Cholera kills 50 children in Mogadishu

Cholera has killed 50 more children in the Somali capital Mogadishu, where cases of waterborne diseases have increased due to unhygienic living conditions, Press TV reports. Doctor Ali Hashi Yusuf told the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu that the victims died on Saturday evening in Mogadishu's southern districts of Hawlwadig and Hodan. Over 330 people suffering from cholera and waterborne diseases also flocked hospitals in southern Mogadishu to get medication. A combination of poor sanitation conditions, scarcity of safe and clean drinking water, and overcrowding has led to the spread of waterborne diseases in Mogadishu. According to the World Health Organization, 75 percent of all cases of highly infectious diarrhea in Somalia are among children under the age of five. Cholera is confirmed in the Banadir, Bay, Mudug, and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia, and the number of acute diarrhea cases has increased dramatically over the past few months. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.