Cholera reported in Lubumbashi jail

A cholera outbreak has been reported in the jail of the Lubumbashi Court of First Instance in southeast Democratic Republic of the Congo, a local NGO announced on Monday. "One prisoner collapsed in court right in front of the judge," Gregoire Mulamba, the secretary-general of the Centre for Human and Humanitarian Rights (Centre des Droits de l’Homme et du Droit Humanitaire), said. Mulamba said 10 other cases of cholera had been registered in the jail, and that Justice Minister Kisimba Ngoy had been informed of the problem. "I cannot confirm anything but the public prosecutor of Katanga Province told me on the telephone that that a prisoner had been discovered with cholera in the jail and had been hospitalised. The other prisoners have been tested and the jail has been disinfected," Ngoy told IRIN on Monday. Public concern has often been raised at the filthiness of the cells that have no toilets. Sometimes detainees have to sleep on the bare cell floors.