UN Official Following a Visit to Khartoum: I Saw a City Torn Apart by Conflict

Port Sudan – Sudanhorizon
Dr. ShibIl Sahbani, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sudan, has described the situation in the city of Khartoum as “devastated and looted facilities, and an almost quasi absence of basic services, including lack of health services.” Sahbani was speaking to reporters in Geneva (on Friday) via video from Port Sudan after returning from a visit to the Sudanese capital, where he said: “I saw a city torn apart by two year and on-ongoing conflict.”
He added that many primary healthcare centers and hospitals are non-functional, “either because they have been looted or destroyed, or simply due to lack of electricity or clean water, or due to a lack of human resources or medical supplies.”
He explained that these conditions in Khartoum, along with the displacement movement, contributed to the spread of the cholera epidemic.
He revealed that they have counted 20,000 cases of cholera in Khartoum alone, along with 250 deaths related to the disease since July 2024.
He added: “As of June 11, 2025, we have 78,500 cases of cholera and more than 1,800 recorded deaths in 14 states, that is in 98 areas.”
The UN official has stressed that controlling cholera was easy, as is treating it, “but the problem here is that we need to address the source of cholera spread, including providing clean drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities, and engaging the local community.”
Sahbani stated that the organization and its partners have started a ten-day oral vaccination campaign against cholera targeting 2.6 million persons.
“I believe this is good news amid this crisis.” He explained that this adds to the previous campaign where 115,000 doses were used that were available in the country, noting that these interventions have contributed to reducing new cholera cases and deaths caused by the disease. He added, “If we talk about Khartoum, daily cases have decreased from 1,500 cases per day to 400 cases, which is a good achievement.” Sahbani called for increased investment in humanitarian corridors and a temporary ceasefire, “so that we can launch multiple vaccination campaigns to address disease outbreak cases.”
He has however stressed that to achieve this, “we need to provide access and sufficient funding, and we need to provide vaccines.”
The UN official also called for achieving peace, “because the best medicine is peace.”

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