Anthrax in Zimbabwe: Caused by Oppression, Worsened by Climate Change

First used as a bioweapon four decades ago, anthrax outbreaks continue to worsen as the country gets warmer and wetter.

By The Revelator and Andrew Mambondiyani

A herd of emaciated cows crowd for water at a small dam in the Zimunya area about 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of Zimbabwe’s eastern border city of Mutare.

On the other side of the small dam, a group of children excitedly fetch water, mostly for nondrinking or cooking uses. In this part of the country, water became scarce this year as an El Niño-induced drought — the worst in more than 40 years — ravaged the region. The drought has left nearly 10 million people food insecure. Livestock and people now compete for limited water in many rural areas of Zimbabwe.

At the same time, livestock diseases are killing the few cattle that have survived the current and previous droughts. The mix of severe droughts and devastating diseases are making both livestock and rain-fed crop farming in Zimbabwe increasingly untenable. And farmers are worried; summer…