Kinshasa, Congo – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is now facing its worst Cholera outbreak in 25 years, with 1,888 deaths recorded since January 2025, according to United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Based on the data provided by UNICEF, there are 64,427 reported Cholera cases nationwide since January 2025, with 14,818 cases and 340 of these are among children.
This corresponds to seventeen of Congo’s 26 provinces currently affected.
Cholera is a fast-spreading, potentially fatal diarrheal disease often coming from contaminated water or food.
Based on the data UNICEF provided, only 43% of the Congolese population have access to basic water services — the lowest rate in the African continent.
15% of them have access to basic sanitation.
The spread is being worsened by ongoing conflict, massive displacement, limited access to health care, and rapid urbanization there among others, they added.
“The cholera crisis is further compounded by persistent conflict, displacement, and insecurity in eastern DRC, which restrict access to health services; acute climate events such as heavy rains and flooding that damage water and sanitation infrastructure; and rapid, unplanned urbanization that has led to overcrowded cities and overwhelmed water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) systems,” it said.
Although the Congolese government has a national plan to eliminate cholera, UNICEF says it remains severely underfunded: “The government created a national plan to eliminate cholera, known as the Multisectoral Cholera Elimination Plan (PMSEC) 2023-2027…However, the plan is woefully underfunded, and the mid-term evaluation completed in May 2025 calls for increased investments and more robust multisectoral coordination.”
As part of their initiative, the UN agency has been deploying rapid-response teams across affected communities to provide necessary help and education against Cholera.
“UNICEF is working across multiple sectors to prevent and respond to cholera, including supporting rapid response teams that follow the Case-Area Targeted Intervention (CATI) approach – a strategy that helps control outbreaks by delivering swift, targeted actions to households surrounding a confirmed case,” it stated.
Their campaign has already reached 13.5 million people so far from January to October 2025.
But UNICEF cautions that its ability to respond is now at risk, especially for the next year due to lack of funding.