DRC cholera outbreak spreads
2008-11-10 17:06
Kibati - A cholera outbreak in a sprawling refugee camp has spread to eastern Congo's provincial capital, officials said on Monday, increasing fears of an epidemic amid a tense standoff between troops and rebels.
Two infected residents were admitted to Goma Hospital on Sunday, along with two refugees who were taking shelter in the city itself, Doctors Without Borders' Dr Rafaela Gentilini said.
Relief officials say they have recorded more than 50 cases of cholera since Friday.
There were clashes at the weekend between rebels and soldiers, igniting concern that patients could scatter and launch an epidemic.
The fighting in eastern Congo is fuelled by ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of at least 500 000 Tutsis in neighbouring Rwanda.
Laurent Nkunda, whose rebels launched an offensive Aug. 28, said he was fighting to protect minority Tutsis from Rwandan Hutu militants who participated in the genocide before fleeing to Congo.
Nkunda declared a cease-fire on October 29 as his forces reached the edge of Goma, but there have been sporadic clashes since then.
About 50 000 refugees have crowded around Kibati, some taken into log cabins by villagers, others living in tents or hastily built beehive-shaped huts. Thousands who sleep out in the open huddled under plastic sheeting Sunday as heavy rain pounded down.
Dozens of people have died of cholera in recent weeks elsewhere in eastern Congo. Doctors also fear an epidemic north of Goma behind rebel lines, where access has been limited by fighting and rebels have driven tens of thousands of people from camps where outbreaks had been contained.
- AP