U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa

Tel: +27 11 880 4633
Fax: +27 11 880 1421
e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 164
24 - 30 January 2004


CONTENTS:

ZAMBIA: Government acts to contain cholera
ANGOLA: Humanitarian aid suspended as rains close roads
ZIMBABWE: "Formal talks should happen before June", SA official
SWAZILAND: Government to pay school fees for 60,000 orphans
BOTSWANA: Kimberley process helps protect diamond industry
MADAGASCAR: Tropical cyclone "Elita" causes significant damage
SOUTHERN AFRICA: EC financing agreement for SADC livestock sector
MOZAMBIQUE: Feature - Stigma remains obstacle to HIV treatment
NAMIBIA: Caprivi crop fields flooded


ZAMBIA: Government acts to contain cholera

Zambian authorities are considering tough measures to contain a cholera
outbreak which has claimed 110 lives, 80 of them in a treatment centre in
the capital, Lusaka.

Among the measures being considered is the restriction of movement from
areas affected by cholera, and the prevention of large gatherings such as
weddings and funerals, a Central Board of Health spokesman, Dr Victor
Mukonka, told IRIN on Friday.

"Since cholera broke out on 28 November 2003, we have had 2,707 cases,
with 80 deaths in Lusaka itself. Last night we had 48 new admissions [to
the Lusaka treatment centre]," Mukonka said.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39233


Influx of DRC refugees as WFP stocks run low

Zambia has received an influx of Congolese refugees fleeing fighting over
the past three months in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, told IRIN on Thursday.

UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic said "in November we had 621 cases, and
after that we've had an average of 500 per month" arriving in Zambia from
the DRC.

Apart from new refugees, "there are also former refugees who tried to
repatriate to ... the DRC, and they found that the situation there is not
safe enough so they are coming back to their former country of asylum.
There are also a few traders as well," Sunjic said.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39200


Feature on fear over HIV drug resistance

Zambian health officials have warned of the emergence of strains of the HI
virus that are resistant to current antiretroviral (ARV) drug treatment.

Dr Ben Chirwa, director general of the Central Board of Health, said a
recent laboratory study conducted at the University Teaching Hospital in
the capital, Lusaka, had confirmed the drug-resistant strain, and its
emergence was "clearly an indication that people are not being consistent
with their medication."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39159


More than 260,000 need food aid

More than a quarter of a million people will need food aid in the southern
and western parts of Zambia as prolonged drought continues to erode
people's ability to cope.

In its latest situation report the World Food Programme (WFP) said "food
security in some districts remains poor, and preliminary calculations
indicate that approximately 262,000 people in 16 districts will require
food aid from February to May".

WFP public information officer Lena Savelli said an initial vulnerability
assessment report indicated that the food security situation "has remained
bad, and 12,554 mt of relief food - cereals mainly - will be required" in
the affected districts.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39131


ANGOLA: Humanitarian aid suspended as rains close roads

Ongoing heavy rains have forced the closure of five roads in Angola's
central Huambo province, leaving as many as 830,000 aid beneficiaries
stranded, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) said in its latest situation report.

There were fears that the heavy downpour could have long-term
repercussions, especially for recently returned families expecting their
first harvest in the next year or two.

"In addition to the loss of crops due to heavy rains reported ... the high
water levels have destroyed crops grown in river beds during the second
planting season," OCHA said.

To assist in the emergency efforts, authorities have appealed to the
international community to step up their assistance to vulnerable
communities.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39230


Landmines used in private vendettas

The widespread availability of ordinance left over from Angola's
protracted civil war is fuelling a spate of personal vendettas, the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday.

"There were three confirmed cases in which private citizens planted mines
or other explosives to target others for personal revenge in December last
year. Luckily, no one was killed or seriously injured. This is a rare but
worrying practice on the part of a few individuals, who are taking
advantage of the availability of explosives left over from years of war to
deal with their disagreements in a radical way," OCHA information officer,
Dawn Blalock, told IRIN.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39235


Churches urged to join fight against HIV/AIDS

The development agency, Christian Aid, is stepping up a campaign to get
church and faith leaders to join the fight against the rising incidence of
HIV/AIDS in Angola.

The UK-based group plans to integrate HIV/AIDS awareness into its current
post-conflict food security activities, and believes the church should
play a much bigger role in helping people learn about and live with the
virus, rather than fuelling the stigma and prejudice that envelops it.

Angola has an estimated adult prevalence rate of between five and seven
percent - relatively low compared to many of its southern African
neighbours.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39236


World Bank ready to help fund demobilisation

IRIN reported on Tuesday that the World Bank is expected to release US $33
million to demobilise former fighters from both sides of Angola's
devastating civil war and reintegrate them into their communities.

