Edwin Muguti told reporters this week that Zimbabwe needed outside assistance in curbing the outbreak, but also blamed Western economic sanctions for the government's inability to keep it under control, Britain's Daily Telegraph said Friday.

"It's very regrettable that people are dying of cholera," Muguti said. "Maybe the ones who created this situation have decided to kill us softly."

Radio Southwest Africa said independent estimates peg the death toll in Zimbabwe as high as 3,000 and said the outbreak was beginning to crop up in neighboring South Africa.