The United Nations Children's Fund on Tuesday alerted western African governments on the need to prevent a new cholera outbreak, after the disease claimed nearly 3,000 lives there last year.

Unicef's regional bureau said that "at least 105,248 cases of cholera were registered in 17 countries in 2011, and 2,898 people died" in what was one of the most severe outbreaks of the disease in years.

"The region is now in the inter-season which means that the number of cases is close to zero in most affected countries," it said.