Three people have died in a diarhoeal infection outbreak in Wanlaweyn in Lower Shabelle region and another 40 people, most of them children, are being treated in hospital, according to a local health official.
Dr Mustaf Hussein Abdulle, local health officer, said two of the dead were children under the age of five and 36 of those hospitalized were children.
Wanlaweyn, 90 km from Mogadishu, had recently had heavy rains.
Dr Adan Abdukadir Nur at Baidoa district hospital said children were getting sick because of poor sanitation in the area.
“Children like playing in the dirty stagnant water. They may swallow the unclean water in the process and end up getting infected,” he said.
He advised local residents living in areas that had been flooded to caution their children against playing in the stagnant water.
