PRETORIA, November 17. /TASS/. The municipal council of Zimbabwe's capital Harare has decided to declare a state of emergency in response to the cholera epidemic in the state, the Zimbabwean newspaper NewsDay reported.

"We have declared a state of emergency because of cholera," the publication quotes Harare Mayor Ian Makoni as saying. The capital's governor also noted that the cholera epidemic was caused by the "lack of proper drinking water supplies in the city," pushing people to draw water from " polluted boreholes and wells." He compared the current situation to the 2008 outbreak, when the disease killed more than 4,000 Zimbabweans.

According to earlier reports, the number of deaths in Zimbabwe from cholera over the past eight months stands at 120, and the number of infected at five thousand. The cholera outbreak epicenter was the Manicaland province located in the east of Zimbabwe, which shares a border with Mozambique.

Starting in spring 2022, cholera outbreaks have occurred consistently in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 60,000 cases have been reported in Malawi over that time, making it the leader among all countries. The majority of outbreaks in 2023 were recorded across 14 African countries.