Egypt has tightened regulations at land and air ports in the south in response to a cholera outbreak in Sudan and the spread of mpox in some African countries, Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week reported thousands of cholera infections and at least 78 deaths in Sudan this year, and separately declared a global public health emergency over the emergence of a deadlier and more transmissible strain of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring countries.
Mr Abdel Ghaffar said Egypt’s Health Ministry had taken numerous preventive measures at land crossings from Sudan since civil war broke out in its southern neighbour last year, and noted that Egypt had not recorded a case of cholera since 2006.
The WHO’s global cholera study published on Thursday reported 78 cholera-related deaths and more than 2,400 infections in Sudan between January 1 and July 28.
Sudan’s Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said on Saturday that at least 22 people had died from cholera, with 354 cases detected across the country during the “autumn season”.
Mr Ibrahim said the outbreak had been exacerbated by excessive rainfall in the region over the past few weeks. His statement came a day after WHO official Margaret Harris offered a far higher toll, saying there were 11,327 cholera cases and 316 deaths reported in Sudan – but without providing a time frame. “We expect to have more than has been reported,” she said.
Ms Harris said cases of dengue fever and meningitis infections were also on the rise.
Sudan’s cholera outbreak comes amid a humanitarian crisis caused by the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group since April last year. The Sudan Doctors’ Union estimated in June that the death toll had exceeded 40,000, while the number of people displaced has crossed 10 million, according to UN agencies.
The fighting has caused widespread damage to healthcare facilities and left 25.6 million people – more than half the population – experiencing crisis levels of hunger.
Ceasefire talks that began in Geneva last week have been met with mixed response from the warring parties, with the RSF attending and the SAF refusing to take part.
Sudan’s collective ruling body, the Transitional Sovereign Council (TSC), largely dominated by the military and headed by SAF commander-in-chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, announced on Sunday its decision to send a delegation to Cairo to discuss a return to the Jeddah Declaration signed in May 2023, following contact with the US envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello, and the Egyptian government.
The TSC reiterated its rejection of any new agreement with the RSF and said it would only deal with the US and Saudi Arabian mediators.
The RSF claimed on Sunday to have captured hundreds of fighters from Ethiopia’s Tigraya region who were fighting alongside the army troops in the Al Faw corridor, in the south-east of Sudan. It accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of fighting alongside the SAF since the war began.
The RSF also accused the armed forces of launching air strikes against civilians in North Darfur and Omdurman, resulting in dozens of deaths.
The Sudanese army meanwhile reported successful operations against the RSF in Gezira State.