Spread of cholera threatens eastern Congo camps of displaced persons

In a cholera treatment centre in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, doctor Bishikwabo Irenge tries to coax a crying and struggling six-year-old boy to drink.

Source: Reuters.

The child's mother, Christine Nyiramahigwe, said she was forced to flee home during recent fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel group in North Kivu province.

Now she lives in a makeshift camp outside the provincial capital, Goma, where disease is spreading due to lack of shelter and sanitation. Tens of thousands of displaced people are living in the area.

"We couldn't contain all the sick people coming from the camps, we were obliged to create a bigger unit," said Irenge, director of the new cholera treatment centre run by NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

More than 250 patients have been admitted to the centre in Munigi, on the outskirts of Goma, since 26 November, said MSF.