Cholera kills five in southwest

An outbreak of cholera in Yokobi, southwest of the Djibouti capital, has killed five people and affected at least 40 more, who are under medical investigation, the Djibouti health ministry said.

Health minister Abdallah Abdillahi Miguil said the disease had been confirmed in Yokobi, a village near the Ethiopian border, about 170 km from Djibouti city. "A task-force was urgently sent to the area," the minister said in a statement. He called for improved hygiene in the affected area, boiling drinking water and restricting the movement of the affected people to Yokobi to avoid further spread.

The head of hygiene and epidemiology in the ministry, Amar Abdo Ahmed, said the initial suspicion had been that the disease was linked to recent rains in the region. "We first thought that it was seasonal and limited only to children," he said. "But many of the deaths were of adults."

Over the weekend, the government sent the military to help those affected and ensure that movement is restricted within the region. Djibouti has a population of about 600,000, more than two-thirds of whom live in the capital, Djibouti City.

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