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: +2211 880 4633 Fax: +2711 880 1421 e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za
[The weekly roundup is based on IRIN daily updates and other relevant information from UN agencies, NGOs, governments, donors and the media. IRIN issues these reports for the benefit of the humanitarian community, but accepts no responsibility as to the accuracy of the original sources.]
Southern Africa: IRIN Weekly Round-Up 1 covering the period 30 Oct-6 Nov 1998
ZIMBABWE: Protests over fuel prices, DRC shake Mugabe government
The authorities in Zimbabwe put the army on alert this week as violent street protests over fuel price hikes and the cost of the country's military intervention in Congo shook the capital Harare and the country's second city, Bulawayo.
The troop alert was ordered amid fears of a repeat of violence similar to food riots last January which analysts described as the biggest challenge to President Robert Mugabe's 18-year hold on power.
Witnesses said riot police and armed soldiers patrolled sections of Harare and most of neighbouring Chitungwiza town where crowds on Wednesday stoned and torched cars and buses to protest a 67 percent fuel price increase introduced the previous weekend.
In a statement explaining the alert, Defence Minister Moven Mahachi said: "We, as the defence forces, would never allow anarchy to prevail. That is why we have put our men on full alert." Although the violence appeared to have peaked before the week's end, Mahachi said he hoped that any further protests would be peaceful.
Experts concerned more prices increases on way
Labour and economic experts told IRIN they were concerned that further commodity price increases would follow. Appealing to Mugabe's government to "avoid sending shock waves across the economy," one economist said he hoped further price issues would be dealt with "sensitively and transparently" in consultation with industry and labour union representatives.
Local media reports quoted protestors as saying they had taken to the streets not only in anger at the fuel price increases but also at the impact on the economy of the country's deployment of 6,000 troops, hardware and aircraft in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are helping President Laurent-Desire Kabila put down a Tutsi-led rebellion. After a brief meeting with Kabila in Harare on Wednesday, Mugabe at a news conference reaffirmed his support for the Congolese leader.
Although the IMF has long sought belt-tightening in Zimbabwe, an economist who nevertheless viewed the increases as necessary and inevitable, told IRIN this week that the timing of the fuel price hikes "could not have been worse". The burden on the public was "difficult enough" as people absorbed the combined impact of currency depreciation and a 40 percent increase earlier this year in the price of the country's staple food, corn meal.
Donors reluctant on drought appeal
As protestors took to the streets on Monday, diplomatic and humanitarian sources told IRIN that Western donors were reluctant to respond to a US $74.2 million dought appeal by the government because of Harare's spending in the Congo conflict. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that people in the worst-affected area, Matabeleland South, were having to walk for far for water and that some schools had been forced to close. But a recent donors meeting in Harare had concluded it would be difficult to justify
funding while the government was spending money on the DRC intervention.
ANGOLA: New government drive against UNITA
In a new drive to seize administrative control from its long-time UNITA foe UNITA, the Angolan government this week gave the army the go-ahead to conduct a new offensive against the movement which it has battled since independence more than 20 years ago.
Diplomatic sources in the capital, Luanda, told IRIN that the operation was being conducted in stages, starting in the north. With Zaire province largely secure, the sources said the army was aiming for control of Uige, and then planning to move towards the diamond-rich Lundas region.
The offensive has already led to clashes between the army and Rwandan soldiers caught in UNITA held territory in northern Angola. The Rwandans, whose government has intervened in neighbouring DRC to seek the ouster of Kabila, had in the meantime regrouped further east in Angolan territory towards Quimbele near the DRC border.
The offensive against UNITA follows the breakdown in recent weeks of the UN-brokered Lusaka Peace Accords providing for a ceasefire and a government of national unity. Regional security sources said Angola, which sent troops to Kabila's aid with Namibia and Zimbabwe, was withdrawing combat units from the Congo to join the anti-UNITA drive.
