GENEVA: Medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) said Sunday it had launched emergency treatment centers in Tanzania, where thousands of Burundians fleeing unrest have been hit by cholera.

“The situation is critical,” said Nanan Kassi N’Zeth, the MSF coordinator.

“The refugees are confronted with an impossible choice at the moment: to remain in Burundi and face insecurity or seek refuge in Tanzania and risk cholera.”

The UN said some 3,000 cases of cholera have been reported in Tanzania, mainly among Burundian refugees, with up to 400 new cases counted daily.

So far, 31 people have died of the water-borne disease in the area around the western Tanzanian border town Kagunga according to the UN refugee agency.

All but two of those who have died were Burundian refugees, and most were children, it said.