PAMBAZUKA NEWS 87
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 87
At least 336 people were displaced by last week's communal clashes between the Konkomba and Nawuri ethnic groups at Kitare in Nkwanta district in the eastern Volta region of Ghana, the district coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Bernard Mensah said.
The Zambian government has thwarted attempts by the Zambia Independent Media Association (ZIMA) and six opposition members to table three bills to ensure greater freedom of the press, deciding to introduce its own media freedom bills instead.
Two main lobby groups in northern and southeastern Nigeria said on Tuesday President Olusegun Obasanjo should give up his bid for re-election in 2003 in the interest of national unity. The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which represents northern interests, and Ohaneze Ndigbo, which groups the political and business elite of the southeastern Igbo, in a joint statement said Obasanjo’s ambition for re-election was unpopular and raising political tension to dangerous levels.
Closed-door talks between the government of Cote d'Ivoire and the rebels resumed in the Togolese capital, Lome, on Wednesday, a source in Lome told IRIN. The talks which were to begin on Monday were delayed when the rebel delegation failed to show up in Lome and threatened to pull out of the talks if their political demands such as the resignation of President Laurent Gbagbo and fresh elections were not included in this round of talks.
Gender activists in Swaziland said a decision to halt a lawsuit challenging the absolute power of the monarchy was a serious setback for women's rights in the country. Lindiwe Dlamini, the mother of 18-year-old Zena Mahlangu went to court last month to demand that her daughter be returned after palace aides allegedly abducted the girl from school to become King Mswati III's 10th wife.
Tension is mounting in Nigeria’s oil region Delta state over recent deployment of troops amid allegations by residents that they were subjecting several ethnic Ijaw communities to harassment. Residents of villages including Diebiri, Batan, Ajuju, Ewerigbene and Kumusi said scores of heavily armed naval personnel have been deployed in their riverine communities since an oil spill last month, which affected their farmlands and fishing areas.
At least 10,000 people in central and southwestern Burundi, who fled recent fighting between government and rebel forces, need urgent humanitarian aid, local officials said.
A panel of UN experts has accused the government of Liberian President Charles Taylor of violating an arms embargo imposed on the west African nation more than two years ago, the UN information agency IRIN said Thursday. The country received an air delivery of "six cargo aircraft in June, July and August 2002 containing weapons and ammunition supplies totalling over 200 tons", the experts said in the report, delivered to the UN Security Council on October 24.
Tanzania's payments to developed countries and the IMF ensures that Tanzanians pay heavily in terms of food shortages, poor health and education infrastructure. The result is that children are forced to live on streets or end up in prostitution.
A 29 year-old man became the first person in southern Nigeria to be punished under Islamic law when he was given 100 lashes on Thursday for indulging in pre-marital sex. Suleiman Shittu was flogged before a crowd of hundreds in front of the main mosque in the southwestern town of Ibadan, Oyo State, which has a large Muslim population.
African leaders on Sunday took the first step towards setting up a mechanism to monitor each other's progress towards good government, a key plank in a widely-praised new development strategy.
What the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) and the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) have in common is that they both seem to hold a promise of prosperity for the world's poorest continent. At the same time, they are fundamentally different. Most significantly, Agoa has started bearing fruit while Nepad seems doomed to fail.
Chronic food shortages in Zimbabwe were worsening and growing numbers of infants were at risk of serious malnourishment, the United Nations warned on Monday. At least 6.7 million Zimbabweans, more than half the population, face hunger in the coming months because of a sharp drop in agricultural production blamed on a drought and the government's seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms.
A November report summarising the status of farm invasions in various regions of Zimbabwe details ongoing theft from farms, harassment of farmers, and provides details of farmers still remaining on their farms.
Among the initial goals of the land reform programme in Zimbabwe was the resettlement of people from densely populated communal rural areas to newly acquired farm land. However, in the rush to implement the government's fast-track land reform programme, this has not happened, say analysts and the would-be beneficiaries of land reform. They also point to signs that cronyism has affected land redistribution.
