Things just keep spiraling further and further out of control in the African nation of Zimbabwe. This year, it's gone through a violent sham of an election, an economic crisis that led to hyperinflation, threat of revolt by the military, and an ever-worsening health epidemic.
If you've been following world news in the past year, chances are good you've heard about some of the problems being faced by citizens of the southern African nation of Zimbabwe.
Just as a recap: In March of this year, an election was held in the country. Challenger Morgan Tsvangirai received more votes in the first election but, at least according to election officials, did not muster the 50% necessary to avoid a runoff. In the time between the first election and the runoff, there was widespread violence directed toward Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters that ultimately led him to withdraw from the race and Robert Mugabe was again able to claim victory.
Amidst the controversial election, Mugabe was forced into a power-sharing deal with Tsvangirai. However, things in the country have been deteriorating very quickly.
Most of these problems stem from a financial crisis. According to CNN:
Once considered the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe has been in the throes of an economic meltdown ever since the country embarked on a chaotic land reform program that has decimated commercial agriculture.
And now, facing inflation in the hundreds of millions percent, the problems keep on coming. The Economist is reporting a number of major crises facing the nation.
For the first time in a decade of political and economic meltdown, Zimbabwe’s security forces have started to voice their anger. Twice in a week, a few dozen disgruntled soldiers ran amok in the streets of Harare, the capital, after they had been unable to withdraw cash from banks. Some shops were looted and illegal foreign-exchange dealers beaten up before the enraged but unarmed soldiers clashed with the police.
Furthermore, some localities within the nation are unable to afford water treatment. This has led to an outbreak of cholera.
The government has declared a national emergency and appealed for outside help. The latest catastrophe is a cholera epidemic that has hit at least 12,000 people. The World Health Organisation reckons that more than 560 have died, but a local organisation says the toll is already at least twice as high. Most doctors no longer go to work. Harare’s main hospitals have virtually ceased to function. The water and sewerage system has broken down in many places, including Harare, where the authorities turned off the taps for a few days in a vain effort to stem the spread of the disease. Sick Zimbabweans are streaming into neighbouring South Africa. The bordering Limpopo river is cholera-contaminated.
The spread of chaos to South Africa means that the nation might take steps to try and remove Robert Mugabe from power. Mugabe's stance? As reported by another Economist article:
The delusion of Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, appears to know no end. In a televised speech on Thursday December 11th he announced that a cholera epidemic, which continues to ravage Zimbabwe and to spread to neighbouring countries, is over. "I am happy to say...that there is no cholera" he claimed, just as the World Health Organisation had reported that 783 people have so far died of the disease and that over 16,400 people have been infected. As he spoke, officials in South Africa declared a disaster area in a part of the Limpopo region on the Zimbabwean border, as a result of desperate refugees spreading cholera.
In addition to the civil unrest and the disease, there is also starvation to fear.
Meanwhile, food is running out. Severe shortages will leave more than half the resident population of 8m-9m needing handouts by next month. The few Zimbabweans still formally employed, probably less than a fifth of working-age people, earn only a pittance, their wages—if they get paid at all—long ago squeezed almost into nothing by inflation. Cash-withdrawal limits imposed by the central bank (though relaxed a bit this week) mean that people anyway often get a fraction of their earnings. Public-sector workers are staying away from work en masse. Few teachers now turn up in schools. Dealing on the black market, subsistence, barter and foreign currency sent by friends and relatives abroad are most Zimbabweans’ lifelines.
What is there to do about this? The U.N. is considering an intervention into what is no doubt a severe humanitarian crisis at this point. However, back in July, a U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions against Mugabe's government was blocked by China, Russia, and South Africa, who at the time believed there was no serious threat to international security posed by the nation. President Bush and other Western leaders such as Nicolas Sarkozy have called on Mugabe to step down. Additionally, Zimbabwe's African neighbors, particularly South Africa, might be forced into acting as this crisis crosses the border outward.
Mugabe's response to this growing chorus calling for action: delusion, once more.
Zimbabwe’s leader dismisses suggestions that his people are suffering as attempts by outsiders to make a case for military intervention. On Thursday he concluded that "Now that there is no cholera, there is no need for war." But demands for action are growing in the rest of Africa. Talk in high places about removing Mr Mugabe, perhaps even by force, is no longer deemed outlandish. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an icon of the anti-apartheid movement, has called for just that. Voices elsewhere in Africa, such as those of Botswana’s president, Ian Khama, and Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga, have become louder in calling for Mr Mugabe’s exit. Botswana’s foreign minister wants sanctions against Zimbabwe to include stopping oil supplies.
This crisis is getting worse, and will take the lives of thousands of people. Zimbabwe is completely unstable. Angry soldiers lining the streets and having no loyalty to the country's leadership means that there could be an internal collapse and power vacuum resulting. This nation's instability has already spread to other nations.
Without outside action, countless deaths will result.