The funds will form part of the Angolan Demobilisation and Reintegration
Programme, which will also get a $53 million lift from a multi-donor trust
fund.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39164


US donates new centre to lower maternal mortality

The United States has established a medical centre to serve 7,000 pregnant
women in Viana, a poor suburb in the capital, Luanda, in a bid to halt the
maternal mortality rate in Angola, IRIN reported on Tuesday

Maternal mortality in Angola reached 1,300 per 100,000 births in 2003, an
improvement over the 1,835 registered in the previous year, but still one
of the highest rates in the world.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39160


EU donation boosts social services and demining

Angola's ailing social services sector this week received a much-needed
boost from a Euro 91 million (US $115 million) donation by the European
Commission (EC).

The EC press officer in Angola, Jeronimo Belo, told IRIN that the funds
would complement existing efforts by the government to upgrade and
rehabilitate social services throughout the country. Much of social
services' infrastructure was destroyed during the 27-year long civil
conflict which ended in 2002.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39157


Children victims of witchcraft accusations

In some areas of Angola the belief in witchcraft is strong, and an
accusation of sorcery can lead to violent and sometimes lethal retribution
by the community.

In M'Banza Congo, the provincial capital of Zaire in northern Angola, at
least 23 young boys were thrown out of their homes for allegedly
possessing supernatural powers. They now live in an orphanage run by the
Catholic Church.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39152


More than a million need food assistance

More than a million Angolans are likely to need immediate food assistance
until April, according to the World Food Programme reported IRIN on
Monday.

The recently released preliminary results of WFP's Vulnerability Analysis,
covering the period May to October 2003, indicated that more than 500,000
people, including displaced Angolans who have no source of income, are
currently food insecure and in need of immediate assistance.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39128


ZIMBABWE: "Formal talks should happen before June", SA official

South Africa, concerned about the political and economic crisis unfolding
in neighbouring Zimbabwe, is playing an active role in defusing the
situation, a senior foreign affairs official told IRIN on Thursday.

Victor Mditshwa, who heads the Zimbabwean desk in the South African
department of foreign affairs, told IRIN that the South African President,
Thabo Mbeki, had urged the ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change to begin formal talks by June.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39211


Cholera resurfaces in Binga

A fresh cholera outbreak in the Binga district of Zimbabwe's Matabeleland
North province has claimed the lives of four people and hospitalised 16
others.

The Acting Environmental Health Officer for Matabeleland North, Notion
Gombe, said the outbreak was detected after the death of a man who had
visited his relatives near the boundary between Binga and Kariba districts
in Mashonaland West province.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39208


Growing problem of child labour on farms

IRIN reported on Wednesday that many farm workers, faced with a rise in
school fees, have been forced to pull their children out of school.
Poverty has also forced children into seeking work on farms.

Earlier this month, a lorry carrying farm workers crashed outside the
capital, Harare, killing 22 people, and a number of children were among
the fortunate survivors.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39188


Numbers in need increase dramatically

The number of people forecast to be in need of food aid in Zimbabwe over
the next few months has risen dramatically to 7.5 million, up from an
earlier estimate of 5.5 million, IRIN reported on Wednesday.

In an appeal for donor assistance in April last year, the humanitarian
community said 5.5 million people, of which 1.1 million were urban
dwellers, would need food aid up to April this year. Zimbabwe's population
figure is 11.65 million.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39185


EU aid for health services

The European Union is expected to spend close to US $30 million to help
improve Zimbabwe's underfunded health delivery system.

The head of the European Commission delegation to Zimbabwe, Francesca
Mosca, said in a statement last week the money would be taken from a US
$69 million fund committed to Zimbabwe for the period 2000 to 2006.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39130


GMB defends its hold on maize stocks

Zimbabwe's state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB) told IRIN on Monday
that it was responding to the country's food emergency by distributing
some of its 240,000 mt maize reserves acquired from local farmers, but
wanted to avoid flooding the market and exhausting its stocks.

"It's not that we're holding onto the maize, it's being released ... [but]
we need to be very cautious when releasing the maize so as not to flood
the market," acting GMB chief executive, retired Lt-Col Samuel Muvhuti,
told IRIN. "We've got to watch the stocks we have - we've got to have a
buffer."

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39129


Mugabe in SA on private visit, not ill-health say officials

News reports that Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was flown to South
Africa at the weekend for medical treatment were untrue officials from
both countries told IRIN on Monday.

Well-placed South African government sources told IRIN that Mugabe had
flown into Johannesburg on Saturday on a private visit and left the same
day. South African foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa also
confirmed that the Zimbabwean president had been in the country on a
private trip.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39127


SWAZILAND: Government to pay school fees for 60,000 orphans

The Swazi government is to pay the primary school fees of 60,000 orphans
and vulnerable children (OVC).

The Ministry of Economic Planning and Development revealed on Thursday
that in the national population of 960,000 people, there were 200,000 OVC.