Namibian workers at the N,2 billion Skorpion zinc mine in the Karas Region, are accusing construction companies of laying them off and replacing them with South Africans. They allege they are being punished for taking part in a strike two months ago.
In a move to develop sport in rural areas, Transnet has announced a R150,000 development project.Transnet Foundation’s senior sport development manager Sepedi Moloto said at the launch at the University of the North (Qwaqwa Branch) that the project, which was aligned to the Government’s Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy, sought to create sporting opportunities for youths aged between 17 and 21 in the province’s rural areas.
The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Diana, The Princess of Wales Memorial Fund will join forces to help reduce the suffering of Aids orphans, those dying of Aids and the bereaved they leave behind. The joint initiative aims to build on the existing work of both charities.
Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that the Gauteng Department of Social Services and Welfare had shut almost all its poverty relief projects, citing corruption, fraud and mismanagement of funds. The Gauteng Department of Social Services and Welfare is blamed in the report, compiled by Mulalo Nemavhandu, manager of the provincial poverty programme, for not having monitoring and management mechanisms.
The Democratic Alliance has urged Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel to create a fund for the distribution of Lotto money allocated to the RDP and other miscellaneous projects. Non-governmental organisations are also worried by unallocated funds as many of them are faced with dire financial constraints.
South African scientists have documented what organisations have warned about for years; water privatisation in African countries, which means denying access to safe drinking water to the poor. In South Africa alone, there have been 10 million water cuts since commercialisation started in 1994.
The Tenants Association of Sydenham Heights has won a major victory, with the ANC Durban Unicity being forced to pay back in cash all unlawful levies they collected illegally from poor tenants for several months.
Tributes and pledges of money continued to pour in for Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa) fundraiser Jacque Kinnear after she raised about R23000 for the organisation.
NGOs in the country call for the support and pressure from you, to bear on our government to stop passing the bill into law this November. This should happen as we need more time as NGOs and Tanzanian citizens to fully participate in the making of the law, which is going to govern our sector. Any law that does not respect basic human rights, as enshrined in the country’s constitution is bound to be barbaric and a deterrent to development, rather than an enabling tool for social prosperity of the people of Tanzania.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is expected to sign a multi-million Rand agreement with the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Pretoria to carry out collaborative tuberculosis research activities in South Africa over the next five years.
The Article 19 has welcomed the adoption of the declaration of principles of the freedom of expression in Africa, by The African Commission, on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Article 19 expressed that the declaration symbolised the commitment and determination of the African Commission, to tackle the increasing violations of the right to freedom of expression and information in many African countries.
The World Bank has been planning to provide 50 million US dollars for Malawi in emergency drought recovery credit, primarily to enable the government to maintain commitments to key economic priorities while averting a famine.
The High Commission of the Republic of South Africa in Lesotho donated 1 million to the Lesotho government for the poverty reduction process.
Sebastian Chuwa, Tanzanian botanist and conservationist, was honoured as recipient of an Associate Laureate award by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise committee at The Royal Institution of Great Britain in London, England. The award was given to support his conservation work for the African blackwood, the national tree of Tanzania. The Blackwood, or mpingo, is used internationally to manufacture woodwind instruments and is becoming threatened due to overharvestin.
Nothing smacks of hypocrisy more than a law that purports to afford a profession some protection but which is, in fact, replete with clauses that restrict its practice. It is more serious still if that law attacks one of the most fundamental human rights guaranteed under our constitution– that of freedom of expression and our right to be fully informed. But Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) does precisely this by creating a fictitious privilege out of the practice of free expression and then criminalizing those who violate the provisions of this repressive legislation. Such a law has no place in any democracy.
The polling period during the recent Insiza by-election was generally peaceful with few irregularities, according to a preliminary report by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN). However, ZESN said the atmosphere had been tense due to the presence of militia, marauding war veterans and pre-election violence. On the second day of polling the MDC candidate had been told by the police not to enter the constituency because he was told his safety could not be guaranteed. "The issue of food shortage and hunger coupled with underdevelopment in the constituency was exploited so as to gain political mileage by the ruling party," said the report.
