Flu Outbreak Has Killed 2,000, Minister Reports

A flu epidemic has killed at least 2,000 people in a far northern province of war-torn Congo, the country’s health minister said, warning that many more people in the malnourished country could die.

“We’re faced with a virulent illness that could afflict a huge area,” Health Minister Mashako Mamba said. “That is to say, our whole country or lots of countries on the continent.”

At least 2,000 of the 100,000 infected residents of Congo’s northern Equator province have died during the four-month epidemic, Mamba said. About 500,000 of the estimated 6 million residents of Kinshasa, the capital, are infected, he added.