Former US president Jimmy Carter, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, and Graca Machel (the wife of Nelson Mandela), tried to enter Zimbabwe on November 22, but were refused visas. Instead, the three prominent international figures and representatives of the new group “The Elders” met with aid groups, refugees and civil society leaders in South Africa about the growing humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
They emerged from these meetings saying the situation is deteriorating rapidly, and that the country ‘may soon implode as basic services collapse and cholera takes hold.’
As cited in this recent The First Post piece, “As many as 1.4m people are at risk of contracting cholera in Zimbabwe, according to Medicins Sans Frontieres. The World Health Organisation says that by late last week about 300 people had died in hospitals from the disease, with many more thought to have died at home and 6,000 others infected.”
As a response to the crisis, The Elders released lists of recommendations to world donors, to Zimbabwe’s political leaders, to Zimbabwe’s authorities, and to the Southern African Development Community (SADC). You can see the recommendations below, and is this pdf from their site.
-Virginia Simmons
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