Thirty years ago, Lake Mweru in the far north of Zambia had so many fish it was said a man could catch a tonne a day with just two small nets. But few people lived near the great inland sea then, so the fish were barely taken.
But increasing poverty, conflict on the Democratic Republic of Congo side of the lake and the closure of Zambian copper mines have lured tens of thousands of young men to the lake to start fishing. Stocks have plummeted alarmingly and there's a saying in the villages that these days it is is easier to catch HIV/AIDS on Lake Mweru than fish.
"This is a crossroads for AIDS. The illness here is terrible," said Mrs Muhone, from the copper belt region of Zambia.
She spends several months a year here, buying salt fish from the temporary fishing camps which line the lakeside then selling them back in the towns.
"People come here from everywhere -- Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Malawi, Congo," she said.
"When they meet, well, you know what nature does. Wherever there are people there are temporary marriages. Men cannot stay without their wives for very long and women may be desperate, so they sell themselves. HIV starts here and moves on. It is very, very common here," she said.
The lake and the camps are the frontline of the disease in Africa. Towns and villages have sprung up from nowhere and a tar road to the south of Zambia makes trade easy. Poor women have flocked in to become sex workers, the borders are porous and there is money around.
The statistics make terrible reading. The aid organization Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) came to Nchelenge, the largest lakeside town, in 2001 and has been testing 400 people a month. One in four people aged 15-49 are HIV-positive. Of these, perhaps 1,500 are at an advanced stage of the disease and need immediate anti-retroviral drug treatment. Life expectancy has dipped below 40 years and there are hundreds of orphans. Almost every family has at least one person with the virus.
MSF estimates that 10,000 people in the villages and towns that depend on the lake are infected. They have put 350 people on anti-retrovirals so far, a figure expected to double in a year as the drugs become cheaper and more available.
Gertrude, a fish trader from the south of Zambia, thought she had caught malaria after coming to the lake -- but did not recover.
"I thought I was OK but I was just not getting better. I could not work," she said.
She tested positive for HIV and is now on anti-retrovirals, hoping to get enough strength to return home.
Doreen is one of at least 80 sex workers in Nchelenge and perhaps as many as 400 in the wider communities. She came to earn money, but finds it difficult to be assertive.
"I am 20, from Congo, but most of the girls are just children. I take one or two men a night, but some have four or five. Some men really do not want to wear condoms. It's hard to get them to. Others offer to pay more for not wearing one. Some tell lies and say they have worn one with me but haven't. Some offer to marry me but they disappear in the morning. We talk about our HIV status. I tell them I don't know it," she said.
But she does. Four months ago she tested negative for the virus and says she does not want to take risks again. But she admits she still has unprotected sex with her regular boyfriend, a married man who says he has not been tested. "I thought I was infected. I think I have learned," she said.
Alex Kunda, who supervises a team of Medecins sans Frontieres counselors, said the young men living and working around Lake Mweru were at serious risk.
"Their mentality is to sleep with as many women as possible. Some see it as a sign of manhood," he said.
"There are many myths about condoms. They say that the lubricants give you a stomach ache, that it is dangerous to `bathe with a raincoat on' [have sex using a condom]. They abuse them. They make footballs out of them. The girls wear them as bracelets. Some businesses pay men in condoms now," said Kunda.
Veronica Muzinga, who employs two fishermen and exports the fish across the lake to towns in Congo, said the disease was rampant.
"It's because people from all over Africa go back and forth across the lake so much. There are many young men. They may have several temporary wives, they give the disease to the women and together they spread it everywhere. I have been coming here for 11 years and it's certainly worse," Muzinga said.
"There have been some good changes in five years. People are more aware. Everyone knows of HIV/AIDS now. Now some of the 18 to 24-year-olds come for condoms," Kunda said.
"They are getting information but we are never sure they are using condoms."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese