Nearly 4,400 cases of cholera and other cases of acute watery diarrhoea, including 54 deaths, have been recorded in Somalia by 2024, many more than in previous years, the UN said on Wednesday, expressing concern.

“The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is concerned about the spread of cholera and acute diarrhea in the country,” Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the Organization, said in a briefing to accredited editors.

From the beginning of 2024 to last week, “nearly 4,400 cases and 54 deaths were recorded in almost half of Somalia’s districts” and “more than 60% of the people who died were children under 5 years old,” he said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this is three times the number of cases than the average of the past three years, he noted.

As of 2021, cholera, which is spread through contaminated food or water and contaminated feces containing the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, is on the rise globally.

Somalia is among the most affected countries, which also includes DR Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Sudan, Syria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The fight against the disease is complicated by the lack of vaccines.

In Somalia, the UN has drawn up a six-month “action plan” (promotion of treatment kits in advance to areas where they are expected to be needed, surveillance of the course of the cases…) for the implementation of which 6 million dollars are required.

“We urgently need additional funds,” Stéphane Dujarric pointed out.

The overall UN plan to meet humanitarian needs in Somalia in 2024, costed at $1.6 billion, is less than 10% funded, in other words “we have $150 million,” he explained.

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