"Thirty children died of cholera in the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern Kasangani region after drinking water contaminated by flooding of the Congo River, the UN children's fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday, December 24. The UN agency said in a communique that the victims were all undergoing military training at a camp in Kisangani. It added that 740 people suffering from a diarrhea epidemic were hospitalized Monday in the Eastern Province of the republic where aid workers are distributing drinking water.
The agency said although the flood waters were receding in the town, other towns on the river were flooded, including Mbandaka in the northwest. The extent of damage was not known. In Kisangani, the flooding destroyed 1,495 homes and left 7,726 people homeless, according to the government. The floods followed exceptionally heavy rainfall around the Congo River basin. The Congo runs for 4,650 kilometers (2,885 miles) through the heart of Africa before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The World Health Organization, UNICEF and Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) began delivering food and medicine to the area at the weekend."-- Dorothy Preslar <dpreslar@fas.org> via ProMED-mail <promed@usa.healthnet.org>