Botswana has declared a public health emergency as it faces a shortage of essential medicines and medical equipment.
President Duma Boko made the announcement in a televised address on Monday, setting out a multimillion-pound plan to rectify the supply chain involving military oversight.
Managing the shortages would be “highly price sensitive due to our limited coffers”, he told the nation.
The country’s economy has been hit by a downturn in the international diamond market, as it is one of the world’s leading diamond producers. This strain, further fuelled by US aid cuts, has seen most of the 2.5m Botswanans facing unemployment and high levels of poverty, according to media reports.
“The work shall remain nonstop until the entire value chain of procurement has been fixed” Boko said in his address, announcing that the finance ministry had approved 250 million pula (£13.8m) in emergency funding.
Earlier this month, the country’s health ministry issued a warning that it was facing “significant challenges”, including medical shortages and debts of over one billion pula (£55.2m).
The bulk of these debts was due to patients being admitted to private hospitals for services that were not publicly available.
Shortages listed by the Health Minister Dr Stephen Modise included medicines and supplies for managing cancers, HIV treatments and tuberculosis among others.
Before the cuts to US aid issued by President Donald Trump, the US funded a third of Botswana’s HIV response, according to UNAIDS.
The Ministry for Health also temporarily suspended referrals for elective surgeries and non-urgent medical conditions as a result of these challenges, including organ transplant surgeries.
But the government remained positive. “I have no doubt that soon, very soon, we will overcome. This is definitely not insurmountable,” Dr Modise said.
As part of the military’s distribution efforts, the first trucks were due to leave the capital Gaborone on Monday and arrive in remote areas by the evening, Reuters news agency reported.
UNICEF has called for “urgent action” in the country to “protect the health and future of every child in Botswana”.
It noted that “malnutrition is a daily struggle” in the town of D’Kar, saying “the President’s call underscores what we witness on the ground”.
