Epidemics ravage DRC
2004-06-19 11:48
Kinshasa - At least three potentially life-threatening illnesses are ravaging eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), from where aid workers were evacuated this month as dissident soldiers seized the town of Bukavu, UN-backed Radio Okapi said Friday.
More than 300 people in the Kasongo region are suffering from diarrhoea, about 300 have cholera in Bukavu, capital of Sud-Kivu province, while there was a measles epidemic in other parts of the province, which lies just over the border from Rwanda, the radio reported.
Okapi did not say if the epidemics had claimed any lives.
Bukavu was overrun by dissident soldiers on June 2. They held the town for a week before pulling out without a fight.
According to the United Nations, 13 health centres in the regional capital have been looted, both by the dissident soldiers and by the army troops who chased them out.
About 25 000 people have fled eastern DRC into neighbouring Burundi, according to officials there.