Cholera claims 21 lives in Somalia

Thu Sep 1, 2011

At least 21 Somali children have died and nearly 440 others hospitalized due to cholera in the famine-stricken African country, Press TV reported.

The 21 children lost their lives Thursday morning in southern Mogadishu as their families were unable to provide medicines for them.

Doctors say that within the last three hours more than 440 Somali children affected by cholera were rushed to Banadir hospital for emergency treatment in southern Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, thousands of drought victims have started to abandon south Mogadishu refugee camps after humanitarian aids were stolen by Somali government officials.

Drought and famine have affected millions of people across Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

Somalia has been the hardest-hit country in what is being described as the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years.

According to the United Nations, a quarter of Somalia's 9.9 million population are either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees.

The UN has declared famine in five regions of Somalia and says that the international humanitarian response to the crisis has been insufficient.

The United Nations says that more than thirteen children out of every 10,000 aged less than five die in the Somalia famine zone every day.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196854.html.