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 13 covering the period 24-30 Jul 1999
ANGOLA: A new "human tragedy" in Africa
Strippoli - "We will see thousands more kids become malnourished and older people weaker and weaker"
The UN's senior humanitarian coordinator in Angola warned this week that the international community would soon face a new "human tragedy" in Africa if the Angola crisis became another "forgotten emergency". In an interview with IRIN, Francesco Strippoli, the UN humanitarian coordinator and Word Food Programme (WFP) representative, said the security situation was deteriorating and the delivery of humanitarian assistance "every day becomes more difficult".
"Already we are facing a tragic humanitarian situation in the country and more and more we talk less about the displaced and more about vulnerable groups among the entire population," he said. "We will see thousands more kids become malnourished and older people weaker and weaker. If we don't get sufficient resources, the tragedy of today will become a catastrophe."
"Because the situation has deteriorated so fast, we are having to revise our humanitarian appeal," Strippoli said. In its mid-term review of the inter-agency appeal for Angola released last week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) citing a "worst case scenario" in terms of human suffering, said its original 1999 appeal for US $66,665,852 had been surpassed: Now it required US $105,978,190.
At present, WFP can only deliver approximately 6,000 mt of food per month. In order to feed all Angolans currently estimated to be in need, it would need to double supplies to 12,000 mt a month. But faced with a food shortfall, WFP is providing rations to only the most vulnerable.
Shocking conditions in Malanje
An estimated three to four people are reportedly dying daily of hunger in the besieged central Angolan city of Malanje where humanitarian officials described conditions as the worst they have seen in three decades of civil war. Strippoli, who visited the government-held city this week, told IRIN the scale of the tragedy was "incredible" and one of the worst he had ever witnessed: "Thousands of children and the elderly are in really unbearable conditions."
Last week, A joint UN/ Non-Governmental Organisation survey team visited Malanje. Crammed with 130,000 displaced people, it has been without regular relief supplies since the beginning of the year when UNITA rebels began shelling the city. A World Vision report said no food was available for general distribution while only minimal supplies were reaching the most vulnerable.
Fernando Chidundo, World Vision's Malanje base-coordinator said: "Malanje is very, very bad. People are falling down in the streets of hunger. Children are dying, and vulnerable adults as well. There is no food and no seed and there are no agricultural activities going on .. it is suffering too much."
The first food convoy since the end of May left Luanda for Malanje this week. Strippoli said the humanitarian community planned to return "within a matter of days to put in place immediate humanitarian assistance distribution to deal with the crisis we face today."
New peace movement launched
A new peace movement was launched in Angola to condemn the "genocide" of the civil war and to demand negotiations between the government, UNITA rebels and FLEC separatists in the Cabinda enclave.
In what analysts describe as a breath of fresh air in the suffocating climate of war propaganda by all sides, a "peace manifesto" was signed earlier this month by a coalition of intellectuals, politicians and the church. It blamed both the government and UNITA for prolonging and profiting from the decades-old conflict, and Angolan civil society for remaining silent. "A level of exhaustion has been reached in Angola. Civil society is putting its head above the parapet in what is not an insignificant act of courage," one political analyst told IRIN.
The peace manifesto insists there is no military solution to the Angolan conflict which has raged on and off since independence from Portugal in 1975. It calls for Angolan civil society, rather than the international community, to mediate a resolution to the war. The manifesto also demands that the government and UNITA "include in their military budgets the assistance to deprived people, instead of transferring the burden of their own war against the Angolan nation to the international community."
Hospital window into war misery
The small provincial hospital in the central highlands city of Kuito offers a window into the misery and confusion of Angola's civil war. Alongside the regular hernia and orthopaedic patients in the clean but cramped wards are the tragic victims of this renewed conflict - civilians recovering from landmine injuries, those wounded in the regular shelling of the city by UNITA rebels, and people deliberately shot by both the rebels and allegedly by government security forces.
During an IRIN visit to the besieged government-held city, humanitarian sources said new mines have been laid this year on Kuito's outskirts by the rebels and the army. But according to hospital staff, in recent weeks they have seen fewer landmine cases but more victims of shootings. At least three people have undergone reconstructive surgery in the past month in the well-equipped hospital after being deliberately shot in the face by UNITA troops.
NAMIBIA: New surge of Angolan refugees
The number of refugees in Namibia, most of them from Angola, has reached 4,000, Mengesha Kebede, regional head of the UNHCR told IRIN this week. "The refugees at Osire are mainly from Angola and we are seeing on average between 250 and 300 new arrivals each month," Kebede said. The Osire refugee camp lies about 160 km outside of the capital, Windhoek.
According to Kabede, UNHCR faced a number of challenges at Osire. He said that one of the main problems was accommodation and UNHCR was currently trying to build new housing for the residents. He added that it was also trying to establish a warehouse at the camp to store food. "Basically we face the usual emergency situations."
Kabede said that if the present trend continued, the population in the camp could reach 5,000 and once this happened the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) would step in and assume the food distribution and management responsibilities. "We have already alerted WFP in Namibia, so that they can begin obtaining the necessary resources," Kebede said.
HIV/AIDS eats into progress on infant mortality
Advances made by Namibia in reducing the nation's infant mortality rate during the past 10 years are being offset by the impact of HIV/AIDS on the population, 'The Namibian' said in an editorial this week: "The latest United Nations Human Development Report on Namibia n 1994 and 1997, with nearly 110 children for every 10,000 having lost one or both parents to the disease. The UNICEF report said that an estimated 11 percent of pregnant girls reporting to ante-natal clinics were found to be HIV-positive.
