The global medical charity says the situation has worsened with the arrival of refugees from South Sudan, where thousands are infected.
Published On 14 Mar 2025
At least 31 people have died from a “rapidly spreading” cholera outbreak that has sickened more than 1,500 people in Ethiopia‘s Gambella region over the past month, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF.
The international medical charity said on Friday that the situation has worsened with the arrival of people fleeing violence in neighbouring South Sudan.
“Cholera is rapidly spreading across western Ethiopia and in parallel, the outbreak in South Sudan is ongoing, endangering thousands of lives,” MSF said in a statement.
Several regions of Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation with about 120 million people, are battling cholera outbreaks, with Amhara – its second-largest region – among the hardest hit.
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection spread through food and water contaminated with the vibrio cholerae bacterium, often of faecal origin.
South Sudan
In South Sudan’s Akobo County, located in the Upper Nile region, 1,300 cholera cases have been reported in the past four weeks, according to MSF. It said recent violence around the Upper Nile between the South Sudanese government and armed groups is “worsening the outbreak”.
“Thousands are