20 May 2008
Kinshasa — An outbreak of cholera in North Kivu province, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has claimed more sufferers in the past two weeks, medical and humanitarian officials said.
The most severely affected areas are the health zones of Pinga and Mweso in the upper and forested Masisi North area.
"The cholera epidemic has fluctuated in this zone but over the past couple of weeks we have seen a dramatic rise in [the number of] cases," said Gaby Lumangamenga of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in the North Kivu capital, Goma.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Goma, 12 deaths were reported in Pinga over just one week in late April, while 159 cases were recorded between 5 and 11 May.
Lumangamenga said Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Solidarités had built water chlorination facilities and latrines but the problem persisted because the residents did not like to drink chlorinated water.
"They say it has a disagreeable smell and persist in drinking water from rivers," Lumangamenga said.
He said although there was a high number of cholera cases in Mweso, fatalities were relatively low because MSF-Belgium had opened a clinic there.
North Kivu's Masisi area has, in the past, been the theatre of fighting between several armed groups that have continued to wage war in eastern Congo, despite a 2003 peace agreement that restored calm to most parts of the country.
Caroline Draveny, the OCHA spokeswoman in Goma, said the area was still tense despite there having been no fighting in the past month.
OCHA estimates that Mweso has up to 70,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kachuga, Kalembe and Mweso villages, which have a combined population of 213,000.
The fighting pits the Congolese army and the Congrès national pour la défense du people (CNDP), a rebel group led by renegade army commander Laurent Nkunda, who claims to be defending the rights of the Tutsi in the country. The other armed groups include the Patriotes résistants congolais (Pareco - of the Hunde ethnic community) and Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Forces démocratiques pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), largely accused of being responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
CNDP and Pareco are signatories to the latest ceasefire agreed with the government in January in Goma. However, since then, they have violated the peace deal and have yet to be integrated into the army.
"There is still tension because the different groups do not live together but side by side," said a humanitarian worker, working in Masisi, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
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