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CRISIS OVERVIEW
• By 4 August 2025, the General Directorate of Health Emergencies and Epidemics Control had recorded 2,957 suspected cholera cases in Tawila locality, North Darfur state, since the federal Ministry of Health (MOH) declared an outbreak in the country in August 2024.
Some of these cases were confirmed through rapid diagnostic testing (Sudan GDoHEEC accessed 05/08/2025). The figure is likely an underreporting owing to outbreak surveillance challenges and long verification processes for case reporting (KII 22/07/2025 a). As such, the reported figures might not accurately represent the current scale and burden of the cholera outbreak in Tawila (WHO 17/06/2025).
• Although cholera cases in early July 2025 were declining in most of the states, North Darfur state continued to see an upward trend, with the surge in suspected cholera cases starting in the middle of the month (KII 22/07/2025 c; Sudan GDoHEEC accessed 26/07/2025;
UNICEF 02/07/2025). In the week leading to 22 July, the MOH reported 519 suspected cases in Tawila out of 1,300 nationwide, making it the locality with the highest reported cases that week (AA 22/07/2025; ST 22/07/2025). This indicates a sustained risk of cholera transmission in and around the locality. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which is handling almost the entire case management of cholera in Tawila, estimates that the number of cases could reach up to 28,000 at the peak of the outbreak (MSF unpublished).
• The cholera outbreak in Tawila is part of the wider national outbreak that the MOH declared in August 2024 (OCHA 03/07/2025). By 4 August 2025, around 96,700 suspected cholera cases and over 2,400 related deaths had since been reported across the country. The outbreak reached four of the five Darfur states, including North Darfur, in June 2025 (UNICEF 19/06/2025; Sudan GDoHEEC accessed 26/07/2025).
• Many people in Tawila are living with inadequate WASH and health conditions, which are conducive to cholera transmission, especially for the 560,000 IDPs residing in Tawila by July 2025. Hundreds of thousands of IDPs in the locality live in makeshift shelters in open fields with limited WASH services, particularly limited access to safe water (ST 22/05/2025 and 04/06/2025; IOM accessed 26/07/2025; TNH 22/07/2025). The newly established camp in Debeit Naira, especially the annex hosting recent arrivals from El Fasher, is facing some of the most sever conditions (KII 05/08/2025). Healthcare access is severely limited, with overstretched health facilities poorly equipped to respond to disease outbreaks (NRC 13/07/2025; OCHA 22/07/2025). Critical shortages of essential medicines and vaccines are further straining the health system In Tawila and hindering the provision of life-saving services for thousands of people in need (UN 22/07/2025).