A cholera outbreak has been reported in the Lower Shabelle Region, southern Somalia. New cases of cholera - which is endemic in Somalia - have been reported in Kurtunware District, 170 km south of Mogadishu, and Qoryoley District, 150 km south of Mogadishu, local sources told IRIN.

UNICEF-Somalia, health project assistant Susan Wambua told IRIN that the agency had received the reports and had dispatched a team to verify the situation. A joint team of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and COSV, an Italian NGO working in the area, had also gone to the area on Wednesday to investigate the outbreak, a WHO officer confirmed to IRIN. HornAfrik radio in Mogadishu reported on Tuesday that 13 people had died of cholera in the area, and that the disease was spreading. Wambua told IRIN that UNICEF had received no reports of deaths from cholera to date.