With the first phase of the operation scheduled for completion by the end of the month, sources said that if it stalls, Luanda may appeal to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for help, including free passage through neighbouring Namibia and Zambia to encircle UNITA bases. Regional leaders at an SADC summit in September branded UNITA's leader, Jonas Savimbi, a "war criminal" and pledged assistance to the Angolan government.
UNITA faces more splits - sources
Meanwhile, according to political sources, a new UNITA breakaway faction emerged in Luanda this week led by the movement's parliamentary leader, Abel Chivukuvuku.
The new group of dissident parliamentarians, known as the 'Platform for Understanding', say they are politically autonomous and independent from government-backed UNITA-Renovada -- another faction challenging Savimbi's commitment to the Lusaka accords.
Insecurity limits humanitarian access
Fresh fighting and persisting insecurity, meanwhile, has continued to limit humanitarian access to needy populations in Angola. A spokesman for the UN observer mission, MONUA, said the government had banned flights to UNITA-held districts as part of the new drive to isolate UNITA. The UN Security Council expressed concern at the access problems in a resolution on 15 October saying humanitarian agencies had been unable to monitor the situation properly.
According to figures last week by the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (UCAH) in Luanda, the number of people internally displaced since January this year is 379,680. The province most affected is Malanje with 52,488 people newly displaced. Second is Huambo with 40,778, followed by Bengo with 28,909.
NAMIBIA: Angolans flee south
Meanwhile, 'The Namibian' newspaper reported this week that an estimated 200 Angolans had fled south across the border to escape renewed fighting.
It said they were mostly young men escaping forced recruitment by the government army and UNITA.
LESOTHO: Rehabilitation gets underway
As South Africa this week started withdrawing troops from the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, the United Nations said it would be ready to present the government with an early rehabilitation plan in coming days. Edward Omotoso, the UN Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the UNDP, told IRIN on Thursday that a working group had consulted with the government, the opposition, NGOs, and the private sector on a rehabilitation plan in which the African Development Bank (ADB), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and others will participate.
South Africa's National Defence Force acknowledged in parliament this week that its military incursion into Lesotho two months ago, though conducted under the auspices of SADC to prevent a coup, had been ill-prepared and had cost nearly 25 million rand (US $4.44 million) and 41 lives.
Meanwhile, emergency humanitarian needs were being handled by WFP, WHO, UNICEF. UNFPA was providing clean water supplies, while UNDP itself was helping clear rubble and other solid waste from the streets of the capital, Maseru, and other towns.
WFP said that from Monday, 9 November, it would distribute food to 13,000 children at 750 early childhood development (ECD) centres in the districts of Maseru, Mafeteng and Mohale's Hoek providing rations at least for the next three months and longer if required.
MOZAMBIQUE: Constitutional wrangles
Public seminars are being organised nationwide to debate two controversial draft bills on a change in the electoral code and on a constitutional amendment reducing the powers vested in the presidency. The government unveiled white papers on the proposals which if enacted will come into force in time for 1999 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The main opposition party Renamo has, however, condemned the proposed amendments and the public debates.
"I think Renamo's opposition to public debate is linked to the constitutional amendments," a senior Mozambican journalist told IRIN. "If Renamo wins the election next year, they won't have the powers [President Joachim] Chissano has now."
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Near normal rains predicted
Most of Southern Africa should experience near normal rains this season. Brad Garanganga of the Harare-based Drought Monitoring Centre told IRIN: "We are optimistic".
The October-December prediction for the region, according to an SADC Climate Outlook Forum held earlier this month, is for normal to above-normal rainfall for southwestern Zimbabwe, Botswana, southern Mozambique, Swaziland, central and eastern South Africa, Lesotho and northern Namibia.
Southern Zambia and Malawi, central Mozambique and the rest of Zimbabwe are expected to receive near normal rainfall. The outlook for northern Malawi, Mozambique and northern and central Zambia is for normal to below-normal rains. Translating the metrological forecast into crop production patterns is a difficult exercise because of the range of factors involved, Garanganga said. However, according to a researcher at SADC's early warning centre, "it looks like generally over the region things will be normal."
Johannesburg, 6 November 1998 11:00 GMT
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