International charities warned that, left unchecked, the disease’s spread might exacerbate similar outbreaks across the African region for weeks or months to come.

At least 40 people have died from cholera in Sudan’s Darfur region in what medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, described as the country’s worst outbreak in years.

An aid group says cholera is spreading rapidly in Darfur. Doctors Without Borders says that the outbreak has killed 40 people and infected more than 2,300 in the past week.