LIBERIA: Cholera epidemic kills 134 in south-east

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

MONROVIA, 18 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The death toll from a cholera epidemic raging in south-eastern Sinoe County has leaped to 134, up from just 29 a week ago, Liberia's Health Minister Peter Coleman said.

The outbreak is near diamond-rich Butaw town, 30 km north of the county capital Greenville, which has attracted thousands of illegal miners who live in makeshift camps in the area.

"These camps are death traps with deplorable conditions where people live without safe drinking water," Coleman told a press conference on Wednesday.

A health ministry assessment team found some 20,000 illegal miners in five camps in Sinoe, Coleman said, calling for the camps to be evacuated to prevent cholera outbreaks "of a greater magnitude."

The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and Medecins Sans Frontieres are working to contain the epidemic of the water-borne disease, which can quickly cause severe dehydration leading to death.

An official from WHO told IRIN last week that heavy rains caused drinking water around Butaw to become contaminated with faecal matter and expressed concern over whether the bodies of cholera victims were being disposed of properly.

But the government has homed in on the diamond miners.

Liberia’s diamond deposits are alluvial and easily mined without the aid of machinery. Most mines are little more than riverside holes where young men use their hands and shovels to sift through gravel for gemstones washed downstream.

Information Minister William Allen told IRIN that illegal miners had been attracted to Sinoe from across West Africa and as far away as Mauritania.

Local residents of Butaw are not happy with the influx of foreigners carrying out illegal mining, according to Victor Quiah, a member of parliament from Sinoe.

"The illegal mining is undermining the government's image in the wake of UN-imposed sanctions on diamonds and the citizens are not very happy about it, because their resources are being reaped by foreign nationals," Quiah said.

The UN Security Council banned diamond exports from Liberia in 2001 to stop then-president Charles Taylor from using the gems to buy guns and fuel conflict around West Africa.

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