Primary education is not free, and according to the United Nations
Development Programme, school fees are a principal burden for the
two-thirds of Swazis who live in chronic poverty.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39232


Mswati condemns "cowardly messengers"

King Mswati has expressed concern that Swaziland's international image was
being tarnished by "cowardly" citizens who expose the country’s problems.

Mswati made the remark at the weekend while delivering his annual speech
on the state of the kingdom at Engabezweni royal village, 25 km east of
the capital, Mbabane.

The reference was apparently to the media, which had recently carried
reports on the government’s inability to curb AIDS and poverty while
spending lavishly on new palaces.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39137


BOTSWANA: Kimberley process helps protect diamond industry

The Botswana government, anxious to protect its diamond industry from the
taint of conflict diamonds, has been active in implementing the
requirements laid down by the Kimberley process.

A global certification system, identifying the origin of all rough
diamonds, is the cornerstone of the Kimberley process. Sixty countries
involved in the production, export and import, and trade in rough diamonds
have signed up to the Kimberley agreement, pioneered by South Africa.

Botswana is the world's largest producer of gem-quality diamonds, in terms
of value of output, and the second largest volume producer in the world
after Australia.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39216


MADAGASCAR: Tropical cyclone "Elita" causes significant damage

IRIN reported on Thursday that a tropical cyclone had killed one person
left hundreds in the northwestern coastal town of Mahajanga in Madagascar
on Wednesday evening.

Aid workers said the number of people affected by the heavy rains had yet
to be confirmed, but preliminary reports released by the government
indicated that almost 200 houses and five administrative buildings had
been destroyed in the town.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39206


Rising malnutrition as drought grips the south

The World Food Programme on Monday called for additional donor assistance
to purchase some 4,000 mt of maize to feed around 130,000 people because
poor rains had jeopardised the 2003/04 agricultural season.

WFP's programme director Bodo Heze told IRIN that while the country had
received sufficient levels nationally, farmers in southern Madagascar
would need food assistance by April. Although the rainfall in late
December 2003 and early January had damaged secondary roads in the south,
it was insufficient for farming purposes.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39136


SOUTHERN AFRICA: EC financing agreement for SADC livestock sector

The European Commission on Monday signed an agreement with the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) to support a five-year project for
improving livestock productivity in the region.

"This project seeks to contribute to poverty reduction in the SADC region
through increased productivity and trade flows in the traditional
livestock sub-sector of the SADC member states," said SADC executive
secretary, Prega Ramsamy.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39149


Interview with Chris Kaye, head of OCHA regional office

Southern Africa is facing another difficult year of food insecurity,
brought on by the late onset of rains, and the ongoing impact of HIV/AIDS
and problems of governance. Donors have so far provided US $168 million of
a US $533 million humanitarian appeal covering six countries in the
region.

IRIN spoke to Chris Kaye, the head of the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs Regional Office for Southern Africa, on the
humanitarian community's response to the current emergency.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39134


MOZAMBIQUE: Feature - Stigma remains obstacle to HIV treatment

On Wednesday IRIN focused on the struggle of HIV-positive mothers in
Mozambique.

Julia, 24, has three children and is one month pregnant with her fourth
baby, but is adamant that she does not want to continue with the
pregnancy.

"I've got three children already, I'm unemployed, and I am HIV-positive,"
she told IRIN.

Although she and her husband, who is also HIV-positive, were always
careful, "the condom burst once", resulting in the pregnancy.

Julia took care of her elder sister until she died of an AIDS-related
illness last month, leaving behind four children. During this time she was
often absent from her job as a domestic worker and was eventually
dismissed.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39181


NAMIBIA: Caprivi crop fields flooded

IRIN reported on Tuesday that crop fields in parts of Namibia's
northeastern Caprivi region are already under water, and the government is
making preparations to move people to higher ground.

Emergency Management Unit (EMU) Deputy Director Gabriel Kangowa told IRIN
that he had visited areas in the Caprivi region last week, and found some
of them had already suffered losses caused by the rising river levels of
the Zambezi and its tributaries.

Heavy rains, which normally fall around March/April, had come earlier than
expected. Kangowa said a total of 4,900 people were identified as likely
to be affected in the areas visited during last week's flood-threat
assessment.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39161


Concern over new Caprivi flooding

IRIN reported on Monday that as the level of the Zambezi river continued
to rise, Namibia's disaster management agency, the EMU, had conducted a
flood-threat assessment.

There is mounting concern that Namibia could face the kind of flash
flooding that devastated the northeastern Caprivi region last year. The
region is one of the least developed in the country and, at 42 percent,
has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates.

In June 2003 some 12,000 people in 22 villages required emergency
assistance, after a period of prolonged torrential rainfall in the
Democratic Republic of Congo caused the Zambezi river to burst its banks
downstream in the northeastern part of Namibia.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39132


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


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