A cholera outbreak in Sudan's capital has killed 70 people in two days, health officials said, as Khartoum battles a fast-spreading epidemic amid a collapse of basic services.

The health ministry for Khartoum State said in an updated statement on Thursday it had recorded 942 new infections and 25 deaths on Wednesday, following 1,177 cases and 45 deaths on Tuesday.

The Sudanese military had accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of launching attacks across Khartoum earlier this month, including on three power stations, triggering a massive blackout that disrupted electricity and water services and unleashed a cholera outbreak.

In a statement on Tuesday, the health ministry reported more than 2,700 cholera infections and 172 deaths in just seven days across six states, with 90 percent of cases concentrated in Khartoum state.

Compounded by war

Cholera is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become worse and more frequent since the war broke out in 2023, wrecking already fragile water, sanitation and health infrastructure.

On Tuesday, the ministry said 51 people had died of cholera out of more than 2,300 reported cases over the past three weeks, 90 percent of them in Khartoum state.

Sudan's doctors' union had sounded and alarm, saying the actual figures were far higher than those reported by the ministry, with hundreds dead in the capital alone.

In a statement, it warned there was a "severe shortage of intravenous solutions, a lack of clean water sources and a near-total absence of sterilisation equipment and disinfectants" in the city's hospitals.