UNICEF to Deliver 1.4 Million Cholera Vaccines to Sudan

Children and adults receive treatment at a cholera treatment centre in Tawila, North Darfur.

In Tawila, North Darfur State, Sudan, more than 1,180 cholera cases—including 300 in children—and at least 20 deaths have been reported since the first case was detected on June 21. Tawila has absorbed 500,000 internally displaced people fleeing violence, many traveling about seventy kilometers from the state capital, Al Fasher, making this surge in cases a major health concern amid worsening hygiene, medical, and food supply conditions.

Across all five Darfur States, total cases have reached 2,140, with at least 80 deaths, UNICEF reports as of July 30. Coupled with intensifying conflict, this puts 640,000 children under age five at heightened risk of violence, disease, and hunger. With largely exhausted food, clean water, medicine, and hygiene supplies, the combination of lacking essential resources and lethal disease now creates the perfect conditions for an epidemic. UNICEF requires an additional 30.6 million USD to fund emergency cholera response operations to strengthen health, water, hygiene, and sanitation services.

Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative for Sudan, said: “Despite being preventable and easily treatable, cholera is ripping through Tawila and elsewhere in Darfur, threatening children’s lives, especially the youngest and most vulnerable. We are working tirelessly with our partners on the ground to do everything we can to curb the spread and save lives—but the relentless violence is increasing the needs faster than we can meet them. We continue to appeal for safe, unimpeded access to urgently reach these children. They cannot wait a day longer.”

UNICEF has been using Port Sudan as a central logistics hub for procurement and prepositioning. Stocks of oral rehydration salts, IV fluids, water purification products, and hygiene kits are carefully monitored and released as soon as access allows. Access has been restricted by physical terrain, poor infrastructure, damaged or destroyed roads and bridges, disrupted communication networks, lack of power and fuel, and difficulties obtaining permits for delivery.

In North Darfur, hospitals have been bombed, and health facilities have had to close due to nearby fighting, severely limiting healthcare access. Lifesaving supplies, including vaccines and ready-to-use therapeutic food, have been depleted, and replenishing them is increasingly difficult as humanitarian aid access is almost completely cut off. Aid convoys that do arrive are sometimes looted or attacked.

Continued bureaucratic impediments have further deteriorated supply lines and services. Despite this, UNICEF is delivering life-saving equipment across sanitation, hygiene, water, and health sectors, while increasing community engagement for cooperation and communication.

UNICEF continues to call on the government and all concerned parties to ensure safe, sustained, and unimpeded access to reach children in Tawila and across Darfur to prevent further loss of young lives. “These bureaucratic delays do not allow us to deliver at the scale and urgency required.”

Currently, 30,000 people have access to safe, clean, chlorinated water daily through UNICEF-supported water trucking, repaired water yards, and new storage systems. Hygiene supplies have also helped 150,000 people in Daba Naira, and chlorine tablets are enabling families to treat their water.

To stop the cholera outbreak from worsening, UNICEF is preparing to deliver over 1.4 million oral cholera vaccine doses. They are working with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners through the International Coordinating Group (ICG) to strengthen Cholera Treatment Centers. Through these partnerships, UNICEF manages vaccine procurement, cold chain logistics, and community mobilization, while WHO and other partners provide technical guidance, surveillance, and campaign coordination, ensuring rapid and effective protection for the most vulnerable. Supplies include cholera kits, soap, plastic sheeting, and latrine slabs.

To support the large quantity of vaccines and medicines, UNICEF has expanded cold chain storage capacities, including delivery of walk-in cold rooms, backup generators, and maintenance of existing structures. This support has reached all five Darfur States, as well as Kassala, Northern, Red Sea, and River Nile States.