APA-Gaborone (Botswana) Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will on Friday hold a virtual emergency summit to discuss a deadly cholera outbreak in the region.
The Botswana-based SADC Secretariat said in a statement on Thursday that the extraordinary summit of heads of state and government would, among others, receive and consider a report on the cholera situation in some countries, the preparedness of the 16 member states and how cholera outbreaks have been handled in the various countries.
“The Extra-ordinary Summit, which will be chaired by the SADC Chairperson, His Excellency João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, President of the Republic of Angola, comes against a background of a multi-country outbreak of cholera that some SADC member states have experienced recently,” the statement said.
Cholera outbreaks have ravaged several countries in southern Africa in the past year, with about 188,000 cholera cases, including 3,000 related deaths, reported in eight countries in the region since January 2023.
Affected countries are Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In Zambia, a spike in cholera cases has forced the government to delay the opening of schools until February 12.
JN/APA