Conflict blamed for DRC’s worst cholera outbreak in six years

School children walk past posters that explain the symptoms, risks and precautions of cholera in Kinshasa on January 18, 2018. AFP - JOHN WESSELS

As violence and displacement worsens in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country’s children are facing the worst cholera outbreak since 2017.

The United Nations Children Emergency Fund, Unicef, recorded at least 31,342 suspected or confirmed cholera cases and 230 deaths, many of them children, in the first seven months of 2023.