that all African governments and their leaders must be surely committed to—the end of abuses and the restoration of the rule of law in Zimbabwe. There can be no genuine change in Zimbabwe if abuses are not tackled head-on and their perpetrators held to account. The combination of political instability, the cholera outbreak, and severe food insecurity has driven thousands of Zimbabweans into neighboring countries. Credible current estimates say that over 38,000 Zimbabweans have lodged asylum claims in the South African border town of Musina since July 2008.115 This is nearly double the total number of Zimbabwean claims in all six of South Africa’s refugee reception offices in 2007. This influx also took cholera across Zimbabwe’s borders. At least ten people have died from cholera in South Africa and doctors in Musina are treating hundreds of infected in cholera camps.116 The South African authorities themselves declared the border with Zimbabwe a disaster area on December 11, 2008.117 The cholera outbreak has also spread to Zimbabwe’s other neighbors including Botswana, Mozambique, and Zambia.118 The crisis threatens the southern African sub-region, but the lack of sub-regional progress so far clearly indicates that the overt engagement of the AU as the wider African intergovernmental body is overdue. The crisis of political legitimacy in Zimbabwe is at the root of the country’s problems. The urgent humanitarian needs of Zimbabweans cannot be isolated: their suffering is a direct consequence of ZANU-PF’s abusive rule. The AU—and the wider international community—can only restore peace and security to the region by openly acknowledging the scale of the crisis, putting human rights at the top of the agenda, and holding abusers to account. 115 “Zimbabwe: End Strain on Asylum System and Protect Zimbabweans,” Human Rights Watch news release, January 8, 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/08/south-africa-end-strain-asylum-system-and-protect-zimbabweans 116 “Further Cholera Deaths in Limpopo,” Mail and Guardian newspaper, December 19, 2008, http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-12-19-further-cholera-deaths-in-limpopo, (accessed December 19, 2008). 117 “SA Declares cholera emergency,” News24, December 11, 2008, http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2440525,00.html, (accessed December 11, 2008). 118 WHO, Weekly emergency situation update, vol.2, no.2, January 12, 2009, http://www.who.int/hac/crises/afro_update_12jan2009.pdf, (accessed January 12, 2009) 33 Human Rights Watch January 2009