A child infected with cholera receives treatment in the cholera isolation centre in a refugee camp in Tawila city Darfur, on August 12, 2025

At least 40 people have died from cholera in Sudan’s Darfur region in what medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, described as the country’s worst outbreak in years.

MSF said on Thursday that the vast western region, already devastated by more than two years of fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is bearing the brunt of an outbreak that began a year ago.

“On top of an all-out war, people in Sudan are now experiencing the worst cholera outbreak the country has seen in years,” the group said in a statement cited by the AFP news agency. “In the Darfur region alone, MSF teams treated over 2,300 patients and recorded 40 deaths in the linked to cholera since August 2023.

The bacterial infection, transmitted through contaminated food and water, can cause severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps. It can kill within hours without treatment, though simple oral rehydration or antibiotics can save lives.