GOMA: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned against the outbreak of child cholera in DR Congo’s North-Kivu province, AFP reported on Friday.
The U.N. Children’s Agency has estimated that more than 8,000 children under-five have been infected by the disease this year.
The eastern North-Kivu province has been devasted by conflict for almost three decades, resulting in widespread population displacement.
According to UNICEF data about 31,342 children have been affected by the cholera in 2023, mostly from North Kivu the worst-hit province.
UNICEF Warns against Child Cholera Outbreak in DR Congo
Shameza Abdulla, UNICEF DRC senior emergency coordinator, based in Goma said the size of the cholera outbreak and the devastation it threatens are alarming.
She feared that if prompt action is not taken within the next months, the disease will spread to other parts of the country that have not been affected for many years.
In 2017 cholera affected 55,000 people in different parts of Congo including its capital Kinshasa with more than 1,100 deaths.
The International Organization for Migration has said that ongoing conflict in the eastern part of the country has displaced one million people in the month of June.
UNICEF said camps holding those displaced people do not have the capacity to cope with the worsening situation.
The organization has appealed for $62.5 million to start response activities to counter the spread of the disease, as it is expected to affect 1.8 million people, including one million children, by year’s end.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a recent report to the UN body has said the body’s mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is entering its final phase.
In a report to the UN Security Council, he warned that the situation of the country has deteriorated in recent days.
Guterres in his assessment of the conflict in the DRC proposed a responsible withdrawal of the UN’s MONUSCO mission which is continuing for almost 25 years.
