According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 3.4 million children in Sudan under five are thought to be at high risk of fatal epidemic illnesses.

Diseases like cholera, malaria, dengue fever, measles, and rubella “can spread more rapidly and severely worsen the outlook for the children in the affected states and beyond” as a result of the country’s heavy rains and flooding, according to a statement released by UNICEF Representative to Sudan Sheldon Yett on Tuesday.

Significant drops in vaccination rates and the continuing internal conflict’s destruction of infrastructure related to health, water, sanitation, and hygiene are the root causes of the crises, he said, adding that many Sudanese children’s declining nutritional state puts them in even higher danger.

On September 9, UNICEF sent 4,04,00 oral cholera vaccine doses to Sudan, according to a statement cited by Xinhua news agency.

UNICEF reports that immunization rates in Sudan have fallen from 85% before the internal strife to around 50%.

According to the report, frontline healthcare workers in conflict-affected regions have not received pay in months, and more than 70% of facilities are not working.

Epidemic illnesses including cholera, malaria, measles, and dengue fever have proliferated since the battle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023, resulting in hundreds of fatalities. Millions of people have been displaced and at least 16,650 individuals have died as a consequence of the violence.

On August 17, Sudan’s Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim formally announced the country’s cholera epidemic. The ministry blamed the usage of contaminated water and the worsening environmental circumstances brought on by the fighting for the outbreak of cholera.

The Health Ministry of Sudan said on Tuesday that between July 15 and this Monday, 10,022 instances of cholera, including 328 fatalities, had been reported throughout the nation.