ZAMBIA: Congo war hits trade
The wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola has drastically disrupted neighbouring Zambia's trade, industry sources in Lusaka told IRIN this week. "While Zambia used to export up to 60,000 mt of maize to the DRC two years ago, our current maize exports to that country have now plummeted to about 15,000 mt," a source in the Zambian Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry said. The source added that the war has affected Zambian industries ranging from the sugar to the petroleum industries.
"These wars have also affected our trade with Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda," said the source, who added that it is important that peace is secured in the DRC and Angola as soon as possible. The source said Zambian companies whose businesses have been affected by the war have diversified into other activities. "Although no massive job losses have occurred, it is possible that a few hundred jobs might have been lost when some companies were forced to close."
Lusaka signs SADC tourism pact
Zambia has signed a Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreement which is aimed at boosting tourism in Southern Africa, the 'Times of Zambia' reported this week. The report quoted a news letter by the Zambian National Tourist Board which said that the one of the main aims of the agreement was the development of the tourism industry in the region.
Water hyacinth cleared from Lake Kariba
The Zambesi River Authority has cleared 2,200 ha of water hyacinth on Lake Kariba using aerial sprays with a chemical weed killer, PANA reported this week. It quoted a river authority report saying the success rate against what it called "the notorious weed" had been 80 percent successful.
ZIMBABWE: DRC fails to pay for business deals
Zimbabwe's state-owned arms manufacturer, Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI), is reportedly owed about US $2.7 million by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government for an unspecified amount of small arms and ammunition as well as food rations, according to news reports in Zimbabwe this week.
The reports alleged that ZDI had supplied the DRC government since President Laurent-Desire Kabila came to power in May 1997. At the same time, other Zimbabwean businessmen are reported to have also complained of erratic payments for goods exported to the DRC.
Zimbabwean businessmen have been reportedly doing brisk trade into the war-torn DRC since last year when Robert Mugabe's government intervened militarily to bolster Kabila against a rebellion that threatened to unseat him.
MALAWI: Journalists dismissed for sympathising with the opposition
Four journalists who were dismissed by the state-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) for allegedly sympathising with the opposition in the run up to the 15 June elections have sought the intervention of the country's ombudsman. The ombudsman summoned the acting director-general of the MBC to explain how the four had lost their jobs. Local and international rights groups and labour organisations have accused the government of not respecting democratic principles in dismissing the four.
Bread price rises
Malawi's bread price has increased following a recent 15 percent hike in the price of fuel, news reports said. The standard price of bread has increased from US 0.38 cents to US 0.41 cents in Blantyre, the country's administrative capital, while in Lilongwe, the capital, and most of the central region, the price has increased to US 0.43 cents. The northern city of Mzuzu and its region saw the price of bread go up to US 0.45 cents.
MOZAMBIQUE: Polio vaccination campaign
Mocumbi - "Many of our children still suffer from a variety of diseases, and so all parents are called upon to ensure that their children are vaccinated"
A nation-wide campaign against polio has been launched in Mozambique. According to news reports the campaign hoped initially to vaccinate an estimated 3.3 million children. In addition to the oral vaccine, children will also be given a Vitamin A supplement. Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi was quoted as saying: "Many of our children still suffer from a variety of diseases, and so all parents are called upon to ensure that their children are vaccinated."
SADC summit for Maputo
Mozambique's foreign minister, Leonardo Simao, announced this week that the annual summit of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) will be held on 18 August in the Mozambican capital Maputo, media reports said. Simao was quoted as saying that SADC heads of state and government would review economic integration issues and also discuss the conflicts in Angola and the DRC. According to news reports, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the former South African president, Nelson Mandela, have been invited to attend the summit.
BOTSWANA: Parliament dissolved ahead of elections
Botswana's parliament was dissolved at the weekend ahead of general elections expected in October. A spokesman of the electoral commission told IRIN this week that parliament would not reconvene until after the elections. "The announcement of the election date is the prerogative of the president, Festus Mogae," the spokesman said. He further said there are 40 parliamentary seats and 406 local council wards that will be contested. The spokesman added that six political parties would contest the elections, which have all been won by the ruling Botswana Democratic Party since the country gained independence from Britain in 1966.
MADAGASCAR: IMF approves new loan
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said this week that it would give Madagascar US $36 million as part of a multi-year loan. The IMF commended the Indian Ocean nation for its efforts "to strengthen the implementation of its reform strategy." Madagascan officials were quoted as saying that the loan was important to sustain economic growth on the island. Madagascar has a population of about 15 million people and lies about 400km off the coast of Mozambique.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: South Africa's new drive to achieve progress in the DRC
After talks in Pretoria with DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila, South African President Thabo Mbeki sent his foreign minister to Rwanda and Uganda giving every indication that he had embarked on a new drive to achieve a lasting peace deal in the war-torn central African nation.
South African diplomats and experts interviewed by IRIN this week agreed with the view that Pretoria was playing an increasingly central role because of its concern that the seizure of four towns by rebels since the signing in Lusaka earlier this month of a peace accord by regional heads of state could scupper the agreement entirely.
South African leaders saw the agreement as a "workable accord" and want Uganda and Rwanda to bring their influence to bear on the rebel leaders. Claude Kabemba of the South African-based Centre for Policy Studies told IRIN South Africa's neutrality throughout the conflict placed it in an ideal position to bring pressure to bear on all the warring parties. "We are concerned that the conflict should now be stopped," Mbeki told a news conference after meeting with Kabila this week.
For more details see the IRIN Southern Africa special report on South Africa's new drive to achieve peace in the DRC.
Johannesburg, 30 July 1999 12:00 GMT
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