The current political crisis and its economic consequences dominate all discussions of Zimbabwe’s connectivity markets. The official US$ to Z$ rate is 1:55. The "parallel market" rate is 27 times as high at 1:1500 and steadily falling. Inflation is currently around 200% and the IMF predicts that it will go as high as 520% by next year. Stripping out the impact of inflation, most ICT businesses are actually shrinking in money terms.
LEISA, the biggest international magazine for the exchange of experiences on low external input, sustainable agriculture, has published a special issue on ICTs and the changing information flows in agriculture in developing countries. The articles describe how ICTs play an increasingly prominent role in agricultural communities in developing countries. Included also are several examples illustrating the importance of "old" technologies, such as newsletters and radio, and calling on the development community to use all available means to ensure that farmers have the information they need in order to continue to farm sustainably.
Open source is rapidly gaining ground in Africa as governments, civil society and the private sector begin to recognise the benefits and relevance of the movement to African Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
development.
Journalists are investigating the links between Angolan oil and foreign war profits. Hip-hop projects are youth resistance to AIDS. Peace workers and human-rights activists go online to connect across the continent. Elections loom in Kenya and Nigeria; a U.S. "anti-terrorism" base is built in the Horn of Africa; Internet access, GMO foods and multinational businesses are arriving in regions confronting war, disease and famine. Africa needs free, well-supported and responsive media to hold powerful interests to account, to inform the public on vital issues, to connect communities. The world's media need to understand Africa and report on the global connections. MediaChannel:Africa will become the home for articles, reports, commentary and resources for a global community concerned about journalism, cultural diversity, access to technology and freedom of expression across Africa.
Under a mango tree, three men squatted in the dust with pliers, twisting thick wire from poachers' snares into decorative baskets. Trimmed in gold, red, and blue, they sell them to tourists for $6 each. "We help save the animals and people find another way to make money," said Kelvin Phiri, a craftsman and founder of Mango Tree Crafts, a cooperative formed four months ago in this eastern Zambian valley.
The Curriculum Development Project, a non governmental organisation working in the field of arts and culture education teacher training, and the Wits School of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, have recently entered into a partnership to find ways of ensuring that arts and culture education programmes are implemented at school level in South Africa.
Derechos Human Rights is committed to creating and providing channels of communications between human rights organizations, activists and the public. Our goal is to encourage the dissemination of trustworthy information and news about human rights all over the world, to help create quick response mechanisms for violations to human rights, and to facilitate the discussion of human rights issues. To this purpose we have created several mailing lists that we think are can be useful tools for everyone interested in human rights.
The Women's Rights Watch Nigeria mailing list networks over 1000 national and international organisations. You will receive alerts on women's rights in Nigeria, updates on legislative reforms and landmark judicial decisions. Join us in campaigning against violations of women's rights in Nigeria.
* The Guidelines and Measures for the Prohibition and Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Africa (The Robben Island Guidelines) were adopted at the 32nd Ordinary Session of The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in Banjul, The Gambia, held between October 17-23.
Part I: Prohibition of Torture
A. Ratification of Regional and International Instruments
1. States should ensure that they are a party to relevant international and regional human rights instruments and ensure that these instruments are fully implemented in domestic legislation and accord individuals the maximum scope for accessing the human rights machinery that they establish. This would include:
a) Ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights establishing an African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights;
b) Ratification of or accession to the UN Convention against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment without reservations, to make declarations accepting the jurisdiction of the Committee against Torture under Articles 21 and 22 and recognising the competency of the Committee to conduct inquiries pursuant to Article 20;
c) Ratification of or accession to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the First Optional Protocol thereto without reservations;
d) Ratification of or accession to the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court;
B. Promote and Support Co-operation with International Mechanisms
2. States should co-operate with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and promote and support the work of the Special Rapporteur on prisons and conditions of detention in Africa, the Special Rapporteur on arbitrary, summary and extra-judicial executions in Africa and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of women in Africa.
