ABUJA, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Eight people have been confirmed dead following an outbreak of cholera in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, a health official said on Sunday.
Haruna Mshelia, commissioner for health in the northern Borno State, said the government had set up a 30-bed clinic at the camp to enhance treatment and control of the disease.
The outbreak in Muna Garage area of Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State, was aggravated by incessant flooding due to heavy rainfall in the past three weeks, according to the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an international medical humanitarian organization.
A total of 200 patients have been admitted from the start of the outbreak, with 100 discharges, said Ann Cillers, MSF project coordinator in Maiduguri, the epicenter of an eight-year insurgency by armed group Boko Haram.
Cillers said since Saturday, over 50 patients had been admitted to a treatment facility maintained by the MSF in another area of the city.
Nearly 3 million people had been displaced in Nigeria's northeast region following Boko Haram's violence, with most of them taking refuge in camps provided by the government and various humanitarian organizations.
