War-torn The country’s health and sanitary infrastructure has been wrecked, and hundreds of unburied corpses are still lying about, according to a warning issued by Save the Children on Tuesday.
According to locals, combat between the soldiers of army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who is in charge of the paramilitary Rapid Support soldiers, has left Khartoum littered with dead bodies.
Four months into the battle, the London-based organization raised the alarm about “the risk of major disease outbreaks in the city” due to the thousands of corpses that were rotting on the streets of the capital and the overcrowded morgues.
Doctors have issued a renewed hazard warning as a result of the war after numerous cholera outbreaks in Sudan in recent years.
Save the Children stated that fears of a cholera outbreak in the city were sparked by a “horrific combination of rising numbers of corpses, severe water shortages, non-functioning hygiene and sanitation services, and lack of water treatment options.”
The non-governmental organization claimed it was difficult to determine whether Sudan was having a cholera outbreak without a working public health laboratory for testing.
The World Health Organization reports that 80% of hospitals are out of operation, and the war that started on April 15 has made it impossible for victims and their families to reach hospitals.
Additionally, according to Save the Children, “prolonged power outages have left the city’s morgues without refrigeration, allowing bodies to decompose in the heat.”
“The inability to give those who have died a dignified burial is yet another element of the suffering of families in Khartoum,” said Bashir Kamal Eldin Hamid, a physician with the organization.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project’s conservative estimate states that fighting has claimed the lives of at least 3,900 persons nationwide.
According to the UN organization for refugees, more than four million people have been forced from their homes.
According to the UN, more than six million people are “just one step away from famine” as aid organizations battle to provide life-saving assistance in the face of administrative roadblocks, security threats, and deliberate attacks.
Khartoum has not experienced a day without the sound of heavy artillery, air strikes, or gunfire shaking terrified inhabitants confined at home and rationing water and electricity since the crisis started.
On Tuesday, witnesses claimed to have seen fights in the center of Khartoum, while a medical source in the northwest of the city informed AFP that 13 civilians had been slain.
The source asked to remain anonymous for their safety because medical professionals have been the focus of attacks.
“These clashes are the most intense since the war started,” a bus driver told AFP, adding that he had been unable to travel through the northwest of the capital.