A/HRC/10/59 page 12 immediate action of the international community to curtail the ever rising mortality rate. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 10,000 cholera cases were reported between January and November 2008. Even though WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), International Medical Corps (IMC) and others have provided medical support to local doctors and humanitarian agencies, the epidemic persists. 34. The widespread looting of health clinics and the arbitrary obstruction of humanitarian convoys intended to replenish medical supplies have aggravated the situation. Dramatic fluctuations in population centres due to internal displacement have placed great demands on an already weak health system in the eastern region of the DRC, requiring the rapid increase in medical capacity. Moreover, Congolese medical workers have been forced to flee, further straining the medical capacity in the region. The conflict has caused the collapse of the health system, which has limited the distribution of essential vaccines needed for the control of diseases. 3. Violence against women and girls 35. Sexual violence has been a defining feature of the armed conflicts in the DRC and conflict parties have not assumed their responsibilities reaffirmed also by Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) on women, peace and security. During her visit in July 2007, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women found that sexual violence against women was particularly dramatic in the Kivus, where non-state armed groups, including foreign militia, committed sexual atrocities that were of an unimaginable brutality and aimed at the complete physical and psychological destruction of women with implications for the entire society.13 The Special Rapporteur also documented how women were targeted in the local armed conflict in the Ituri District (Province Orientale) and how sexual violence had continued at alarming levels despite improvements in the overall security level.14 In both areas, the Special Rapporteur documented cases of violence against women committed by FARDC members, including rapes committed as part of collective reprisals against the civilian population and individual rapes perpetrated by commanding officers.15 36. The Special Rapporteur has continued to receive disturbing reports about a new wave of sexual violence against women as well as attacks on women human rights defenders in the eastern region, especially in North Kivu. During the regional consultations on violence against women in the context of conflict in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa Region, held in Nairobi from 3 to 5 December 2008, the Special Rapporteur had the opportunity to get first-hand information from local Congolese women groups who sounded the alarm that the situation in the Kivus and Province Orientale had further deteriorated. 13 A/HRC/7/6/Add.4, first paragraph of the summary. 14 Ibid., paras. 30-37. 15 Ibid., paras. 30-46.