MOGADISHU, Somalia - At least 42 people, mainly children, have died in the last 24 hours from a suspected cholera outbreak in southern Somalia, doctors said Tuesday.

A Ugandan African Union peacekeeper patrols in Mogadishu, March 12, 2007. The Somali government hopes to pacify Mogadishu within 30 days, a senior official said on Sunday, in a test for the interim administration which welcomed the vanguard of an African peacekeeping mission this week. [Reuters]

More than 240 others have been hospitalized and doctors fear more deaths because of the lack of proper medical facilities and medicines in the war-ravaged country.

"The children are dying from the disease because of a lack of access to proper medical centers," said Dr. Ahmed Nour Afey, who works at a provincial hospital in Marka town, about 60 miles south of the capital, Mogadishu. "Most of them die on their way to hospitals at the main towns in the region."

Cholera is transmitted through contaminated water and is linked to poor hygiene, overcrowding and bad sanitation. Symptoms include diarrhea and vomiting, and it can kill in less than five hours if it remains untreated.

Somalia has some of the world's worst health indicators. Life expectancy at birth is 46 years and a quarter of children die before they reach 5.