Weekly Round-Up - IRINSA-337: 15-Jun-07
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 337
9 - 15 June 2007
CONTENTS:
COMOROS: Bacar defies African Union and the Union government
COMOROS: Government considers military option to resolve electoral
crisis
MOZAMBIQUE: Ammunition debris claims two children
ZIMBABWE: Forests felled for firewood
DRC-MOZAMBIQUE: First Congolese refugees volunteer for repatriation
SOUTH AFRICA: Strike action affects health services
SOUTH AFRICA: Local government minister dismisses claims of failed
service delivery
SWAZILAND: Are there any good men?
COMOROS: Bacar defies African Union and the Union government
In defiance of both the Union of Comoros government and the African
Union (AU), Mohamed Bacar, 45, inaugurated himself for a second term as
the president of Anjouan Island this week. In response, the Union has
sent a high-level delegation to the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian
capital of Addis Ababa for urgent talks.
The Indian Ocean archipelego held scheduled elections on two of its
three islands on 10 June - Grande Comore and Moheli - after incidents of
violence and intimidation during the run-up to Anjouan's election
precipitated the poll's postponement until 17 June by the AU and the
Union government.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72752
COMOROS: Government considers military option to resolve electoral
crisis
A military solution to end the burgeoning electoral crisis on the Indian
Ocean island of Anjouan, one of three islands comprising the Union of
Comoros, is being considered by the government, IRIN has reliably
learned.
Grand Comore and Moheli islands held scheduled elections on Sunday 10
June, but Anjouan's poll was initially postponed by a week after deadly
clashes between Union government forces and the island's para-military
police.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72715
MOZAMBIQUE: Ammunition debris claims two children
Two children were killed and one critically wounded earlier this week in
the Mozambican capital, Maputo, when they accidentally ignited a bomb,
raising fears that live ammunition was still scattered around the city
months after deadly explosions at a local military arms depot.
Explosions on 22 March at the Malhazine national arms depot, about 10km
from the city centre, showered more than 4,000 pieces of ordnance into
14 densely populated neighbourhoods, killing more than a 100 people,
wounding more than 500, and destroying dozens of homes.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72753
ZIMBABWE: Forests felled for firewood
Firewood has become Zimbabwe's hottest seller, with demand shooting up
since the introduction two weeks ago of widespread and prolonged power
outages to give the irrigation of winter wheat fields a priority
allocation of dwindling energy supplies.
Chamunorwa Chimombe, a beneficiary of President Robert Mugabe's
fast-track land reform programme, which redistributed white-owned
commercial farmland to landless blacks, now spends his day sipping beer
beside the busy highway connecting the capital, Harare, to the town of
Mazowe, while he sells firewood from trees felled on his newly acquired
farm.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72688
DRC-MOZAMBIQUE: First Congolese refugees volunteer for repatriation
Groups of Congolese refugees left Mozambique for their homeland this
week , the first to be voluntarily repatriated from the country since
the return of peace to most parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) after years of war. The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees flew 116 people from Nampula, in northern Mozambique, to
Kigoma, Tanzania, and from there they were ferried across Lake
Tanganyika to the DRC's South Kivu Province.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72713
SOUTH AFRICA: Strike action affects health services
Industrial action since 1 June by the South African public sector
workforce, who are demanding a pay hike, is taking its toll on the
country's health services. The strike, termed as the biggest since the
demise of apartheid by its organisers the Congress of South African
Trade Unions (COSATU), a labour federation, has crippled schools,
hospitals and public transport.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72719
SOUTH AFRICA: Local government minister dismisses claims of failed
service delivery
South Africa's Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney
Mufamadi, told IRIN in an interview that the rash of service delivery
protests throughout the country since 2004 was a consequence of the
ruling ANC government's successes, not its failures. "As we make
progress in some municipalities, the residents in other municipalities
become impatient: they expect their public representatives to deliver in
the same way as progress is made in other municipalities," he said.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72735
SWAZILAND: Are there any good men?
'Are there any good Swazi men?' is the catchphrase of a competition to
draw men into discussing gender-based violence in the kingdom's
patriarchal society.
With Father's Day on Sunday 17 June in mind, the Swaziland Action Group
Against Abuse (SWAGAA), a non-governmental organisation, is using the
competition as a publicity gimmick for a Men's Involvement Programme,
co-sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72751
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