UNICEF Protects Children in Sudan as Malaria, Cholera Cases Rise
Among the many devastating impacts of Sudan's brutal conflict on children is a heightened risk of contracting a preventable disease like malaria or cholera. Donor support is needed to help UNICEF reach the sick with lifesaving treatment, contain the outbreaks and strengthen long-term prevention.
Children in war-torn Sudan vulnerable to preventable, treatable diseases
As displaced families struggle to access safe water, nutrition and health care, cases of malaria and cholera keep rising. Both infectious diseases are preventable and treatable, but conditions on the ground are fueling these outbreaks.
UNICEF is working with partners to strengthen prevention and treat the sick, delivering lifesaving supplies and other support to health workers and facilities. But with recent funding cuts, more donor support is needed.
Watch the video: UNICEF's response to Sudan's malaria outbreak
UNICEF is delivering urgently needed bed nets, diagnostic kits and vaccines
Malaria remains one of the three leading causes of death among young children worldwide, after pneumonia and diarrhea. The disease, relatively rare in temperate climates and common in tropical and subtropical areas, is caused by a parasite and spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Symptoms include high fever and chills. Young children in Africa represent the vast majority of malaria-related deaths.
To combat rising cases in Sudan, UNICEF is rushing anti-malarial bed nets to shield families from mosquito bites, providing testing kits and medicines to ensure early diagnosis and timely treatment, and vaccinating children under age 2.
Cholera cases are also rapidly rising in Sudan as access to safe water and basic sanitation is disrupted or outright depleted, as it tends to be in conflict-affected areas.
Contracted by ingesting food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, cholera can easily spread in crowded camps. Severe cases can cause acute watery diarrhea. It is treatable with oral rehydration solution and antibiotics, but severe cases — which typically cause acute watery diarrhea leading to severe dehydration — can be fatal, especially for a malnourished child with an already weakened immune system.
Sudan isn't the only country dealing with cholera; outbreaks have become increasingly common across Africa. UNICEF is working with governments and local and community-based partners in many high-risk countries to strengthen prevention and build resilience to future outbreaks through better monitoring, surveillance and response mechanisms, social behavior change, water and sanitation system upgrades and other solutions.
Cholera can be prevented with regular handwashing with soap and maintaining separate water and sanitation facilities. Community health and other frontline workers can further support prevention by promoting best hygiene practices.
Cholera outbreak fueled by unsafe water sources, crowded living conditions
In Sudan, tackling cholera is another integral part of UNICEF's emergency response to the country's ongoing conflict and related crises affecting children and families. More than 7,700 cholera cases, including over 1,000 cases in children under age 5, and 185 associated deaths have been reported in Khartoum state since January 2025, according to health authorities.
Since the beginning of the brutal conflict, more than 3 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Khartoum state and the violence has upended the lives of millions more. With large parts of the state becoming more accessible, families have started to return to their homes, finding them damaged and critical water and sanitation services largely unavailable.
More than 1 million children are estimated to live in the affected localities across Khartoum state.
Continuous attacks on power plants in Khartoum state over the past month have disrupted electricity supply and worsened water shortages, significantly impacting access to safe and clean water. This has forced many families to collect water from unsafe and contaminated sources, increasing the risk of cholera and other deadly waterborne diseases, especially in overcrowded neighborhoods and displacement sites.
Reported cholera cases have surged significantly from 90 per day to 815 per day between May 15 and 25, a nine-fold increase over just 10 days. Meanwhile, there are tens of thousands of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in Jebel Aulia and Khartoum localities, where famine looms, heightening their risks should they fall ill.
"We are racing against time with our partners to provide basic health care, clean water and good nutrition, among other lifesaving services, to children who are highly vulnerable to deadly diseases and severe acute malnutrition,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative for Sudan.
“Each day, more children are exposed to this double threat of cholera and malnutrition, but both are preventable and treatable, if we can reach children in time."
Stepping up WASH interventions to protect children and families
UNICEF and partners continue to work with Sudan's Federal Ministry of Health to curb the spread of the deadly disease and save lives. A multipronged response is underway in high-risk communities and includes supporting essential water infrastructure through the provision of water treatment chemicals (polymer and chlorine) and a generator to keep a major water treatment plant operating.
UNICEF and partners are distributing household water treatment chemicals to curb community transmission, deploying water chlorinators across water points to provide safe drinking water and mobilizing rapid response teams to support water chlorination and conduct disinfection activities.
More than 2.5 million people have already benefited from the WASH supplies UNICEF and its partners have distributed. UNICEF is also engaging communities, through dialogues and social media, to disseminate key messaging on causes, symptoms and best prevention practices.
UNICEF has also:
- delivered 13.7 million doses of oral cholera vaccines to Sudan since 2023
- supported deployment of frontline workers to cholera treatment centers
- supplied oral rehydration salts, water purification tablets, acute watery diarrhea kits and water tanks
- helped train public health officers in infection prevention control
- supported community members to help monitor the situation on the ground
UNICEF also continues to support the delivery of lifesaving nutrition services through 105 outpatient management programs at health facilities and 4 stabilization centers in Khartoum state. Through these efforts, so far this year over 17,000 children under age 5 with SAM have been treated and 30,000 cartons of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and therapeutic milk have been delivered across all state localities.
Right now, the lives of the most vulnerable children hang in the balance as conflicts and crises jeopardize the care and protection that they deserve. Dependable, uninterrupted and effective foreign aid is critical to the well-being of millions of children. Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to support ongoing U.S. investments in foreign assistance.
HOW TO HELP
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War, famine, poverty, natural disasters — threats to the world's children keep coming. But UNICEF won't stop working to keep children healthy and safe.
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories — more places than any other children's organization. UNICEF has the world's largest humanitarian warehouse and, when disaster strikes, can get supplies almost anywhere within 72 hours. Constantly innovating, always advocating for a better world for children, UNICEF works to ensure that every child can grow up healthy, educated, protected and respected.
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