The cholera outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has tallied 64,427 cases and 1,888 deaths since the start of the year, making it the country’s worst outbreak in 25 years, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said. Children account for 14,818 cases and 340 deaths. The outbreak has disrupted education, exposed kids to illness, and forced them to watch family members suffer and die. 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.
UNICEF DRC Representative John Agbor said Congolese children shouldn’t be so gravely affected by a wholly preventable disease.
“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,” Agbor said.
Seventeen of DRC’s 26 provinces are currently hit, including the capital Kinshasa. The share of cases involving children varies by province but averages around 23.4 percent nationwide.
Limited access to water and sanitation keeps cholera entrenched in the DRC. According to the 2024-2025 Demographic and Health Survey, only 43 percent of the population uses at least basic water services—the lowest rate in Africa—and just 15 percent have access to basic sanitation. The cholera crisis is made worse by persistent conflict, displacement, and insecurity in eastern DRC, which restrict access to health services; heavy rains and flooding that damage water and sanitation infrastructure; and rapid, unplanned urbanization that has led to overcrowded cities and overwhelmed 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, with a proposed budget of $192 million. But 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 tackle the absence of cholera control measures at ports, the lack of a sanitation plan for boats, 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 approach—a strategy that helps control outbreaks by delivering swift, targeted actions to households surrounding a confirmed case. UNICEF also supports cholera treatment centers, leads community engagement to ensure families have the information they need to protect themselves, and works to strengthen WASH structures in schools, health centers, 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.
Agbor called on the government to invest in health services, clean water, and proper sanitation infrastructure, while also appealing to international partners for funding, especially for rapid response. “The funding pipeline for 2026 looks very fragile, and without additional funds and coordinated action, many more lives could be lost,” he said. UNICEF requires about $6 million in 2026 to ensure that the CATI mechanism is properly funded.
