The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday that South Sudan is struggling with the worst cholera epidemic in the last 20 years, resulting in nearly 700 people in six months. This is reported to TASR, according to the AFP report.
UNICEF data shows that From the end of September 2024 to 18 March 2025, they have recorded approximately 40,000 cholera cases in the country “including 694 deaths, which makes the epidemic worst in the last 20 years”. Half of the case of infection concerns children under 15 years of age.
Organization doctors without borders (MSF) She warned on Monday about even faster spread of infection for a large number of Yugosdan refugees who are fleeing to the neighboring countries to avoid fighting. The UN Coordination Office for Humanitarian Operations (Ocha) announced this month that approximately 50,000 people have been displaced for fighting since February only in the State of the Upper Nile and the local treatment unit for cholera had to stop its activity.
In 2022, the country announced a re -outbreak of cholera epidemic after about five years. In December 2024 MSF warned against “alarming and rapid spread” of the disease.
Since the announcement of independence in 2011, South Sudan has been in force in violence and political instability. The civil war, which broke out two years later, has claimed hundreds of thousands of victims between 2013 and 2018, and in the country there are occasionally collisions among the armed groups of President Salva Kiira and Vice President Machara.
In addition to South Sudan, they reported more than 7500 cases this year and 294 deaths in Angola. UNICEF warned against a “high risk of further escalation”.
