Cholera epidemic spreads across famine-hit Somalia
The intestinal infection, often linked to contaminated drinking water, causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting, leaving small children especially vulnerable to death from dehydration, the United Nations agency said.
Some 4,272 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been recorded so far this year just in Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, mainly children aged under five, causing 181 deaths, Dr Michel Yao of the WHO told a news briefing.
“The number of cases is two or even three times than what was there last year. So we can say that we have an epidemic of cholera going on,” Yao said.
Seasonal outbreaks have been recorded for the past three years in Somalia.
Cholera outbreaks have now been confirmed in several regions, according to the WHO, and Yao said population movements increased the risk of the disease spreading further.
An estimated 100,000 Somalis — driven by drought, famine in southern areas and fighting — have fled to Mogadishu over the past two months in search of food, water, shelter and protection, Adrian Edwards of the UN refugee agency said.
They join more than 370,000 driven from their homes earlier. Another 1,500 Somali refugees stream each day into Kenya, which now shelters some 440,000 at sprawling camps in Dadaab.
The worst-hit areas of Somalia are controlled by al Shabaab militants, who have waged a four-year insurgency against Somalia’s Western-backed government. They had prevented aid getting through but withdrew from Mogadishu last weekend.
In all, some 12.4 million people in the Horn of Africa are affected by the worst drought in decades, according to the United Nations. Tens of thousands of people have already died, it says.
A $2.4 billion UN appeal for the Horn of Africa is only about half-funded, said Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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