3. States should co-operate with the United Nations Human Rights Treaties Bodies, with the UN Commission on Human Rights' thematic and country specific special procedures, in particular, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, including the issuance of standing invitations for these and other relevant mechanisms.
C. Criminalisation of Torture
4. States should ensure that acts, which fall within the definition of torture, based on the UN Convention against Torture, are offences within their national legal systems.
5. States should pay particular attention to the prohibition and prevention of gender-related forms of torture and ill-treatment and the torture and ill-treatment of young persons.
6. National courts should have jurisdictional competence to hear cases of allegations of torture in accordance with Article 5 (2) of the UN Convention against Torture.
7. Torture should be made an extraditable offence.
8. The trial or extradition of those suspected of torture should take place expeditiously in conformity with relevant international standards.
9. Circumstances such as state of war, threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, shall not be invoked as a justification of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
10. Notions such as "necessity", "national emergency", "public order", and "ordre public" shall not be invoked as a justification of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
11. Superior orders shall never provide a justification or lawful excuse for acts of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
12. Those found guilty of having committed acts of torture shall be subject to appropriate sanctions that reflect the gravity of the offence, applied in accordance with relevant international standards.
13. No one shall be punished for disobeying an order that they commit acts amounting to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
14. States should prohibit and prevent the use, production and trade of equipment or substances designed to inflict torture or ill-treatment and the abuse of any other equipment or substance to these ends.
D. Non-Refoulement
15. States should ensure no one is expelled or extradited to a country where he or she is at risk of being subjected to torture.
E. Combating Impunity
16. In order to combat impunity States should:
a) Ensure that those responsible for acts of torture or ill-treatment are subject to legal process.
b) Ensure that there is no immunity from prosecution for nationals suspected of torture, and that the scope of immunities for foreign nationals who are entitled to such immunities be as restrictive as is possible under international law.
c) Ensure expeditious consideration of extradition requests to third states, in accordance with international standards.
d) Ensure that rules of evidence properly reflect the difficulties of substantiating allegations of ill-treatment in custody.
e) Ensure that where criminal charges cannot be sustained because of the high standard of proof required, other forms of civil, disciplinary or administrative action are taken if it is appropriate to do so.
F. Complaints and Investigation Procedures
17. Ensure the establishment of readily accessible and fully independent mechanisms to which all persons can bring their allegations of torture and ill-treatment.
18. Ensure that whenever persons who claimed to have been or who appear to have been tortured or ill-treated are brought before competent authorities an investigation shall be initiated.
19. Investigations into all allegations of torture or ill-treatment, shall be conducted promptly, impartially and effectively, guided by the UN Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (The Istanbul Protocol).
A shadowy cell of white right-wing military officers and apartheid-era forces are suspected of trying to incite a race war in South Africa, beginning with a series of bombings that rocked black settlements around Johannesburg last Wednesday.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 86
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 86
The Namibian government wants to sell off parts of State-owned enterprises before they drain the treasury even further, but the unions don't want to hear of it.
The year 2002 is the year of the mountains. However, a new report from Panos argues that mountain people must have a stronger voice and role in the development of their regions. Experts in their own environments have a large part to play in tackling poverty and conserving resources – investing in people is the most effective way to protect the mountains for future generations, says the report.
Crop diversification, irrigation and the expansion of a free farm input scheme for Malawi's subsistence producers are among the measures being introduced by the government, in order to boost food output next year.
Three major legal agencies are building a dossier of allegations of corruption in the department of home affairs over its handling of refugees.
It is still not clear whether people living with HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal will ever see any of the $72-million granted to the province in April by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM). The Global Fund has indicated that from this week it will start to disburse money to projects approved in its first round of applications - but unless procedural problems surrounding the KZN grant are cleared up, this province's money will not come through.
