Mugabe Claims ‘No More Cholera’ As Death Toll Keeps Rising

[tekisui]

Source: SW Radio Africa

Zimbabwe’s death toll as a result of the devastating cholera outbreak continues to rise at an alarming rate, but Robert Mugabe on Thursday stooped to new levels of cruelty, saying in a national broadcast that ‘there is no cholera’ in the country when it is clearly ravaged by the disease.

Aid organisation Oxfam has said that up to 300 000 people are at risk because of the recent cholera outbreak that officially has claimed 783 lives. The unreported death toll meanwhile is likely closer to 3000 as only a minority of the country’s desperately ill have been able to access the scarce treatment facilities dotted around the country. The United Nations on Thursday said that officially more than 16,000 people are so far suffering from the disease that Mugabe’s government itself recently declared a national emergency, but the frightening reality is that thousands more could be infected as clean water has become an unseen rarity in Zimbabwe.

The extent of the disease has seen hundreds of sick Zimbabweans cross into neighbouring countries desperately seeking medical care. Four people are believed to have died in Mozambique, while in South Africa health authorities have declared the country’s border town Musina a disaster area. Officials there have said that almost 700 people are being treated for cholera and so far eight people are confirmed to have died. At the same time, the Limpopo River has been tested positive for containing the cholera bacteria, raising fears the disease will spread further into the country.

But despite the obvious devastation the spreading cholera outbreak is leaving in its wake, Mugabe on Thursday announced that cholera had been ‘arrested’ and no longer existed in the country. In a typical tirade against the West, Mugabe claimed Western powers were plotting to use cholera as an excuse to take military action to overthrow him – this after Western leaders, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, US President George Bush and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, all lashed out at the dictator and called on him to step down.

“Because of cholera, Mr Brown, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Bush want military intervention,” Mugabe said. “Now that there is no cholera there is no case for war.”

Mugabe was speaking in Harare, at the state funeral for senior ruling party official Elliot Manyika, who died in a car crash over the weekend.

more: http://www.swradioafrica.com/news111208/nocholera111208.htm

[TheWraith]

1. Clearly we need some kind of fucknut-seeking missile for these situations.

I wonder if Elliot Manyika was pushing for more international disclosure and a request for aid.

[MidwestTransplant]

2. Yeah and no gays in Iran. Would somebody please just shoot that idiot.