More than 800 head of cattle fell ill and died as a result of a yet-to-be-identified disease in the Dar al-Salaam locality southeast of Al-Fashir town in Sudan’s North Darfur State, locals reported on Tuesday.
Mohamed Abdel Mawla, a local pastoralist told Radio Tamazuj that he lost more than 10 cows within three days, adding that several cattle herders in the area reported similar cases of their cattle dying of an unknown disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that it had received reports from the North Darfur State Ministry of Health about the death of 600 donkeys and 300 goats in the Shangil Tobai and Dar al-Salaam areas. This came at a weekly water and environmental sanitation emergency meeting organized by the Water and Environmental Sanitation Project with the participation of several water partners and humanitarian organizations working in North Darfur.
Dr. Abdullah Muhammad Ahmed, a WHO representative, revealed that the health and livestock ministries have sent a joint team to determine the nature of the reports and to find out the cause of the cattle deaths.