Brown bread and mielie meal, the staple food of the country's poorest citizens, will soon be fortified with vitamins to help combat malnutrition. According to draft regulations published by the Department of Health, it will soon be compulsory for the milling industry to add a range of micro-nutrients to their products or face legal action.
Warring factions and the transitional government (TNG) in Somalia have signed a ceasefire deal aimed at bringing more than a decade of fighting and anarchy to an end, foreign mediators have said.
Amnesty International is urging the Cameroonian authorities to immediately release Albert Mukong, a former executive director of the Human Rights Defence Group (HRDG) and a reputable human rights defender, who was arrested on 28 September by the gendarmerie at Ayukaba, in South West Province.
Joseph Mwale, a member of the Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has declared Chimanimani, a plantation and farming region in the east of Zimbabwe, a no-go area for the private media. The move has forced a private company, Radar Holdings, which was planning a media tour of its plantations that were gutted by fire, to shelve the tour.
Blessing Zulu, a reporter with the Zimbabwe Independent and The Daily News Chief Reporter, Pedzisai Ruhanya, were threatened by police officers when they went to cover the funeral of opposition Member of Parliament Learnmore Jongwe, who died in remand prison on Tuesday 2 October.
The African National Congress (ANC) Woman's League and Congress of South African Students (Cosas) have called on King Mwatsi III to return the three girls allegedly abducted by the king to the care of their parents immediately. ANC Woman's League representative Lulu Xingwane said the woman's league supported and respected cultural and religious practices as long as they were not harmful and did not violate women's rights or dignity.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said last Friday it was "very concerned" over a decision by the Angolan government to close all reception areas of former UNITA rebels and their families by the end of the year.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has deplored the recent recommendation by a five-member military tribunal that editor Hassan Bility, who has been detained since June 24, be treated as a "prisoner of war."
Police paid two boys Sh300 to implicate a suspect with the murder of Kilome MP Tony Ndilinge, one of the boys has confessed.
Twenty-eight African Ministers of Education have so far agreed to participate in MINEDAF VIII, a regional conference on education to be held 2-6 December 2002 in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The conference will review policy and cooperation in the field of education and identify ways to wage the education war effectively in view of its extreme urgency in Africa.
The Minister of Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo and his Permanent Secretary Gorge Charamba have launched a scathing attack against the Financial Gazette and private media journalists for what the two called "treasonous" and "anti government" reporting. The two have warned that the government will not brook any criticism and appropriate measures will be taken against "errant" journalists.
In a new report on Zambia, produced to coincide with the 23-25 October WTO review of that countries' trade policy, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has condemned "serious and widespread" usage of child labour as well as a deterioration in workers' basic rights.
The Namibian government has apologised for delays in distributing drought aid but says the task is time-consuming and cannot easily be fast-tracked. The distribution of food aid to an estimated 345 000 people in need has been delayed by official bureaucracy and the allocation of tenders to firms that do not have the capacity to deliver.
President Sam Nujoma attended a one-day post-war summit of allies of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa. The president met with DRC leader Joseph Kabila, Angola's Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to review the way forward.
A crude oil pipeline belonging to Royal/Dutch Shell has ruptured in southern Nigeria's Delta State. The resulting oil slick has affected five communities, company officials said on Wednesday.
A ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) MP beat up a journalist from The Nation newspaper who approached him for comment after the MP's constituents signed a petition opposing an amendment to Malawi's constitution that would allow President Bakili Muluzi to seek a third term in office.
The unique nature of farm worker communities makes them particularly vulnerable to the effects of HIV/AIDS and the lack of traditional safety nets within these communities increases the vulnerability of children, especially orphaned children. Future interventions to respond to the needs of child headed households will need to balance material and psycho-social aspects in order to avoid undermining existing coping mechanisms. Supporting community-based responses will involve long-term capacity building and training and require thorough support and follow-up, according to a study by the Farm Orphan Support Trust of Zimbabwe (FOST) on child-headed households on commercial farms in Zimbabwe.
