A suspected mpox outbreak has hit Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, threatening hundreds of thousands of people living in overcrowded displacement camps, aid groups say.

At least 200 suspected mpox cases have been identified across five towns in the remote Jebel Marra region, a rugged mountain range in central Darfur.

Francesco Lanino, Save the Children’s deputy country director in Sudan, said the outbreak has been fuelled by the ongoing conflict, which has devastated healthcare and restricted aid access.

“We really think the number [of cases] is much, much higher,” he said.

Aid workers are concerned that the disease, which spreads through close contact, could soon reach Tawila, north Darfur, where almost a million internally displaced people are living in squalid conditions in camps.

“If we don’t act quickly, this could become a catastrophe,” Mr Lanino told The Telegraph.

In response to the suspected outbreak, Save The Children last week mobilised funding for medicines and deployed medical staff to support local facilities.

There has been no laboratory testing to confirm the outbreak, but field reports, photographs and assessments by experienced health workers suggest mpox is to blame, aid workers say.

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is an infection that causes a distinctive lumpy rash as well as flu-like symptoms. While it is rarely fatal, its symptoms are extremely uncomfortable and can be disfiguring in severe cases.

In the developed world, mpox primarily affects gay men and other at-risk communities. There have been two major outbreaks in Africa in recent years – one in the West, centred on Sierra Leone, and another in central and east Africa, which began in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

People with compromised immune systems, such as those with HIV, are more likely to suffer severe disease, but other co-morbidities like diabetes, malaria and malnutrition can also make the virus more dangerous.

Sudan is currently facing a severe hunger crisis.

An estimated 62 per cent of the population, or around 29 million people, are now acutely ​food insecure, meaning their lives are at risk because they do not have enough food, according to the UN’s 2026 humanitarian needs and response plan.

Malnutrition severely weakens the immune system, reducing the body ability to fight infections. It means those infected with Mpox face a significantly higher risk of severe complications and death.

In Darfur’s displacement camps, acute malnutrition and wasting are rampant, particularly among children and pregnant women.
Mr Lanino said: “What we are worried about is an outbreak that could affect children more than any other group”.

Aid workers say a lack of funding and humanitarian access has also left health facilities without sufficient medicines and supplies.

Seasonal rains, which started last month, are expected to make transport routes even more difficult, turning unpaved roads into mud and cutting off medicine deliveries.

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