- Title: [SW News] (AP) Somalia Cholera Outbreak Kills 43
- From:[]
- Date :[Saturday, April 29, 2000 2:14 PM EDT ]
Somalia Cholera Outbreak Kills 43
Story Filed: Saturday, April 29, 2000 2:14 PM EDT
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- A cholera outbreak,
compounded by drought, has claimed 43 lives in 24 hours in central Somalia,
local officials said Saturday.
Hassan Abdulleh Qalad, the governor of Hiran region, said 25 people were reported dead
in villages around the regional capital, Belet Huen, about 90 miles north of Mogadishu.
Another 18 deaths were reported in villages around Gelib in the Middle Juba region,
about 220 miles south of Mogadishu, local leader Hassan Abbdiqani said.
``We did not know it was cholera before today,'' Qalad said by radio of the outbreak in
Hiran. ``Now some tents and huts have been set up as a temporary quarantine for the
cholera patients in some places.'' He appealed to international relief agencies to send
dehydration solutions and medicine.
The impact of cholera, which is spread by contaminated water, is being intensified by a
drought that has dried up fresh water sources and parched lands also in neighboring
Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and Sudan.
On Monday, officials in several Somali regions suffering from severe drought and famine
reported nearly 400 people had died of cholera in the previous two weeks.
It is impossible to verify the figures independently because Somalia
has had no central government since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted by a
coalition of clan leaders who later turned on each other.
Intermittent fighting among rival clans and banditry make it very difficult, if not
impossible, for international relief agencies to provide medical and food aid to those who
need it.
The U.N. World Food Program estimates 1.2 million Somalis are faced with severe food
shortages.
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