238 | — | — |
Case and Death Statistics as on May 27, 2025
A volunteer said the mortality figures are likely underreported due to the difficulty of proper documentation. The shortage of burial shrouds and body bags strongly suggest a much higher death toll. The volunteer added that they have yet to receive official statistics from the burial preparation unit at Al-Naw Hospital.
A physician at Al-Naw Hospital told Atar that over 2.600 cases had been recorded at the facility since the onset of the cholera outbreak in Omdurman, as of 27 May. The centre has been registering between 150 and 200 new cases daily. Many patients have been transferred to Umbadda Hospital due to a severe shortage of beds at Al-Naw’s isolation unit, which also received six new cases from local prisons.
According to the physician, patients are categorized into three classes: Categories A and B: Relatively stable cases; patients are expected to purchase their intravenous (IV) fluids from private pharmacies, and Category C: Critical cases requiring immediate and intensive care. Those in Category are the focus of most medical efforts.
isolation centre, Al-Naw Hospital. Photo: Atar correspond
Atar’s visits to pharmacies revealed a continued shortage of IV fluids, which have become a black-market commodity.
Whether controlled by pharmacy owners or profiteering merchants, prices vary wildly. While some pharmacies in Omdurman sell a single IV bag for SDG 3000 to 5000, others charge between SDG 8000 and 25,000. With a single patient requiring 4 to 8 IV bags per day, the costs are crippling for most families.
Karim Al-Nour, a nurse and volunteer at Al-Naw Hospital, highlighted severe shortages of IV fluids, medicines, and basic medical supplies such as disinfectants, gloves, and masks. However, he stressed that the most critical gap lies in the absence of oxygen, suction machines, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation drugs. He noted that warehouses in Al-Salha, formerly controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), are currently the only source for some of these essential items.
Contaminated Waters Under Fire
12 of the 13 water stations in Khartoum State were destroyed during the war.
Community medicine specialist Hind Al-Khalifa told Atar cholera is, by its very nature, a direct consequence of collapsing health and infrastructure systems marked by the absence of safe drinking water, halted sanitation services, and insufficient medical care.
In recent months, Khartoum State has faced a crippling water crisis. In some neighbourhoods, the public water supply has been cut off for over two years. Most residents have relied on fetching water directly from the Nile or from wells, transported via rudimentary donkey carts.
According to a previous Atar report, 12 of the 13 water stations in Khartoum State were destroyed during the war. The sole station spared major damage was the Al-Manara station in Karari locality, which services parts of Karari as well as Omdurman Old Town and Umbadda in western Khartoum.
In January, however, the Al-Manara station was forced offline after being hit by drone strikes launched by the RSF, damaging equipment and machinery. A source familiar with the station told Atar that despite enduring more than eight suicide drone attacks, the station continued operating, thanks to a reserve stock of spare parts.
Built between 2007 and 2010, the Al-Manara station has a production capacity of 200.000 cubic metres per day and supplies large areas, including Karari and Umbadda.
Due to repeated drone strikes and ongoing power outages, on which station operations heavily depend, Khartoum State authorities turned to alternative solutions. They drilled and activated emergency wells in Omdurman, Karari, and Umbadda, offering a temporary lifeline to avert a complete breakdown of service.
Solar power systems were installed for some of the new wells to compensate for the energy shortfall, but these remain limited. Most wells have stopped functioning altogether due to persistent electricity cuts, pushing people to consume untreated Nile water, which has contributed to the spread of waterborne diseases like acute watery diarrhea and cholera.
A source from the Al-Manara station, who requested anonymity, denied that the cholera outbreak was linked to its water supply. He explained that the station adheres to strict chlorination procedures that ensure 99.9% water safety, even in the presence of microbial contamination in the distribution network.
He added that most stations were devastated by the war, with theft of electrical cables and vandalism of control panels bringing operations to a halt. Some stations continue to operate at minimal capacity—such as the station in North Bahri, and the Soba and Jabal Awlia stations, which function at less than 20% of their capacity.
Abbas Al-Fatih, a brick kiln owner and resident of Wad Al-Bakheet near the Al-Manara station, told Atar that corpses are now a haunting sight in the Nile River around Omdurman, with two to three bodies drifting downstream daily since the army regained control over Al-Salha. He noted that large numbers of displaced residents are drinking directly from the Nile, and water tankers have been drawing untreated river water during power outages, fueling a spike in diarrhea-related deaths in the area.
A resident of Al-Hara 4 in Omdurman’s Al-Thawra neighbourhood told Atar that the prolonged water outages have forced people to rely on unsafe water sources, including contaminated Nile water and untreated local wells, significantly increasing the risk of disease transmission.
The resident added that water prices soared during outage periods, with the cost of a water tanker, containing about 50 barrels, reaching 600.000 Sudanese pounds. The frequency and duration of water cuts vary depending on which station supplies the area.
She said the water crisis has been exacerbated by erratic electricity supply.
When power is available, water flows. When it is cut, so is water. Electricity remains unstable in Omdurman. Still, she sees a slight improvement: water has returned to the main lines, though it has yet to reach most households.
