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A cholera outbreak in northeastern Nigeria has killed dozens of people and resulted in hundreds of new infections, the United Nations said Saturday.
The disease first broke out in Borno State two weeks ago. Cases were then reported in the neighboring state of Yobe.
"The cumulative number of cases registered in both states is currently 3,126, including 97 deaths," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.
Northeastern Nigeria is under frequent attack from the extremist Boko Haram group, which has been leading a jihadist insurgency in the region since 2009. The UN added that violence was hampering the authorities' efforts to contain the epidemic.
Read more: Zimbabwe struggles to contain cholera outbreak
Crisis in the Lake Chad region
Boko Haram activists said earlier this week that they had executed an abducted health worker at a UN-run health center in Borno. The group also threatened to kill two other abducted health workers if the government failed to meet its demands.
Read more: Islamist extremists invade key Nigerian city
The Lake Chad region, which straddles parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, has also been affected by cholera. On Wednesday, the UN reported that more than 500 people had died of the disease since the beginning of the year. He warned that more than 6 million people could be affected if the epidemic was not under control.
Cholera is spread mainly through contaminated food or drinking water. It can cause severe diarrhea and vomiting in the elderly, children and the sick.
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nm / jm (AFP, dpa)
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