Cholera kills 97 in Nigeria’s North East

A cholera outbreak in Nigeria’s northeast has killed nearly 100 people over the past two weeks and infected thousands more, the United Nations said.

The number of recorded cases in Yobe and Borno states currently stands at three thousand one hundred and twenty-six, including ninety-seven deaths, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

The outbreak was declared two weeks ago in restive Borno state, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people live in camps after fleeing the armed group Boko Haram.

Expected floods and heavy rains were “an ideal environment for the outbreak to spread”, OCHA warned.

Water-borne diseases are a constant threat in the Lake Chad region because of a lack of adequate sanitation, as well as stagnant groundwater during the rainy season.