UN humanitarian official checks on cholera, food projects in Zimbabwe

As the cholera toll in Zimbabwe climbs to 83,000 cases, with more than 3,800 deaths, a senior United Nations humanitarian official arrived over the weekend in the country’s capital Harare, to assess responses to the epidemic as well as to a food emergency.

Catherine Bragg, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, visited a cholera treatment centre outside the city today, accompanied by representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

There were more than 364 cholera treatment centres around the country, WHO noted, adding that efforts were being made to decentralize the cholera command centre, now in Harare, in favour of small command centres across the country to ensure access to people in distant villages.

More than 61 per cent of the deaths were still taking place outside treatment centres, in local communities, which meant that many people still did not have such access, the agency said.

The humanitarian group also visited a food distribution centre and a food warehouse, in a district where 60,000 people out of a total population of 83,000 are receiving food aid for the next two months, until the harvest comes in.

The harvest in the area is expected to be poor due to a combination of factors including drought and shortage of seeds and agricultural inputs.