Botswana has declared a public health emergency as the country struggles with severe shortages of medicines and medical supplies.
President Duma Boko announced the measures on Monday, pledging 250 million pula (£13.8m) in emergency funding and assigning the military to oversee distribution.
The announcement followed weeks of strain on the health system.
Earlier in August, the Ministry of Health suspended non-urgent surgeries, citing a lack of basic drugs for hypertension, diabetes, asthma, cancer and eye diseases.
Supplies such as bandages, sutures and reproductive health materials were also running dangerously low.
Boko said the country’s medical supply chain had collapsed, accusing the Central Medical Stores of inflating prices through middlemen.
According to him, medicines that should cost around 80 million pula annually were instead quoted at more than 700 million.
The president argued this failure left hospitals without critical drugs and pushed the system to breaking point.
Health experts said long-standing dysfunction in procurement added to the crisis.
Reports by the auditor general have repeatedly pointed to missing contracts, incomplete records and delivery delays.
Analysts also linked the shortages to wider economic troubles. Botswana, home to 2.5 million people and the world’s leading diamond exporter by value, has been hit hard by a prolonged slump in global diamond prices.
Diamonds normally make up a quarter of GDP, a third of state revenue and most of the country’s exports.
The downturn has left public finances strained, shrinking the economy by 3% in 2024.
The situation is compounded by cuts in international aid. The United States recently reduced funding to Botswana’s HIV programmes, which once relied on external partners for nearly one-third of costs.
Although Botswana has become a global leader in reducing HIV transmission, funding gaps have begun to threaten progress.
Despite the emergency measures, doctors warn that shortages will continue until procurement reforms and economic recovery take hold. For many citizens, the crisis highlights the fragility of a healthcare system once seen as one of Africa’s strongest.