By Xinhua,
Talayan (Philippines) : At least 38 homeless people, including ten children, have died due to health problems in various evacuation centres, witnesses said Monday.
The deaths took place at the evacuation centres amid the ongoing fighting between government troops and rebels in the southern Philippines.
In a small marketplace where 1,257 families set up their makeshift dwellings in the township of Talayan in Maguindanao Province, 24 displaced people – six of whom are children – have died since August last year, said Hassan Kalupa, a leader of the evacuees.
Kalupa told Xinhua that most of the six children died of severe diarrhoea two months ago.
The youngest of the victims was a ten-month-old baby girl, who died of pneumonia.
In another evacuation camp in the province, Samin Kamsa, who works as volunteer for the evacuees, said that at least 14 people, including four children, have died over the past months.