Imported User:
The United Nations Children’s Fund {UNICEF} has warned that a recent upsurge of cholera in Nigeria and the Sahel, which has already killed more than 60 people and sickened about 2,800 this year – was putting more and more people, especially malnourished children, at risk.
“Malnutrition, displacement, and now rains in some parts of the Sahel create the ideal breeding ground for cholera, which hits young children hardest,” UNICEF’s Acting Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine, said in a news release.
“Unless we step up our efforts immediately, cholera will continue to claim the lives of the most vulnerable families in the Sahel and spread to other populated areas with a devastating impact,” he added.
Since mid-June, the number of people affected by the highly infectious water-borne disease has shot up in Africa’s Sahel region, which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, and includes Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and the northern regions of Cameroon and Nigeria.
