ARMED fighters are hunting down and terrorising Sudanese civilians even as they flee violence, while a deadly cholera outbreak sweeps across all states of the war-torn nation, United Nations agencies have warned.
“People told me multiple times that when they were fleeing from Zamzam [displacement camp], armed people would threaten them while they were in flight, saying sure, ‘Flee, go to that place, run here, run there, we will follow you, we will find you,'” said Jocelyn Elizabeth Knight, a Protection Officer for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, briefing journalists in Geneva.
The threats have left even children traumatised and living in constant fear. Knight described speaking to one young boy in a UN shelter who told her: “You know, during the day things are okay here, but I’m afraid to go to sleep at night in case the place where we’re living is attacked again.”
Cholera Crisis Demands Urgent Response
Beyond the psychological terror, Sudanese civilians now face a rapidly spreading cholera outbreak that has reached every corner of the country amid ongoing battles between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries.
“Cholera has swept across Sudan with all the states reporting outbreaks,” said Dr. Ilham Nour, Senior Emergency Officer with the UN World Health Organisation (WHO). Since July 2024, nearly 100,000 cases have been reported across the nation.
The highly contagious disease has followed refugees across borders. As of early August, 264 cases and 12 deaths have been confirmed at Dougui refugee settlement in eastern Chad, which hosts Sudanese arrivals from Darfur. Surrounding villages and other UNHCR camps have reported additional suspected cases.
“We still have more than 230,000 refugees at the border in a very difficult situation,” said UNHCR’s Dossou Patrice Ahouansou, Principal Situation Coordinator for Eastern Chad. “Without urgent action, including enhancing access to medical treatment, to clean water, to sanitation, to hygiene and most importantly, relocation from the border, many more lives are on the line.”
The UN agency has suspended refugee relocations from border points as part of efforts to contain the outbreak.
Unexploded Weapons Threaten Urban Areas
Adding to the civilian danger, the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) confirmed that unexploded ordnance from ongoing battles is killing and maiming non-combatants unaware of the deadly hazards surrounding them.
“The sad reality of this ongoing conflict is it is not happening in rural areas, it’s mainly happening in urban areas, in the areas which are highly populated,” said Mohammad Sediq Rashid, Chief of UNMAS Sudan.
Last week alone, six minefields were discovered in the capital Khartoum, with three containing anti-personnel landmines—marking the first confirmed report of such weapons in the conflict.
“Contamination is on the roads, in homes, in schools and airstrips, medical facilities, humanitarian bases,” Rashid continued. “This is a population [that] is largely unaware of the dangers that are waiting for them…this problem is only growing every day.”
The mounting crisis underscores the urgent need for international intervention to protect Sudan’s civilian population, who face threats from armed groups, disease, and explosive remnants of war in what UN officials describe as a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian catastrophe.
