‘Khartoum should keep schools closed because of cholera’: NCF

The National Consensus Forces (NCF) have condemned the decision of Khartoum’s Ministry of Education not to postpone the start of the new school year because of the cholera epidemic.

In a statement on Saturday, the NCF, a coalition of leftist opposition parties, warned that the decision to open the schools again on Sunday is putting the students’ life at risk.

“The health environment in the schools is already poor,” teacher and NCF member Mohamed Diaeldin told Radio Dabanga. “The many itinerant vendors selling sandwiches and snacks near the schools may spread the disease as well.”

He called on parents of school-aged children in the Sudanese capital “to act against this decision and hold the authorities responsible for the consequences of the opening of the schools.

“More volunteers are needed to inform the people about how to prevent cholera, and to provide medical assistance to the infected”.

“The decision to open the schools again on Sunday is putting the students’ life at risk.”

According to Diaeldin, “the authorities' insistence to deny the cholera epidemic by calling the disease watery diarrhoea, and their decision to open the schools with all the dangers this entails for the students is contrary to all morals and ideals.

“The authorities do not to want to harm the economy and the movement of people. Yet the health of the students stands above every political factor,” he said.

On Sunday, the Governor of Khartoum, Lt. Gen. Abdelrahim Hussein, toured the state to check on the schools.

Last week, Sudan’s National Epidemiological Corporation called on the health authorities to postpone the opening of the new school year, in order to contain the spread of the cholera epidemic in the country.

The number of cholera cases increased again in the Albanjadeed Hospital in Khartoum North’s popular district of El Haj Yousif in the past days.

A medical source told this station that the number of “watery diarrhoea” patients decreased in the past eight days. “Yet, we received more patients again on Friday and Saturday. Currently, 29 patients, including 10 children, are being treated in the hospital.”

Follow #CholeraInSudan, # ألكوليرا_السودان  for ongoing coverage by Radio Dabanga