At least 69 people have been killed within 24 hours by a cholera outbreak in Somalia, which already faces a hunger crisis, a local government official said Saturday.
Mostly children and elderly people died in villages surrounding the town of Baido in the East African nation’s Bay region, since authorities were alerted about the outbreak on Friday, regional humanitarian chief Abdullahi Omar Roble told dpa.
More than 70 people were hospitalized due to the outbreak, which was caused by water shortages in the drought-stricken country, Roble added.
Not enough medication was available to treat all patients, Roble said.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that can kill within hours if left untreated. The infection is caused by food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera.