There have been at least 31,342 suspected or confirmed cholera cases and 230 deaths, many of them children, in the first seven months of 2023 across the Congo
UNICEF has warned that a spike in conflict and displacement in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is pushing children into a cholera epidemic.
This is the worst cholera crisis since 2017. There have been at least 31,342 suspected or confirmed cholera cases and 230 deaths, many of them children, in the first seven months of 2023 across DRC.
This is much more than the total of 18,403 suspected cases of cholera in 2022. The DRC — which shoulders the worst displacement crisis in Africa and among the worst globally — has seen more than 1.5 million people, including over 800,000 children, displaced in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri provinces since January 2023.
The displacement camps are generally overcrowded and overstretched, making them ripe for cholera transmission. The worst-affected province, North Kivu, has seen more than 21,400 confirmed or suspected cholera cases, including more than 8,000 children under five years of age in 2023, according to the ministry of public health, DRC.
In all of 2022, the province had recorded 5,120 cases, with 1,200 for children under five years. Investigations by the ministry of public health in households with cholera cases in North Kivu’s four biggest hotspots found that 62.99 per cent of cholera-affected households were families that had been displaced this year.
On December 14, 2022, a cholera epidemic was officially declared by the governor of the province of North Kivu.
In 2017, cholera spread across Congo, including the capital, Kinshasa, leading to almost 55,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths. Currently, to combat this emergency, UNICEF has called for $62.5 million to enhance its prevention and response activities to cholera and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) crisis for the next five months. It seeks to reach 1.8 million people, including one million children. Only nine per cent of the funds have been raised.
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