Transparency International Zimbabwe (TI-Z) say that the youth are not adequately 'captured' in the national policy making framework. Gender mainstreaming has been taken into account in recent times, but there is not a corresponding acceptance that policies should also be sensitive to the needs of the youth as a disadvantaged group.
Zimbabwe is currently facing an enormous governance, economic and social crisis that is seriously threatening to destroy much of what Zimbabweans have achieved since our national independence 22years ago. There is a serious concern shared among development actors that sustainable development can not be achieved under these conditions. The environment within which NGOs/Civil Society groups are operating is becoming increasingly restrictive.
Failing to recognise women as farmers in their own right is tantamount to failure to recognise their existence. The 1951 Land Husbandry Act made the economic and social position of women precarious. The legislation perpetuated and compounded the subordination of women under the patriarchal system that was justified under the guise of "respecting" African customs.
South Africa's best black rugby player has prompted uproar by denouncing the national sport as a bastion of white supremacy which faked multiracial harmony to host the 1995 world cup with Nelson Mandela's blessing.
Zulu painter Ernest Mancoba, exiled in France since 1938, has died in hospital at Clamart near Paris aged 98, his family said on Sunday.
Do you need tips or materials on running organisations, running campaigns, communication skills, administration, local government, HIV/AIDS etc? Do you give advice and development support to poor communities? Visit http://www.etu.org.za for a complete guide of paralegal advice targeting the poor, as well as a community organiser’s toolbox filled with guides that will help your organisation perform better. This free service is provided by the Education and Training Unit, a non-profit organisation that focuses on capacity building for community based organisations and local government. ETU also provides training on all topics listed. Materials may be copied and used by non-profit organisations as long as you acknowledge the source. For-profit organisations must get permission from ETU.
International Medical Corps (IMC) is a global humanitarian nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and medical relief programs. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in communities throughout the world. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, IMC rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.
Oxfam Great Britain is an International NGO working with others to find lasting solutions to poverty and suffering. Oxfam GB has supported a programme in Rwanda since the 1970s and is currently operating in the Northwest and Northeast of the country. The head office, which serves as the main support to the programme, is based in Kigali.
This job offers an exiting opportunity for an experienced PHC Nurse/Dr with a post-graduate qualification in tropical health, to develop their skills in clinical PHC teaching, health education, community development and project management.
Merlin has been operational in Kenya since 1998 and maintains a Regional Office in Nairobi, which currently supports Merlin's programmes in Kenya and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Merlin plans on expanding its present programme portfolio and further developing the role of the Regional Office in Nairobi.
An initial 3 months contract is offered with the possibility of an extension for a further 6 -9 months. SCUK's work in the Ivory Coast to date has been born out of the wider Mano River union (Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia) emergency and is interlinked with the organisation's programme in Liberia, being most recently established since 1999. The main focus of the work has been in the Refugee Zone in the West of the country, implementing a child protection programme in refugee camps and local communities.
This role is a very close supportive function to the Programme Co-ordinator. Applicants should enjoy working with and supporting local teams in a not always easy working environment.
Efforts undertaken by developing countries to strengthen their economies, enhance energy security, or protect local environments are at the same time significantly reducing the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report released by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
Care for Malawi's orphans remains one of the government's major challenges, but little is being done to support the burgeoning number of destitute children, a British think-tank said in a recent report.
In spite of decades of continued efforts to attain food security, famine continues to stalk sub-Saharan Africa. In six southern African countries, more than 14 million people face critical food shortages, which the UN's World Food Programme has called "the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world today".
Care for Malawi's orphans remains one of the government's major challenges, but little is being done to support the burgeoning number of destitute children, a British think-tank said in a recent report.
The president of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, wants the Southern African Development Community to focus more on gender development, as his country takes over the SADC Presidency.
A Daily News crew covering a demonstration by secondary school students was detained in a Harare suburb. The crew of three, that included reporter, Henry Makiwa, photographer, Aaron Ufumeli and driver, Trust Maswela were arrested for "inciting students to protest".
