18 November 2008
FORMER United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, former US president Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela's wife Graca Machel, will visit the country next week to assess the humanitarian crisis.
Their visit comes at a time when government officials last week finally admitted that food shortages were getting out of hand following reports that 10 villagers died of anthrax in Matabeleland North after they defied the police and ate infected meat. The villagers took the risk due to starvation.
There were reports that villagers in Dongamuzi in Lupane had running battles with the police after they tried to stop them from eating cattle dying of the disease last week.
Officials at the Department of Veterinary Services said as many as 200 cattle could have died of anthrax in the past few days.
Desperation among the villagers has seen many resorting to eating potentially poisonous wild fruits and tubers.
The United Nations estimates that by the beginning of next year more than five million people will be in dire need of food assistance although there are fears that the crisis is being downplayed as humanitarian workers have not been able to carry out proper assessments due to the volatile political crisis in the country.
A nurse at St Luke's Hospital in Lupane said the institution was receiving an average of five people a day suffering from anthrax.
"I can confirm that 10 people from Dongamuzi died of anthrax in recent days because St Luke's is the biggest hospital in Matabeleland North and people always come here when seriously ill," he said.
"The reports that we are getting are that the situation is getting out of hand and a relief organisation has even sent aid nurses to the area to attend to the sick.
"People are so hungry such that when police try to advise them to burn carcasses of cattle that die of anthrax they turn violent."
According to health regulations livestock that dies of anthrax should be burnt to stem outbreaks. Anthrax is a serious disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthrax, which affects cattle, sheep, and goats and is usually fatal.
Khulekani Ncube, a field worker with an aid agency in Lupane said the anthrax deaths were a wake-up call to the government, which appears unmoved by the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
"To say only 10 people have died of anthrax is an understatement because there are burials in Dongamuzi almost after every two days," Ncube said. "It must also be pointed out that people are not only dying of anthrax but of food poisoning as they are resorting to maize seed given by donors and wild fruits."
He said in one tragic incident three children died after they ate fertiliser because they had gone for three days without food.
Dr Polex Moyo, the Matabeleland North provincial veterinary officer, who confirmed the outbreak, confirmed starving villagers were feeding on infected meat.
"I have heard that there were some people who were treated at Dongamuzi clinic," he said. "People are hungry and they have been surviving on wild fruits and given such a situation they are unlikely to throw away food even if it is meat from cattle dying of anthrax."
He said food shortages in the province were critical with the elderly being the most affected.
Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo, reacting to reports that villagers were dying of constipation after eating hacha, baobab and other fruits normally eaten by donkeys and goats, accused aid agencies of exaggerating the food crisis to gain political mileage.
But Matabeleland North governor Sithokozile Mathuthu said although she was not aware of the anthrax-related deaths, food shortages were pushing villagers to eat potentially lethal fruits and roots.
She said although non-governmental organisations such as World Vision, Red Cross and Orap were assisting, they were overwhelmed by the extent of the crisis.
Meanwhile, Annan, Carter and Machel will steer clear of Zimbabwe's political disputes to concentrate on what is probably the country's worst humanitarian crisis since the end of the Gukurahundi massacres in the Midlands and Matabeleland during the 1980s.
They expressed fears that the world was turning a blind eye to the long-running crisis in the country.
"Relieving the suffering of millions of people must be the priority of Zimbabwe's leaders," Annan said. "But global attention is slipping as Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis worsens.
"We hope that our visit will also add momentum to the global response to longer term issues of reform and development once an inclusive government is in place and operational," he said.
"It is crucial that the international community supports a Zimbabwe-led process of recovery and provides sufficient funding for its implementation."
Last week rural MPs also raised the issue of the dire situation in their constituencies during the brief parliamentary session and called on the government and NGOs to move with speed to alleviate hunger induced deaths.
They called for the introduction of supplementary feeding programmes in primary schools saying children had become even more vulnerable.
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