Reports from north-eastern Somalia say that more than eighty people have died of cholera in the Red Sea port of Bossaso in the past three weeks.

The reports say that hundreds more who are infected are being cared for in makeshift hsopitals.

A correspondent for the BBC in the region says that doctors at the local hospital say they do not have the necessary drugs to tackle the problem, and they fear that the disease could spread reapily to other areas in the region.

Last week, doctors in the capital, Mogadishu, said that several people were dying of the disease every day in the city.