"The mystery has finally been solved," Congo's health ministry says, after an unidentified disease outbreak started killing mainly women and children in a remote region.

A mystery disease that has killed dozens of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent weeks has been identified as severe malaria, local health officials have reportedly said. Officials in the Central African country reported earlier this month that hundreds of people - mostly children under five years old - had gotten sick with an unknown flu-like illness in the southwestern Kwango province,

Earlier this month, local authorities said the disease had killed 143 people in the southwestern Kwango province in November.

A severe form of malaria, presenting as a respiratory illness and exacerbated by malnutrition, has claimed over 140 lives in the Democratic Republic o

The WHO released more information about the outbreak of Disease X in the DRC. Mainly affected children, the cause remains unknown.

The WHO has sent epidemiologists to the country to uncover the cause of the illness, which has killed more than 70 people, half of them children.

Democratic Republic of Congo's health ministry said on Tuesday that a previously unidentified disease circulating in the southwestern Kwango province is a severe form of malaria.