Elders: Zimbabwe ‘ready to implode’

Three eminent statesmen representing an international group called the 'Elders' founded last year to tackle global issues say the situation in Zimbabwe is far worse than thought, and the country may soon implode as basic services collapse and cholera takes hold.

Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former US president Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela tried to visit the country last weekend to assess the humanitarian situation but were refused visas. Instead they remained in South Africa talking to aid groups, refugees and civil society leaders.

Joining the three, South Africa's caretaker president Kgalema Motlanthe said: "Unless this root cause of the political absence of a legitimate government is solved, the situation will get worse and may implode and collapse... It is now an urgent matter, because people are dying."

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.