“Extreme concern” for Pweto population

In and around Pweto, meanwhile, the civilian population is being “exposed to major risks, posed both by the conflict itself and by the major cholera epidemic rampant in the region, where more than 4,700 cases and 360 deaths have been recorded since the beginning of the year, according to MSF. The town was overpopulated due to the influx of IDPs and soldiers, and “there is a desperate shortage of health care facilities”, it said. In a recent press statement, MSF said it was extremely concerned for the people of Pweto. “Even when peace is eventually restored, the people of Pweto will not have immediate access to a health facility capable of containing the [cholera] epidemic,” the agency said. Elsewhere, in Kilwa and Kasenga districts, the agency was offering health care to some 3,300 people, mostly displaced from earlier fighting in Pepa and Moba, and who passed through Zambia before returning to the DRC, the statement added.