Threat of disease in DRC "multiplied" by conflict, WHO says

Conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has "multiplied" the risk of the spread of diseases, including cholera, malaria, tuberculosis and the deadly mpox virus, the World Health Organization warned on Friday.

Fighting between M23 rebels and Congolese armed forces has exacerbated an already "dire situation" for millions of people, Dr Boureima Hama Sambo, WHO representative for the DRC told reporters in Geneva via video link from the capital Kinshasa.

The WHO reported 600 suspected cholera cases and 14 deaths in the last month in North Kivu province, where disrupted water supplies have heightened the risk of the spread of the disease.

The fighting has also affected the WHO's vaccine rollout for the mpox virus in eastern DRC.

"Ninety percent of mpox patients in isolation units in Goma had to flee" and vaccination programs were paused for ten days, Sambo said.

Vaccination programmes were partially restored on February 5, after the M23 declared a ceasefire, however, the situation remains "tense and volatile", he added.

The M23 recently captured Goma, the regional capital of a mineral-rich part of the DRC, where two devastating wars in the region between 1996 and 2003 cost millions of lives.

In the latest fighting, at least 3,082 people have been injured and 843 killed, with hospitals and morgues said to be "overwhelmed", the WHO said, citing reports from health facilities in and around Goma.

A further 65 injuries were reported from three hospitals in South Kivu.

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