Zimbabwe has blocked former President Jimmy Carter, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and South African human rights campaigner Graca Machel from entering the country to assess the humanitarian crisis there. The United Nations estimates about 6,000 people have contracted cholera in recent weeks in Zimbabwe, and almost 300 have died. Hundreds of people have crossed into South Africa seeking treatment. Jimmy Carter said the entire structure of the country has broken down.

Jimmy Carter: “We all have a feeling that the leaders of SADC do not know what’s going on inside Zimbabwe. I think they need to send in a team to make an assessment about what’s going on with the cholera, with starvation, with the crops, with the education system, with the monetary system, and report back to the leaders what’s going on. And I see no reason why the African Union, without interfering in the political negotiation, shouldn’t do the same thing. And I don’t see any reason why the United Nations shouldn’t also send a team into Zimbabwe, so the whole world will know what we have learned the last three days and what was just shared with you.”