There is rising malaria epidemic in Burundi, killing no fewer than 700 persons this year, Africa Review reports. The country has also registered 1.8 million infections, health ministry said on Wednesday.

“Burundi faces a malaria epidemic,” Josiane Nijimbere, health minister, said when he commented on a World Health Organization (WHO) report. From January 1 to March 10 this year, 1.8 million infections were registered in Burundi, according to the WHO.

According to Nijimbere, the latest figures constitute a 17 per cent increase from the same period last year. “Some 700 deaths” have been registered since January, the minister added.

In 2016, an estimated 8.2 million people were infected and 3,000 people died in mountainous Burundi, which is home to around 11 million people. UN officials and medical sources say Burundi’s stock of anti-malaria medication is nearly empty.

Nijimbere put the cost of fighting malaria at $31 million (29 million euros), as she appealed for donations to help fight the disease. She attributed the rise in infections to climate change, increased marshland for rice-growing and the population’s misuse of mosquito nets. Burundi plunged into chaos since President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial decision in April 2015 to run for a third term.

Hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of others have fled the country. The crisis also led to a 54 per cent cut to the government’s health budget in 2016 from the previous year.