FEMALE mountaineer Deshun Deysel (28) is to become the first black South African woman to lead an expedition to the peak of an African mountain, organisers said on Tuesday. Three Peaks 2000 said in a statement on Tuesday that the six-member team is expected to reach the summit of Mount Kenya early on Friday morning after six days of climbing. The team includes four Kenyans and two South Africans — Deysel and partner Chris van der Merwe. After scaling Mount Kenya, Deysel will also take part in attempts to climb Uganda’s Mount Stanley in July next year, and Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro in December.
Three Peaks 2000 African Millennium Challenge
300 CHOLERA DEATHS IN MOZ
A CHOLERA epidemic raging in northern Mozambique has killed some 300 people and 2000 new cases have been diagnosed since November 20, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF — Doctors Without Borders) said in Geneva on Tuesday. “The situation is worsening and the number of cases is constantly increasing,” MSF said in a statement. The organisation is providing aid to some 5000 people in the hardest-hit provinces of Zambezia and Cabo Delgado. A cholera epidemic in Mozambique at the beginning of the year killed some 900 people, particularly in the southern and central provinces, before it was finally contained in June.