HARARE, Zimbabwe, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- An aide to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says the country's cholera epidemic was a caused by the British in a deliberate "genocidal onslaught."
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu described the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe as a "genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British," likening it to "serious biological chemical weapon" used by the British, the BBC reported Saturday.
Mugabe this week claimed the spread of cholera had been halted and has accused Western powers of plotting to use the outbreak as an excuse to invade and overthrow him.
U.S. Ambassador James McGee, however, has blamed the spread of the disease on Zimbabwe's political crisis, in which Mugabe and members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have stalemated in talks to form a power-sharing government.
McGee said Mugabe's "failed economic policies" are to blame for the crisis, the BBC reported.
