The eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is facing a surge in conflict and displacement, leading to a devastating cholera crisis, warns UNICEF. The situation has put children at the highest risk seen since 2017.
Over the past seven months, the country has reported a staggering 31,342 suspected or confirmed cholera cases, with 230 resulting in death. Shockingly, many of the victims are children. The province most severely affected is North Kivu, where there have been over 21,400 confirmed or suspected cases, including more than 8,000 children under the age of 5, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
This alarming figure is in stark contrast to the total of 5,120 cases reported throughout the entire year of 2022, with only 1,200 cases involving young children.
Shameza Abdulla, UNICEF’s Senior Emergency Coordinator in the region, based in Goma, expressed deep concern over the magnitude of the cholera outbreak: “The size of the cholera outbreak and the devastation it threatens should ring alarm bells. If urgent action is not taken within the next few months, there is a significant risk that the disease will spread to parts of the country that have been unaffected for many years. There is also a danger that it will continue to spread in displacement camps where the already overwhelmed systems make the population, especially children, highly vulnerable to illness and potentially death. Displaced families have already endured so much.”
It is worth noting that the worst cholera outbreak in recent memory occurred in 2017 when the disease spread across the entire country, reaching the capital city of Kinshasa and resulting in nearly 55,000 cases and over 1,100 deaths.
The DRC is currently facing one of Africa’s most severe displacement crises, and one of the worst globally, with more than 6.3 million people displaced throughout the country. Since January 2023, over 1.5 million people, including more than 800,000 children, have been forced to leave their homes in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri provinces.
The displacement camps, already strained and overcrowded, provide ideal conditions for cholera transmission. For example, families living in displacement camps around Goma, the capital of North Kivu, are facing dire shortages of water and sanitation. Nearly 300,000 individuals, including 183,000 children, lack access to sufficient water supply, and less than a third of the population has access to a latrine, leaving 159 people to share a single latrine.
In-depth investigations carried out by the Ministry of Public Health in May and June revealed that between 62% and 99% of households affected by cholera in North Kivu were families that had been displaced earlier in the year. These findings also highlighted that families living in cholera hotspots face additional health risks, such as malnutrition and limited access to prenatal care and vaccinations.
UNICEF is urgently appealing for $62.5 million in funding to scale up its prevention and response activities to address the cholera and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) crisis over the next five months. The aim is to reach 1.8 million people, including 1 million children, with safe water, hygiene kits, latrines, medical supplies, and child-friendly cholera care. Currently, the appeal is only 9% funded.
As the DRC battles this devastating cholera crisis, the international community is being urged to help prevent further suffering and loss of life by providing much-needed support and funding to tackle the root causes of the outbreak. Immediate action is required to avert the spread of the disease to unaffected regions and protect the vulnerable, particularly the children, who are at the greatest risk.
Image Credit: Mufid Majnun on Unsplash
