Democratic Republic of the Congo cholera outbreak is declared country’s worst in 25 years

KINSHASA, 8 December 2025 - The cholera outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has had a devastating impact tallying 64,427 total cases since the start of the year, including 1,888 deaths, with children accounting for 14,818 cases and 340 deaths making it the worst outbreak in 25 years in the country, UNICEF said today.

The outbreak has disrupted children's education, exposing them to illness, and forcing them to witness the suffering and loss of family members. In one of the most tragic cases, 16 of the 62 children living in a Kinshasa group home died within days after the disease tore through the orphanage.

"Congolese children should not be so gravely affected by what is a wholly preventable disease," said UNICEF DRC Representative John Agbor. "UNICEF encourages our government partners to increase investments in water, sanitation, hygiene and health services, especially in established cholera hotspots, to better protect the health and well-being of Congolese families and children."

Seventeen of DRC's 26 provinces are currently impacted, including the capital Kinshasa. The share of cases involving children varies by province but averages around 23.4 per cent nationwide.

Limited access to water and sanitation services continues to drive cholera persistence in the DRC. According to the 2024-2025 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), only 43 per cent of the population uses at least basic water services - the lowest rate in Africa - and just 15 per cent have access to basic sanitation.

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. In areas with little prior exposure to cholera, such as Kinshasa, low disease awareness and delays in care-seeking are contributing to exceptionally high fatality rates.

The government created a national plan to eliminate cholera, known as the Multisectoral Cholera Elimination Plan (PMSEC) 2023-2027, which has a proposed budget of $192 million. However, the plan is woefully underfunded, and the mid-term evaluation completed in May 2025 calls for increased investments and more robust multisectoral coordination.

In response to the 2025 outbreak, the government also recently set up the "River Congo without cholera" initiative to specifically tackle the absence of cholera control measures in place at ports, the lack of a sanitation plan for boats, the promotion of awareness among crew members and passengers, and access to drinking water along the river.

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.

UNICEF also supports cholera treatment centres, leads community engagement initiatives to ensure families have the information they need to protect themselves, and works to strengthen WASH structures in schools, health centres and communities.

Through UNICEF-supported community engagement initiatives, more than 13.5 million people across the country were reached between January and October 2025 with information about how to prevent and respond to cholera.

"As well as calling on the government to invest in health services, clean water and proper sanitation infrastructure, we are also appealing to our international partners for funding, especially for our rapid response," Agbor said. "The funding pipeline for 2026 looks very fragile, and without additional funds and coordinated action, many more lives could be lost."

UNICEF requires about $6 million in 2026 to ensure that the CATI mechanism is properly funded.

#####