File photo for representation only
Nairobi: South Sudan is suffering its worst cholera outbreak since it became an independent nation in 2011, the United Nations warned on Monday, reporting almost 700 deaths in six months, including many children.
The organisation's children's fund UNICEF said 40,000 cholera cases were reported from the end of September to March 18, "including 694 deaths country-wide, its worst outbreak in 20 years".
"This is the worst outbreak South Sudan as an independent country has ever faced," UNICEF emergency specialist Verity Rushton told AFP, speaking from the capital Juba.
Half the cases were children under 15 years old, UNICEF said, with Ashton adding that "a third of the deaths that have been reported are children under the age of 14".
Deeply impoverished despite its major oil deposits, the nation has been plagued by insecurity since declaring independence.
Parts of the country have lately seen fresh waves of violence, with clashes between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, displacing tens of thousands.
Of South Sudan's 10 states, Rushton said, nine have been impacted by cholera with the majority of cases in Jonglei in the east.
South Sudan and Angola face the most severe of several outbreaks across eastern and southern Africa, the agency said.
Angola reported over 7,500 cases, including 294 deaths, from January 7 to March 18, UNICEF said, warning there were "high risks for further escalation".
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Monday that cholera was spreading rapidly as people in South Sudan fled for safety.
The medical charity has treated 400 cholera patients in one county alone in Upper Nile State in the northeast, it said, warning the disease had spread to neighbouring Jonglei state where MSF runs a 100-bed treatment unit.
"With cholera spreading rapidly and violence ongoing, the need for medical care in Upper Nile State is more critical than ever," said Zakaria Mwatia, MSF head of mission in South Sudan.
Violent clashes
Earlier this month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in South Sudan said 50,000 people had been displaced since February as violence flared in Upper Nile State.
It said a cholera treatment unit in the state's Nasir county had closed, with 23 humanitarian workers forced to leave.
The region has been the main focus of clashes that threaten a fragile power-sharing agreement between Kiir and Machar.
South Sudan has seen a steady increase in cholera over the past three years.
It is an acute form of diarrhoea that is treatable with antibiotics and hydration, but can be deadly if untreated.
In 2022, the country suffered its first cholera resurgence in five years, following an outbreak between June 2016 and December 2017 that killed 436 people.
