Saturday, September 26, 2026

📍 From the Field The World Health Organization announced on September 24 a sharp decline in cholera cases in Sudan: only 8 cases in the week ending September 11, compared to a peak of 421 cases in the week ending July 3, after an outbreak that began in Al-Nuhud, West Kordofan, in May and spread to 20 localities in 6 states, leaving 2,955 cases and 250 deaths, with a fatality rate of 8.4% — far higher than the organization's threshold (less than 1%). The organization's representative in Sudan, Dr. Abdel Nasser Abu Bakr, said the decline is "encouraging" but vigilance is required in areas of insecurity, displacement and the rainy season. On the other side of the border, MSF (Doctors Without Borders) warned of a cholera outbreak in Abyei, South Sudan, where more than 50,000 people who fled Sudan's war live in the Amid market without safe drinking water or latrines, and many are forced to defecate in the open.

On the food file, UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Perez said on September 1 that around 85,000 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur in less than a year — at a rate of one child every six minutes — and that more than 5 million children have been forced to leave their homes since the start of the conflict, equivalent to 5,000 children per day, with vaccination dropping to less than 50%. The Executive Director of the World Food Programme, after an eight-day field tour, described the scene in Tawila, North Darfur, as an "endless ocean of thatched huts" inhabited by hundreds of thousands who fled El Fasher, confirming that the programme can only provide half the food rations. In South Kordofan, MSF (Doctors Without Borders) intervened in Abu Jubaiha, which hosts 57,880 displaced people in 62 sites, providing drinking water to around 900 families in Al-Safa camp and vaccinating more than 2,500 children against measles.

On displacement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that health authorities, with support from the World Health Organization, launched a ten-day cholera vaccination campaign in Tawila locality to protect 95,000 displaced people, while the International Organization for Migration and its partners provided emergency shelter to 12,000 people in Tawila, Al-La'ait and Umm Hajalij, around 1,300 people were displaced from the villages of Umm Baru near the Chadian border, and more than 3,300 people were forced to leave villages in Geissan, Blue Nile. Adam Obama, Executive Director of the Darfur Victims Advocacy Organization, told Radio Dabanga that the conflict has entered a new phase characterized by the increasing use of advanced military technology and foreign drones. In South Sudan, the World Food Programme warned that 7.8 million people — more than half the population — face acute food insecurity, and that an additional one million people could lose food assistance by October unless funding is available.

1️⃣ Boulos: Both parties to the war believe in a military solution... and Khartoum rejects Washington's description Massad Boulos, the US President's envoy for Arab and African affairs, said in an interview with "France 24" on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that each of the two parties to the war in Sudan believes it is still capable of achieving a "decisive military victory," in an indication that the conflict is still far from a solution. His remarks came a day after his meeting with the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil Fahmy, in New York, who stressed the need for a humanitarian truce leading to a permanent ceasefire. In Khartoum, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry announced on September 24 its "strong" rejection of the US State Department statement issued on September 22, which said that neither the army nor the Rapid Support Forces represent "legitimate constitutional authority," considering it an infringement on national sovereignty, and named Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan, in addition to the United Nations and the African Union, as partners for dialogue on ending the conflict. (Sources: France 24; Sudanese Foreign Ministry via African News Agency; Qatar News Agency (QNA)) 💡 Quick reading (Analysis): While the field presses toward a military solution, diplomacy presses toward a truce — and the gap between the two discourses is what keeps the war open: neither party sees itself losing enough to negotiate.

2️⃣ The army announces the liberation of Sodari in North Kordofan The Sudanese Armed Forces announced, in a statement carried by the official SUNA agency on Friday, the liberation of the Sodari area in North Kordofan State "after fierce fighting," and said that the Rapid Support Forces suffered "heavy losses in personnel and equipment." Sodari lies on the road linking North Kordofan and Darfur, an area described by field reports as the axis of the army's westward offensive. Sudan Tribune likewise reported the army's recapture of the city, citing military sources. Meanwhile, Sudan Tribune reported that two civilians were killed in a Rapid Support Forces drone strike on El Obeid on Friday, and that the army intercepted drones that targeted El Obeid, Atbara, Omdurman and Khartoum Bahri on September 23. (Sources: SUNA; Sudan Tribune) 💡 Quick reading (Analysis): Sodari is not just a town: whoever holds its roads holds the supply arteries westward toward Darfur — which is why the city remained a repeated target for both parties, and the battle over Greater Kordofan is decided on maps as much as it is decided on the ground.

3️⃣ The Refugee Commission: The flow of those fleeing to Chad multiplies 20 times and funding collapses The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday that more than 400 people cross daily into eastern Chad during the past week — a twentyfold increase over recent months — fleeing Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile "from the conflict, aerial bombardment and drone attacks," according to its regional coordinator Mamadou Dian Balde. The Commission warned that only 18% of its required funding this year ($1.6 billion) has arrived, meaning "less food and less capacity to move people to safe areas." The number of Sudanese refugees in Chad has reached around one million since the start of the war, more than 55,000 of them this year, at a time when aid agencies face a severe deficit after the United States and other donor countries cut billions of dollars in foreign aid. (Sources: Reuters; UN High Commissioner for Refugees) 💡 Quick reading (Analysis): A colliding equation: displacement multiplying twenty times and funding covering less than a fifth — and this means Chad is turning from a haven into a corridor, and the Commission itself warned that many will continue the road toward Europe after repeated failed attempts at safety.

— Editorial Team