Maputo — The Mozambican government has sent brigades to four provinces to monitor the outbreak of diarrheal diseases at the start of the 2023-2024 rainy season.

The brigades will work in the central provinces of Tete and Zambézia, and the northern provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado.

According to the government spokesperson, Deputy Justice Minister Filimão Suaze, speaking on Tuesday after a meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) in Maputo, although it is believed that cholera may be the cause of recent reports of over 300 cases of diarrhoeal disease, it is too early to give exact figures.

"In this matter of numbers, we don't want to create alarm by presenting numbers that are inconsistent', Suaze said. "We mention these four provinces because they are the ones that are most significant in numerical terms'.

Suaze explained that for this reason, the brigades' deployment is aimed at monitoring and seeking the best coordination to remedy the outbreak, as well as evaluating the process of the start of the 2023/2024 agricultural campaign, which was launched on Friday by President, Filipe Nyusi.

"These brigades will not only deal with the issue of cholera, but will also deal with the launch of the agricultural campaign in our country. So let's hope that over the next few days we will be able to announce more concrete measures depending on what is happening in one part of our country or another', he said.

According to Suaze, the institutions that deal with natural disasters are ready to respond to outbreaks of the disease.

"It should be noted that in the last rainy season, November 2022 to May 2023, the cholera outbreak in Mozambique affected more than 30,000 people and caused at least 141 deaths, according to data from the Ministry of Health', he said.