With reports of a growing cholera crisis having killed about 800 people as well as spreading to neighbouring Mozambique, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has announced that the disease has been brought under control in his country.
According to him, “the cholera cause does not exist anymore” in his country.
In his usual rhetoric against Britain, The US as well as France, who had earlier on asked for his departure, the 84 year old Mugabe told the nation that since there is no more cholera there is no more need for the military intervention those countries had suggested.
“Now that there is no cholera there is no case for war” he said. He claimed the west was trying to use the disease as a reason to oust his government by using military force.
Reports from Zimbabwe claim that due to the fact that many health centres are not operational, the risk of the epidemic spiralling out of control is foreseeable.
The World Health Organisation in a statement, Tuesday, indicated that up to 60,000 people could be infected with the disease if it is not brought under control.
The number of reported cholera cases in Zimbabwe stands at 13,960, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Neighbouring Mozambique has also reported the death of four people from cholera in the central district of Mossurize, near the border with Zimbabwe, confirming fears that the disease that has ravaged Zimbabwe could spread to neighbouring countries.
The local media quoted the district administrator, Vasco Gaspar, as saying that the outbreak began on 4 December in the Macuo region in the frontier locality of Garagua. So far, 20 cases have been reported, four of whom had died.
Meanwhile, Robert Mugabe insists that he is happy that Zimbabwe has “arrested cholera”.
