uʍop ǝpısdn in Harare
- Gunfire breaks out
- MDC Vice President,Thokozani Khuphe: “This is now a regional disaster”
- We cannot cope with the situation:Health officials
Gunfire broke out in Harare Central when rampaging, unpaid soldiers clashed with Police who went on a looting spree.
Both the public and police fought the estimated 100 rampaging soldiers early this morning, after they took money from people they accused of being illegal foreign currency dealers.
The clashes ended after the soldiers were rounded up by other security forces,the soldiers resorted to robbery after they were not paid their salaries.
ZINWA over the weekend shut off Harare’s water supply because there are no more decontamination chemicals. Tainted water is blamed for a cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 400 lives.
Almost 12,000 people have contracted cholera since August in Zimbabwe, and the outbreak threatens to grow more dire and deadly.
Residents there were digging shallow holes in their yards in hopes of finding water. In some cases, nearby holes served as latrines. Other residents were getting water from polluted rivers.
“Just be strong. This will come to an end one day,” MDC Vice President Thokozani Khupe told cholera patients while visiting the Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital in the capital Monday.
The World Health Organization reports that 11,700 people in Zimbabwe have contracted the curable disease and 473 people have died from it since August -but MDC Health Secretary Henry Madzorera said the numbers are being underreported.
At Beatrice hospital in Harare, bodies were piled in the mortuary, awaiting relatives to collect them.
“We are receiving up to 15 bodies a day since the cholera outbreak. That is why we have started piling them like that. We cannot cope with the situation,” a hospital official said.
Khupe said some victims were traveling to Botswana and other neighbouring countries for treatment.
“This is now a regional disaster,” Khupe said.
The MDC issued a statement last week warning that conditions could worsen this month as the rainy season brings steamy downpours to much of Zimbabwe, especially the eastern mountain forests.
The MDC reported Monday that many of the nation’s doctors and nurses have gone on strike because of poor salaries. Even if they were being paid adequately, the MDC said, many would refuse to work because there are no drugs for patients or protective clothing for health workers.
“Some of the patients admitted at the centers are health workers who contracted cholera due to lack of protective clothing,” the MDC statement said.
Posted by Simba Dzvairo
on December 2, 2008. Filed under Local News.
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