Angola launches Zambezi Expedition

Angola will be the starting point for the two-month long Roll Back Malaria Zambezi Expedition, which begins on March 29. At a press conference in Luanda today, organizers announced that the expedition will depart from Cazombo, in Angola’s eastern province of Moxico. Using inflatable boats, the expedition team of medics and journalists will travel 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) along the Zambezi through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Along the way, the team will distribute mosquito nets and medicine and carry out insecticide spraying. The Roll Back Malaria website says the project “will demonstrate that only a coordinated cross-border action can force the disease to recoil and turn the lifeline of southern Africa into a “River of Life” for those threatened by malaria”.