Calls for Sudan to declare a cholera epidemic

The Sudanese opposition group, the Popular Congress Party (PCP), has called on the Sudanese prime minister to officially declare that the country is suffering from a cholera epidemic, local news outlets reported.

The PCP, who joined the National Government of Reconciliation last month, said that the epidemic could only be contained if the disease was officially declared and international institutions were allowed to intervene.

Despite some 292 deaths and 14,659 infections since August 2016, the Sudanese government insist that affected patients suffered from an acute form of “watery diarrhoea” and not cholera.

Edition of Sudan’s Al-Tayyar newspaper in which the Minister of Health said: “The watery diarrhoea is not my problem”

Last week, the federal Minister of Health, Bahar Abugarda, told parliamentarians that the outbreak was not a matter for the health ministry but should be dealt with by local states and the government’s Ministry of Water Resources.

Read: #CholeraInSudan

Addressing the PCP consultative Shura Council in Khartoum, Secretary-General Dr Ali El Haj said that the government must take responsibility for the epidemic. “A declaration of a cholera outbreak will only benefit Sudan. Look at what happened in India and Thailand after they declared a cholera epidemic.”

He stressed that his party’s involvement in the government would not prevent them “from telling the truth.”

There has been no immediate response from the Sudanese prime minister’s office.