Mugabe: 'No Cholera In Zimbabwe'
Breaking News
10:02am UK, Thursday December 11, 2008

Robert Mugabe has denied there is a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, despite the UN saying hundreds of people have died of the disease.


A woman cares for her child, a victim of the disease in Goma

In a televised speech to the nation, the president said that cholera no longer existed in the country.

"I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others and WHO (the World Health Organisation)... so now that there is no cholera," he said.

Mugabe also hit back at calls from Gordon Brown and George Bush for him to step down.

"Because of cholera, Mr Brown wants a military intervention," he said.

"Bush wants military intervention because of cholera."

"There is no cause for war any more," Mugabe continued.

"The cholera cause doesn't exist any more."


Deadlock: Mugabe and Tsvangirai

Mugabe's announcement came after South Africa declared a cholera disaster on its border with Zimbabwe.

A government official said the spillover from the epidemic was putting a huge strain on health resources.

Health and water ministers from across southern Africa are meeting today to discuss the outbreak in Zimbabwe that, according to the UN, has killed more than 770 people.

Officials from South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia - part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) - will meet in Johannesburg.

The United Nations says more than 16,000 cases of the deadly but treatable disease have been reported - half of them in just one Harare suburb.

South Africa, which chairs SADC, is to send a team to Zimbabwe to investigate how it can help with food and humanitarian aid.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, has come under a barrage of international pressure to step down amid the worsening epidemic.

The president, his main rival Morgan Tsvangirai and a smaller political party are currently deadlocked in discussions over a stalled power-sharing agreement.

The deal, signed in Harare on September 15, has yet to be implemented because the parties cannot agree on who should control key ministries.

news.sky.com