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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 254 for 22-28 October 2005

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Countries must prepare for bird flu
ZIMBABWE: MDC intra-party violence over senate poll
MALAWI: Angry opposition asks donors to keep out of internal politics
SWAZILAND: Govt willing to engage civic societies on new constitution
NAMIBIA: Govt asks farmers to move to defuse ethnic tension
ZAMBIA: Deteriorating food security situation raises concern
MOZAMBIQUE: Drought after drought
ANGOLA: Precarious situation in isolated southern province

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Countries must prepare for bird flu

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza, or bird flu, remains a global threat, but while Southern Africa should prepare for its emergence, the region needed to bear in mind that the disease has yet to mutate into a deadly human strain, a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert told IRIN.

News reports suggesting that least one case of bird flu in humans had been identified in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion raised concern this week, but these reports proved inaccurate after medical tests were conducted by French authorities.

Full report

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ZIMBABWE: MDC intra-party violence over senate poll

The rift in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over participating in next month's senate election has degenerated into violence, according to the official Herald newspaper on Thursday.

It reported that five men loyal to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had appeared in court on Wednesday for allegedly attacking three senate candidates who defied Tsvangirai's order to boycott the poll.

Full report

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MDC in crisis - can the centre hold?

The current crisis in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has undermined the party's bid to present itself as an alternative to President Robert Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF.

With the party divided over participation in the upcoming senate elections, MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai's leadership has been besieged by questions.

Full report

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MDC candidates defy Tsvangirai to stand in senate election

Divisions in Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) deepened on Monday when several senatorial candidates ignored an order by party leader Morgan Tsvangirai to boycott the election of a new senate.

Tsvangirai overruled a decision by the MDC's national council on 13 October, which had voted to participate in the 26 November poll - a move condemned by his critics as undemocratic.

Full report

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MALAWI: Angry opposition asks donors to keep out of internal politics

Malawi's opposition have asked donors to keep out of their country's "internal matters" following a letter from foreign envoys criticising an attempt to impeach President Bingu wa Mutharika.

In a remarkable development on Thursday the donor community, including South Africa, wrote to Malawian political leaders voicing their concern with the impeachment proceedings when the country was experiencing a "serious and prolonged food crisis".

Full report

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Political crisis takes new turn for the worse

Malawi's political crisis continues to deepen, with the former president facing a corruption probe, the current incumbent facing impeachment, and parliament suspended after violent protests on Monday.

President Bingu wa Mutharika has been fighting for his political survival since June when he left the party that sponsored him in the national elections, the United Democratic Front (UDF), headed by former president Bakili Muluzi.

Full report

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Donors shape Malawi's food policies, says report

Donor ideologies and programmes implicitly shape Malawi's food security policies, says a USAID-commissioned report that laments a lack of local ownership.

"Donor advice on growth, agriculture and poverty reduction, changes, depending on international development trends," said the report, which cited the controversial sale of the Strategic Grain Reserve in 2000 at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an example.

Full report

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SWAZILAND: Govt willing to engage civic societies on new constitution

The Swazi government has called on a pro-democracy pressure group protesting a new national constitution to prove it has a popular mandate, but for the first time has offered to talk to its critics.

"We do not believe that they have the numbers to warrant their assertion that they have the backing of a significant portion of the population they claim is dissatisfied with the constitution," a senior government official told IRIN on Thursday.

Full report

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Govt suspends cow branding after sensitive farmers protest

The Swazi government has given in to pressure from cattle owners and indefinitely suspended a law requiring all animals to be branded for identification. The move is another blow to the local meat industry, which is still reeling from the impact of a European Union (EU) ban on Swazi meat in April this year.

"People want to know where the meat they are eating comes from. If we could adhere to the branding law our markets would increase", Agriculture Minister Mtiti Fakudze told a group of cattle owners at the Farmers Development Centre in Ngonini, 40 km northwest of the capital, Mbabane.

Full report

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NAMIBIA: Govt asks farmers to move to defuse ethnic tension

In a move to defuse ethnic tension the Namibian government has ordered over 200 farmers from the country's largest ethnic group - the Ovambo - off land owned by the minority Kavango people in the northeast.

But the Ovambo farmers fear an uncertain future as they prepare to trek to their traditional territory in the northwestern part of the country with about 60,000 head of cattle. The Ovambo claim they were forced off their traditional land in northwestern Namibia by rich farmers and government officials, who allegedly demarcated large tracts of land for themselves.

Full report

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Underage sex-workers have few other options to survive

It's 22:30 on a hot, humid Saturday night in the seedy suburb of Ausspannplatz, south of the central business district of Windhoek, the Namibian capital.

The streets appear deserted, but this changes when a vehicle appears. Boys in their teens and a few scantily dressed girls, some who don't even look 14, emerge from the shadows.

Full report

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ZAMBIA: Deteriorating food security situation raises concern

The World Food Programme (WFP) expects the number of people in need of food aid in Zambia to rise to between 1.7 million and 2 million, and the government has now made an urgent appeal for assistance.

WFP country director David Stevenson told IRIN the Zambian government had sent out an appeal to the international community this week, "indicating that urgent assistance is needed due to the crop failures in the southern part of the country".

Full report

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MOZAMBIQUE: Drought after drought

Suazina Antonio and her neighbours scrape sand from the bottom of a shallow well in central Mozambique until enough water seeps out to fill two buckets. The water is salty, but after four years of failed rains, it is precious.

The landscape in the drought-affected southern half of Mozambique is pocked with water holes; when one hole dries up, the villagers move on to another.

Full report

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ANGOLA: Precarious situation in isolated southern province

Aid workers are concerned that the people of Kuando Kubango, a vast province in the southeast of Angola, are edging towards a humanitarian disaster, with hunger just one of a raft of issues waiting to confront them.

Landmines, food shortages, ruined roads, scant basic services and political intolerance give Kuando Kubango the dubious honour of being one of the worst places to live in Angola - a country with some of the lowest human development indicators in the world.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent SOUTHERN AFRICA reports:

Policy revised to shed light on urban refugee blind-spot, 17/Feb/06

IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 270 for 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

Too white to be black - the challenge of albinism, 16/Feb/06

Remittances - curse or blessing?, 16/Feb/06

Conflict, development and natural disasters fuel internal displacement, 14/Feb/06

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Donors pledge support for humanitarian crisis, 21/Feb/06

ANGOLA: Ready to play larger security role in Africa, 21/Feb/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 17/Feb/06

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 270 for 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 317 covering 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

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