Kigoma. Seventeen Burundian refugees being accommodated in Kigoma Region have died from an outbreak of cholera and several others appear to be trapped in a health crisis arising from poor sanitation in the temporary camps.
Eight deaths occurred in Kagunga Village which is serving as the holding ground for the arriving refugees while nine others died at Kigoma Regional Hospital, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and health officials in Kigoma confirmed yesterday.
Those who died had suffered bouts of diarrhoea and vomiting, afflictions that have been blamed on lack of safe drinking water and proper sanitation.
An estimated 70,000 refugees have fled to Tanzania from the fighting in Burundi ignited by an attempted coup against President Pierre Nkurunziza whose decision to run for a third term has thrown the country into a political crisis. Over 20,000 of the refugees have been moved to Nyarugusu refugee camp in Kigoma as UN Aid agencies made frantic efforts to shift thousands stranded at Kagunga.
Authorities in Kigoma say samples from some of those admitted have been taken for testing for cholera and a statement released by UNHCR indicated tests had proved positive.
Public health authorities fear the disease could spread and lead to an unprecedented crisis in the area, with figures indicating that more than 2,200 refugees have so far been diagnosed with acute watery diarrhoea and over 10,000 others are suffering from both diarrhoea plus vomiting.
Another 676 others have been diagnosed with malaria in the Kagunga refugee camp.
According to a sanitation officer who declined to be named, the health crisis in Kagunga Village is emanating from improper disposal of human waste and the poor capacity of the authorities to handle the emergency.
Kigoma’s acting district medical officer, Dr James Jumanne, urged residents of Kagunga to remain vigilant following the disease outbreak, and warned that it was unsafe for them to continue drinking water from the nearby Lake Tanganyika.
He told The Citizen that the crisis was proving difficult to handle for the municipal health authorities due to shortage of health staff. He noted that only seven sanitation officers could be deployed in the areas occupied by the refugees to try and contain the health situation there.
A refugee co-ordinator in Kigoma, Mr Tony Laizer, declined to speak on the refugee crisis in the meantime but the The Citizen has reliably learnt that the Nyarugusu camp, where most refugees where being taken, is now full to capacity.
Plans were under way to relocate some to another camp in Kasulu District, to be christened Nyarugusu B. The UNHCR said it would take urgent measures in collaboration with authorities in Tanzania to contain the problem.
“UNHCR’s priority is to work with the ministry of Health and international partners to prepare for the worst and quickly establish a cholera treatment centre in Kagunga,” said Joyce the Mends-Cole, UNHCR Representative in Tanzania.
“There is only a small dispensary in that village, but it lacks the necessary diagnostics and treatment modalities – including medication,” he added. The UN refugee agency is also flying in urgently needed medication, to supplement what can be found locally.
Reports say roadblocks and the closure of borders have been making it hard for people to flee.
“The real problem that we have at the moment is trying to take these people away from Kagunga before we have a major health crisis,” said Mends-Cole.
Most of the refugees at Kagunga are women and children who have been sleeping out in the rain, said the International Rescue Committee’s Tanzania country director, Elijah Okeyo.
They are squeezed in a confined space with a shortage of latrines and drinking water in a village that is normally home to 12,000 people, he said.
“The situation is desperate,” he said. “There are a lot of sick people.”
