GENEVA
The cholera outbreak in South Sudan has resulted in 32 deaths so far, one in five of which are children under five years old, the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF said on Tuesday.
More than 700 cholera cases have been reported in South Sudan in 2015, UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac said in a press conference in Geneva.
Boulierac stressed the role of education in stemming the spread of the disease in the country.
Without urgent action, UNICEF estimates that up to 5,000 children throughout the country are at risk from cholera, UNICEF said last month.
Last year, South Sudan suffered another lethal cholera outbreak that killed at least 167 people and infected 6,000 others, according to the World Health Organization.
Cholera is an infectious disease that causes rapid and severe dehydration due to excessive vomiting and diarrhea.
- S. Sudan to mark 4th anniversary with more than 2.25 million displaced
Meanwhile, South Sudan will mark its fourth anniversary of independence on Thursday while refugee and internally displaced numbers have continued to rise in the country, the UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday.
"As of today, more than 730,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries and some 1.5 million people have become internally displaced. In addition, South Sudan continues to receive refugees from neighbouring Sudan - almost 250,000 people, mostly from Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan states", The UNHCR said.
South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011 but there are stilll disputes, including the division of oil revenues.
The civil war and violence in the country started in mid-December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused Riek Machar, his sacked vice president, of trying to overthrow his regime.
Since then, tens of thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the subsequent violence, while more than 2 million others have been displaced, internally and externally.
