{"id":177958,"date":"2017-07-16T06:28:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T06:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dabangasudan.preview.websight.nl\/sudan-security-summons-cholera-prevention-campaigners\/"},"modified":"2017-07-16T06:28:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-16T06:28:00","slug":"sudan-security-summons-cholera-prevention-campaigners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dabangasudan.org\/en\/all-news\/article\/sudan-security-summons-cholera-prevention-campaigners","title":{"rendered":"Sudan security summons \u2018cholera prevention campaigners\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Security officers in El Managil in El Gezira state have summoned a group of volunteers who set up awareness raising activities on how to prevent the spread of cholera in the area.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A listener reported to Radio Dabanga that agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) called lawyer Nazar Gaddal and other volunteers to their office in El Managil on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

The officers questioned them about their campaign to inform the people in the area about the cholera epidemic, their distribution of disinfectants, and posters and pamphlets explaining how to prevent the spread of the infectious disease, he said. The volunteers were told to stop mentioning cholera.<\/p>\n

In a press briefing on Friday, Sudan’s National Epidemiological Corporation condemned the action, calling it “a restriction of voluntary action”. The Commission urged the NISS “to hold those who are hiding [information on] cholera accountable, rather than targeting those who are combating it”.<\/p>\n

‘Watery diarrhoea’ <\/strong><\/p>\n

The National Epidemiological Corporation reported in early July<\/a>, 23,930 Sudanese have been infected in Sudan, and 940 patients have died since the outbreak of cholera in August last year.<\/p>\n

The Sudanese authorities however, refuse to call the disease by its name, and instead refer to it as “Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD)”.<\/p>\n

The NISS has repeatedly warned the press in the country not to make mention of cholera. An eastern Sudanese journalist was detained for crossing this “red line” in April<\/a><\/u>. In June<\/a><\/u>, the director of the Omdurman Emergency Hospital was dismissed for the same reason. Later that month<\/a>, NISS agents briefly detained nine activists of the Sudanese Congress Party while they were attending a seminar in Omdurman on the prevention of cholera.<\/p>\n

Cholera “seems to be a stigma for the government,” a Sudanese specialist told Radio Dabanga in January<\/a><\/u>. “Yet raising the awareness among communities about preventing cholera is crucial to containing a cholera outbreak.”<\/p>\n

The Sudanese Doctors’ Central Committee and various volunteer groups are providing information about how to prevent the spread of cholera, supporting medical staff in makeshift isolation wards, and cleaning residential areas.<\/p>\n

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