Cholera-hit Zimbabwe 'needs to get Mugabe out now'

Published on Sunday 7 December 2008 21:03

AID agencies warned the people of Zimbabwe suffering a growing cholera crisis did not have time to wait for a political solution as pressure grew to forcibly remove President Robert Mugabe from power.

The World Health Organisation said yesterday close to 14,000 cholera cases had now been reported in the African nation, and 589 people had already died.

Charities warned many more could die as the disease spreads through a population weakened by hunger in a country where sanitation and health services have all but collapsed.

Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, yesterday urged the African Union to call an emergency meeting to authorise sending troops into Zimbabwe and said Mugabe's actions deserved investigation by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

He said: "If no troops are available, then the AU must allow the UN to send its forces into Zimbabwe with immediate effect, to take over control of the country and ensure urgent humanitarian assistance to the people dying of cholera."

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said: "Robert Mugabe and his henchmen must now take their rightful place in The Hague and answer for their actions."

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak endangered the whole of southern Africa. She said: "I am still really appalled at the inability of the international community to deal with tyrants. Robert Mugabe should have gone a long time ago."