Sudan raises alert level to prevent cholera transmission from S. Sudan

Sudan's Health Ministry on Sunday said it raised the level of alert to prevent transmission of cholera to the Sudanese territories from South Sudan.

"The Federal Ministry of Health has raised the level of alert in the disease monitoring system and adopted a package of precautionary measures to prevent transmission of cholera from South Sudan to the country's Border States," said Somia Idris, Sudan's State Minister of Health in a statement Sunday.

An emergency room has been established for the Border States to report any suspected watery diarrhea cases, she noted.

She further reiterated the importance of instantly dealing with all reported cases, affirming that no case of acute watery diarrhea has been reported in any of the Border States.

Cholera recently killed 29 people in South Sudan which has been suffering from a civil war since December last year.

According to earlier reports, around 484 people in South Sudan have been infected with cholera, including children aged less than five years.

According to the UN, last June Sudan received 30,000 South Sudanese refugees.

Presently Sudan is hosting 172,000 South Sudanese refugees who have fled the violence in their country.

South Sudan secured its independence in 2011. However, it plunged into violent clashes in December 2013 as fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar.

The conflict soon became an all-out war, with violence taking on an ethnic flavor, pitting the president's Dinka tribe against Machar Nuer's ethnic faction.

The warfare left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.9 million people to flee their homes. Endit