ABUJA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- At least 70 people have been hospitalized due to a cholera outbreak in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, a humanitarian aid agency said on Thursday.
The outbreak in Muna Garage area of Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State, was aggravated by incessant flooding due to recent heavy rainfall, according to the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an international medical humanitarian organization.
"Following heavy rains, the camp is partly flooded, making the already poor sanitary conditions at the camp even worse, which is an additional risk factor during a cholera outbreak," said Anne-Cecile Niard, MSF project coordinator in Maiduguri, the epicenter of the eight-year insurgency by armed group Boko Haram.
Confirming that 70 people had been admitted to a 40-bed cholera treatment unit that was set up, Niard told journalists that the humanitarian organization was scaling up its efforts to manage the cholera outbreak in collaboration with local government's health agencies.
Nearly 3 million people had been displaced in the country's northeast region following Boko Haram's violence, with most of the displaced persons taking refuge in camps provided by the Nigerian government and various humanitarian organizations.
