A growing cholera crisis is gripping Khartoum, with disturbing images emerging of decomposing corpses left unburied in the streets, underscoring the complete collapse of public health systems under the war — and the paralysis of the Port Sudan-based SAF junta.
Dozens of photos circulated online this week show what volunteers describe as hundreds of bodies of suspected cholera victims abandoned in parts of Khartoum and Gezira State. Humanitarian workers and medical sources warn the situation is spiraling out of control, especially as the rainy season sets in — a period that typically accelerates the spread of waterborne diseases.
“The smell alone is unbearable,” said Ahmed Farouk, a volunteer in Omdurman. “We buried as many as we could, but the numbers are overwhelming. No one from the so-called government has come to help.”
Southern Omdurman has seen particularly high fatalities. Residents there were reportedly drinking from a contaminated water plant damaged by the ongoing conflict, leading to widespread cholera infections. Medical sources confirm many died before receiving treatment.
According to a health ministry surveillance report, 328 out of 1,412 tested water sources were deemed unfit for consumption — yet no effective response has been mounted.
Volunteer workers say the dead are not being collected, in part due to fighting, but largely due to the absence of any functioning health or sanitation authority. “There’s no government, no leadership, no emergency services. Nothing,” said one aid worker from Gezira.
Health experts warn the situation is primed for a renewed cholera wave. The current outbreak has already spread to multiple states including Khartoum, Gezira, Sennar, Kordofan, and parts of Darfur.
Despite these warnings, the Port Sudan-based military government under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has remained silent. No national emergency has been declared, no additional resources deployed, and no coordination with aid agencies has been made public. Critics say the junta is either unable or unwilling to act.
“The junta in Port Sudan has the luxury of clean water and safe shelter while cholera victims rot in the streets of Khartoum,” said one Sudanese health official, speaking anonymously. “It’s indifference disguised as impotence.”
In May, former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok alerted regional and international health organizations to the worsening situation, calling for urgent humanitarian intervention.
With the war grinding on and a paralyzed interim authority, many fear that the country is heading toward a full-blown health catastrophe — one that could have been mitigated had those in charge acted.
