AFRICA/MALAWI - "People are dying due to lack of medicine, external aid blocked because of Cashgate": alarm launched by the President of the Episcopal Conference

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Lilongwe (Agenzia Fides) - "People are dying due to lack of medicine and health care, because there are not enough funds to be allocated to health care", says His Exc. Mgr. Joseph Mukasa Zuza, Bishop of Mzuzu and President of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi, in Rome for the ad limina visit. It is one of the most terrible consequences of the so-called "cashgate", scandal that has engulfed much of the state administration and politics in Malawi, caused by the misappropriation of the funds donated by the international community (especially by the European Union) that covered 40 % of the state budget "Because of cashgate - explains the Bishop - our international partners have stopped sending additional funds, until they are sure that the money they give is properly used".
"The sector most affected by the lack of support of our donors is health. Some drugs are becoming increasingly expensive and there are no resources to purchase them. There are people dying for lack of care", says the President of the Episcopal Conference.
"The Church does what it can to help those most in need, but we are dependent on foreign aid and we cannot meet all the needs, since the State itself is not able to do so", concluded Mgr. Zuza.
In a note sent to Agenzia Fides in September (see Fides 23/09/2014), Fr. Piergiorgio Gamba wrote that because of the lack of foreign aid "640,000 people will not have enough food due to poor harvest. 25% of the population lives in extreme poverty, on less than a dollar a day, therefore they have nothing to eat. 17% of the poorest people live in cities and 57% in rural areas".
The judicial investigation has so far ascertained that more than $ 30 million have been stolen. Since September 2013, when the scandal broke out, to date, at least 70 people have been arrested in connection with cashgate. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 12/11/2014)


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