Negotiations are on a good track between the Lesotho Clothing and Allied Workers Union and the Exporters Association of Lesotho, despite earlier threats of a call for an industrial action.
More Ethiopian women die in hospital from illegal abortion complications than for almost any other medical reason, the World Health Organisation (WHO) told IRIN on Monday.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) alleged on Sunday that voters in a key southwestern by-election have been bribed with food and intimidated into voting for the ruling party. Voters in the poor, famine-hit rural district of Insiza were told "they will be given maize only if the Zanu PF candidate wins," the MDC claimed in a statement.
Related Link:
MDC Election agents purged
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=5436
Military chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held a closed door meeting on Friday in Abidjan to plan the deployment of a regional ceasefire-monitoring force.
Outgoing Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi on Friday dissolved the country's parliament, effectively signalling his plans to call general elections before the end of the year. The elections will mark the end of Moi's 24 year rule.
Opened by King Mswati III and South Africa's Deputy President Jacob Zuma in June to help alleviate their countries' chronic water shortages, the Maguga Dam appears to be the first victim of an impending drought.
Ethiopia launched its biggest ever polio vaccination campaign on Thursday as it was revealed that the country is almost totally free of the virus. More than 14 million children are to be targeted in the final immunisation in Ethiopia in which more than 74,000 volunteers will take part.
Scores of people have died in central Nigeria’s Plateau State in a series of raids by bandits and clashes between farmers and herders, residents and officials said.
Forcible repatriations from Rwanda of Tutsi refugees who fled from northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1990s to escape ethnic persecution appear to have ceased, Ron Mponda, the deputy representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Rwanda, told IRIN.
President Obasanjo has picked up a nomination form to become a candidate for president in next year's vote, apparently rejecting suggestions that he should "reconsider" his re-election bid "in the national interest".
Malaria is responsible for 25-40 percent of outpatient numbers, 20 percent of admission figures and 9-14 percent of deaths of patients admitted to public health facilities in Uganda. Households spend up to 10 percent of their monthly incomes on malaria treatment.
Nigeria has rejected a verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the disputed Bakassi Peninsula, declaring that the court failed to take fundamental facts into consideration in arriving at its decision. The court had awarded sovereignty over the Peninsula to Cameroon.
Clashes between government forces and insurgents resumed on Monday in the Central African Republic capital Bangui, where an AFP correspondent reported hearing heavy weapons fire coming from the vicinity of the presidential palace.
The Senegalese Health Ministry confirmed 41 cases and four deaths of yellow fever as of 24 October, a World Health Organisation update said.
"To root out Moism, we have to intensify our political work under and above ground. We have to forge the broadest possible unity to show that the problem in Kenya is not Kalenjin, or Gikuyu or Luo or Somali or Kamba. It is the dictatorship and the politics of greed which are the real enemy of us Kenyans. Moi and KANU must go, but more importantly, Moism as a neo-colonial system must be uprooted from our midst," writes Mukoma Ngugi in this commentary for www.zmag.org.
About 17,000 Sudanese refugees remained in hiding on Monday, having fled ethnic violence last week in a refugee settlement in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Erratic weather patterns in the Horn of Africa are putting more than 12 million people at risk of starvation, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. "We are experiencing a period of unprecedented crises," WFP's executive director James T. Morris told journalists in London. "The Horn has not had adequate rainfall this year." The drought is part of an increasing number of serious and unusual weather patterns in Africa and around the world, he said.
In 2002, the Hafkin Prize recognises People-Centred Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy in Africa. The six policy initiatives that have reached the final shortlist are from Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The winner(s) will be announced at a technology policy and civil society workshop organized by APC, ARTICLE 19 and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between November 6-10 2002.
The responsibilities of the Program Coordinator include program planning, reporting and development, personnel management, and commodity control. The Program Coordinator will be responsible for efficient management of the program budget, coordination of human and material resources, and control of all USAID donated commodities.