Doctors: Nearly 8000 Malaria cases in Sudan province

CAIRO – Doctors in Sudan say the number of malaria cases in North Darfur province has climbed to nearly 8,000 people in less than a month.

They are warning that the outbreak in the country’s far-flung west may persist if the Sudanese government and international organizations do not intervene “immediately.”

The Central Committee of Medical Laboratories, a union of the country’s pathologists, released the statement late Wednesday.

The World Health Organization has previously said malaria cases were reported in several provinces of Sudan.

Sudan is also facing a Cholera outbreak, following flash floods that swept the country in late August, affecting water sanitation. Last week, the U.N. humanitarian agency reported 124 suspected cholera cases and seven deaths.

A rebellion in long-neglected Darfur was brutally suppressed in the 2000s.