A diarrhoea outbreak in camps for displaced people on the outskirts of Mogadishu has killed at least 11 children over the past week, medical officials and residents said.
Dr Hadiyo Ahmed Mohamed, a medical officer in Elasha Biyaha, an area settled by people displaced from Mogadishu and other parts of Lower Shabelle region, said the children who died were aged between two and seven years. Their families fled from the clan conflicts going on in Lower Shabelle, where more than 10 people were killed last weekend.
She added that another eight children had been hospitalized during the diarrhoea outbreak that began in May. “The diarrhoea cases are increasing and we are receiving about seven children each day, though most of them are outpatients,” Mohamed told Radio Ergo’s local reporter in the camps.
The outbreak is thought to be directly linked to the poor sanitation and hygiene conditions in the camps, where hundreds of IDPs are living in overcrowded conditions.
