Ukraine: The mayor of Mariupol warns of the risk of cholera

Thousands of people are at risk of dying from cholera and other diseases in Mariupol, as the bodies from the battles have not been collected and with the arrival of summer the temperature rises, warned the mayor of the city.

Vadim Boichenko said the wells had been contaminated by the bodies of those killed in the Russian bombing and siege. The collection of the dead by the Russian conquerors of the city is proceeding at a slow pace.

“Dysentery and cholera have broken out. Unfortunately, this is our doctors’ assessment: that the war that claimed the lives of 20,000 people, unfortunately, with these epidemics, will kill many thousands more Mariupolites,” the mayor told Ukrainian public TV.

Boichenko, who is no longer in Mariupol, said the city had been quarantined.

According to Ukrainian authorities, about 100,000 people are left in Mariupol, which before the war had a population of about 430,000 but has now been turned into a desert.

The mayor, who said last month that Russian bombing had turned Mariupol into a “medieval ghetto”, said residents had been forced to drink water from wells because the city had no running water and a sewer system was out of order.

He called on the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to help open a humanitarian corridor for those who wish to leave the city. According to Ukrainian officials, there is no electricity or gas in Mariupol.

The World Health Organization warned last month that there was a possibility of cholera in Mariupol. The British Ministry of Defense earlier today also assessed that there is such a risk because the medical services are collapsing.

Russia has not yet commented on Boichenko’s statements or London’s assessments.

Source: AMPE