A cholera outbreak has reached refugee camps in eastern Chad, where thousands of Sudanese civilians have sought safety from the ongoing conflict back home. Since July, Ouaddai province has reported 938 suspected cases, with at least 63 deaths confirmed by Chad’s health ministry on Monday.
Health experts and international agencies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), had long cautioned that Sudan’s persistent cholera epidemic—uncontrolled since 2024—could spill across borders. That prediction is now unfolding, as the disease takes hold in crowded refugee settlements with limited sanitation.
In one alarming episode last month, cholera claimed four lives in Dougui camp, a site hosting roughly 20,000 Sudanese refugees. Chad’s authorities say they are intensifying hygiene and sanitation measures in an effort to curb further transmission, but the scale of displacement poses major challenges.
The humanitarian toll underscores the ripple effects of Sudan’s civil war, which has raged since April 2023. More than 800,000 Sudanese refugees have already crossed into Chad, straining the country’s fragile healthcare system and compounding the public health emergency.
