SW Radio Africa (London)
Alex Bell
22 December 2008
Emergency appeals by international aid organisations to tackle the devastating humanitarian disaster in Zimbabwe have reached urgent levels, as the shocking and rising number of deaths in the country becomes clearer.
In a country ravaged by critical food shortages and a deadly cholera outbreak, it has been almost impossible to keep track of the untold thousands of people dying from hunger and disease. Official figures given by the United Nations claim that the deaths from cholera alone have reached more than a 1000, but combined with the very real threat of starvation, Zimbabwe's death toll from the humanitarian disaster is reaching genocidal proportions.
The unofficial cholera death toll was speculated to have reached well beyond the 3000 mark by last month and the figure is said to be rising daily. Relief agencies were last week still struggling to contain the devastating outbreak in Chegutu, which has so far claimed at least 160 lives in less than two weeks, while the Daily Mail in the UK this weekend reported that gravediggers at one cemetery in Harare alone were burying 31 child cholera victims every week.
At the same time, up to 5 million people are said to be already starving, amid more speculation that between 15 and 20 thousand people are dying from starvation and hunger related diseases a month. A recent media report quoted a nurse from the Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital, who said an average of 13 people a day die there, with the nurse explaining that most patients had clear signs of malnutrition.
The death toll from cholera and hunger does not include those Zimbabweans whose lives have been cut short by HIV/AIDS, a crisis that the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said claims more than 400 adult lives every day.
Meanwhile, illnesses that are simple to treat in a functioning society have now become life threatening, as Zimbabwe's health system has completely collapsed. A handful of clinics are now said to be servicing an entire nation that needs medical treatment, after the majority of hospitals and clinics in the country were closed recently due to a lack of staff and supplies. The situation means thousands more people have been left dead and dying, from ordinary, treatable illnesses.
Robert Mugabe's government has made concerted efforts to keep the figures under close guard, but with more than half the population under real threat, it is becoming daily more clear that urgent intervention is needed to stop the senseless loss of life.
Oxfam, the Red Cross and now UNICEF are the latest aid groups issuing emergency appeals to tackle the crisis at a human level, with UNICEF embarking on a US$17 million emergency programme over the next 120 days.
UNICEF's first ever airlift of critical emergency supplies to Zimbabwe landed at Harare on Monday. The cargo - which includes intravenous fluids, drip equipment and essential drugs - will help boost the group's cholera response. One more planeload was expected to arrive at midnight on Monday and supplies will be distributed to the over 40 cholera treatment centres across Zimbabwe, and to the remaining functional health facilities.
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