Press Release: European Commission allocates EUR1.5 million for emergency response to cholera outbreaks in Angola

The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, on 21 April 2006 proposed to grant €1.5 million to support an emergency response to cholera outbreaks in various provinces of Angola, which had caused more than 550 deaths in the previous two months. Extremely heavy rains over much of southern Africa since January 2006, compounded by poverty, lack of basic sanitation facilities and low hygiene standards had resulted in outbreaks of cholera in suburban areas of several cities.