A young boy pumps water from a well while a woman collects water in buckets at Glen View, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Health measures have been imposed, particularly in the capital Harare, to prevent the spread of the disease. From now on, it is forbidden to shake hands or share food.
All regions of the southern African country have been affected since the resurgence of the pathology in early 2023.
While officially, 30 deaths have been recorded since February and more than 900 cases. But around a hundred people are suspected of having died from the disease and almost more than 4,000 of having been infected.
In 2008, the disease killed at least 4,000 people in Zimbabwe and infected 100,000 people.
An acute diarrheal infection caused by the absorption of food or water contaminated by bacteria, cholera is on the rise on the continent, according to the World Health Organization.
M23 rebellion in the DRC: a deputy sentenced to the death penalty
A deputy, owner of a strategic mining company, was sentenced to death on Friday in Kinshasa by the military justice system which was trying him in particular for "participation in the M23 insurrectional movement" and "treason" in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The death penalty is often pronounced in the DRC but has not been applied for 20 years and is systematically commuted to life imprisonment.
The High Military Court did not grant any mitigating circumstances to the convicted person, who was not present when the judgment was pronounced, an AFP team noted. He was found guilty of "illegal possession of weapons and munitions of war", "participation in the M23 insurrectional movement" and "treason", said General Robert Kalala, presiding judge of the High Court.
The M23, for "March 23 Movement", is a predominantly Tutsi rebellion which, with the support of Rwanda according to Kinshasa, has seized large swathes of territory in North Kivu since the end of 2021.
Mr. Mwangachuchu was arrested on March 1 in Kinshasa, first detained in Makala, the main prison in the Congolese capital, then transferred to the Ndolo military prison where around thirty hearings in his trial were held.
His co-accused, Robert Muchamalirwa, a police captain prosecuted for "violating orders", was acquitted and the court ordered his immediate release.
The defense of Mr. Mwangachuchu, who had pleaded for acquittal, announced its intention to appeal to the Court of Cassation. In front of the press, Me Thomas Gamakolo denounced an “unfair decision, motivated by considerations unrelated to the law”.
It is, according to him, “a trial based on ethnic hatred and inferences”. "We have never been able to demonstrate that Mr. Mwangachuchu has links with Rwanda", but "because of his 'Tutsity', we have established the presumption of guilt", said Mr Gamakolo.
Close link with Rwanda
“It is very difficult today in our country to live or exist as a Tutsi,” regretted the lawyer.
The proceedings against Mr. Mwangachuchu were triggered when the M23 rebels, who had seized the mining town of Rubaya (North Kivu), were "dislodged by the local natives organized in a self-defense movement", a explained the High Court.
The latter would then have discovered a cache of weapons on the Bibatama site belonging to the Bisunzu mining company (SMB), owned by Mr. Mwangachuchu, it was added during the reading of the sentence.
In its pleadings, the defense maintained that these were "people presenting themselves as 'Hutu peasants', members of the Nyatura armed group" who "claimed to have discovered a cache of weapons" on this mining site.
On Friday, the court also returned at length to a Covid test certificate carried out by Mr. Mwangachuchu in Kigali in May 2021, arguing that this was proof of the “close link” that the Congolese MP would maintain “with Rwanda, the aggressor country of the DRC.
It was also said that minerals produced by his company were "sent to Rwanda" and that a document found in his safe indicated that he owns "real estate in Rwanda" and "is very concerned about the development of Rwanda." .
During the trial, Mr. Mwangachuchu claimed to be the subject of threats from the M23 and the Rwandan security authorities.
He appeared ill and visibly very weakened during the hearings. The defendant's requests for provisional release for health reasons had been rejected.