Cholera outbreak spreading in Nampula province along with wave of disinformation

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Cholera outbreak spreading in Nampula province along with wave of disinformation

7:37 CAT | 24 Mar 2025

As the disease has spread, so has a wave of disinformation about the causes of cholera, leading to mob attacks against community leaders, and against schools. [Image: Ikweli]

The outbreak of cholera in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula, which began in October 2024, has now spread to the coastal district of Larde, according to a report on the independent television station, STV.

Cases have been reported from the provincial capital, Nampula city, and from the districts of Mogovolas and Murrupula. There has been a cumulative total of 1,143 cases diagnosed – 467 in Nampula city, 322 in Mogovolas, 240 in Murrupula, and 114 in Larde.

The health authorities have recorded 30 deaths from cholera – 29 in Mogovolas and one in Larde. 29 people are currently hospitalised in the cholera treatment wards – 16 in Nampula, eight in Larde and five in Murrupula.

As the disease has spread, so has a wave of disinformation about the causes of cholera, leading to mob attacks against community leaders, and against schools.

Last Thursday a mob attacked a primary school in Topuito locality, where they burnt text books intended for distribution to the pupils. They claimed that the school’s educational director was spreading cholera through the books.

On Friday, a group attacked and vandalised a school at Pilivili, in Moma district (which has not reported cases of cholera).

AIM interviewed Topuito residents who blamed the violence on people from outside the district, who had come to the locality in order to create disturbances.

“This school is where our children study. The raiders came and vandalised the school, they burnt the books and they attacked the house of the educational director, because they said he had brought cholera”, said one parent. “For us, it’s strange. We don’t know the people who did this, and we don’t understand what cholera had to do with the school”.

The local authorities refused to comment and told reporters to contact the Nampula provincial education directorate.

This was just the latest in a wave of attacks by mobs who appear to believe that the people treating cholera are the ones who bought it to the districts concerned. Between December and February, the Mogovolas district hospital was vandalised three times. The raiders attacked the cholera treatment centre, the pharmacy and the operating theatre.

The authorities have repeatedly called for an end to these attacks which endanger the lives of health professionals and prevent them from assisting people suffering from cholera and other diseases.

They point out that the factors favouring the spread of cholera include lack of a clean water supply, defective sanitation, and failure to comply with basic rules of individual and collective hygiene.

Source: AIM