Two elderly people died of the disease last week in Sulaimaniyah, Rekawt Hama Rasheed told AFP, adding that there have been 27 confirmed cases so far.

Authorities are testing about 75 people for cholera per day, Rasheed said. The Kurdistan region depends on Baghdad to test the samples.

It is the second cholera outbreak to hit Sulaimaniyah in the past five years. At least nine people died of the disease in the province in 2007.