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Measles in nearly half of country's districts
Mon, Feb 22, 2010
HARARE, - A measles outbreak has hit 28 of Zimbabwe's 62 districts and is still spreading, but efforts to vaccinate people in some quarters is being hampered by religious convictions.
IRIN
OVC may be at greater risk of sexual abuse
Mon, Jul 13, 2009
Girls who have been orphaned may be twice as likely to experience sexual abuse, according to research from child-friendly clinics in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.
ZIMBABWE: Passing around the hat
Tue, Jun 16, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, (IRIN) - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has won US$73 million in aid from the United States on the first leg of an international tour aimed at drumming up financial support for his beleaguered government, and will try to persuade European donors to dig deeper into their pockets.
SOUTH AFRICA: Market forces part of xenophobic violence
Tue, Jun 16, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, - The business acumen of foreign nationals, rather than xenophobia, is being named as the trigger that led to attacks against Somalis and other migrants in the South African port city of Cape Town.
UGANDA: Lilly Atong, “I was Joseph Kony’s wife”
Tue, Jun 16, 2009
GULU, - Lilly Atong, 26, was first abducted by Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels from Amuru district in northern Uganda in 1991 when she was 10 years old. She was made a “wife” of the LRA leader Joseph Kony but escaped in 2005. However, during the Juba peace talks in 2006 she met Kony to persuade him to release other women and children, only to be held captive again in Garamba National Park, where the rebels were hiding. She managed to escape a second time and is now living in a rehabilitation centre in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu.
Credibility of Kimberley Process on the line, say NGO
Tue, Jun 23, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, - The credibility of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an initiative to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the multibillion dollar market - is being questioned by NGO activists ahead of a three day international meeting in Namibia on 23 June.
SOUTH AFRICA: One in four men rape
Tue, Jun 23, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, - More than 25 percent of South African men have raped; of those, nearly half said they had raped more than one person, says a new report by the Medical Research Council (MRC).
MAURITANIA: Force-feeding on decline, but more dangerous
Sun, Jun 28, 2009
NOUAKCHOTT, - As perceptions of beauty change and obesity-related diseases rise, more women in Mauritania are fighting back against force-feeding, according to the government. But even as some women refuse to fatten up, up to one-third of the country’s women are still risking their lives to put on weight to conform to a longstanding aesthetic standard.
The bad news of a relatively good maize harvest
Mon, Jun 29, 2009
JOHANNESBURG , - A more than two fold increase in Zimbabwe's production of its staple, maize, in 2009 will not be enough to rid the country of food insecurity.
No winds of change at the Grain Marketing Board
Thu, Jul 02, 2009
HARARE, (IRIN) - The Zimbabwean government has announced new measures to boost local cereal purchases through its crisis-ridden Grain Marketing Board (GMB), but farmers are not convinced the plan will work.
ZIMBABWE: When the cops are the robbers
Thu, Jul 23, 2009
HARARE, - The demise of the all-but-worthless Zimbabwe dollar and its replacement with foreign currency is being mirrored by a rise in violent crime, perpetrated particularly by police officers.
SOUTH AFRICA: Violent protests "worrying but not surprising"
Mon, Jul 27, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, - Protesters have again brought violence to township streets throughout South Africa over state failure to deliver on longstanding promises of housing and social services for all, but the discontent and frustration run much deeper.
Political violence growing in rural areas
Mon, Jul 27, 2009
HARARE, - Families are turning on each other in Zimbabwe's rural areas, where a higher premium is being placed on political allegiance to either President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party or Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), than ties of blood.
ZIMBABWE: Doctors' strike threatens to reverse health care gains
Mon, Aug 17, 2009
HARARE, - Industrial action for better wages by Zimbabwe's doctors is threatening the country's ability to deal with H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu, and the possible resurgence of a deadly cholera epidemic.
UN agency warns of potential cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe
Fri, Aug 21, 2009
The conditions that led to the worst cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe’s history last year, including poor water and sanitation infrastructure, remain and the disease could return this year, an official with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today
Special interest groups demand say in new constitution
Mon, Aug 31, 2009
WASHINGTON, - Special interest groups in Zimbabwe are launching a concerted push to ensure their rights are enshrined in the new constitution
Party loyalties disrupt education
Mon, Sep 07, 2009
HARARE, (IRIN) - The fault lines between Zimbabwe's political parties are causing disruption at the opening of the third term in public schools, continuing years of decline in a sector once regarded as sub-Saharan Africa's finest.
NIGERIA: Slow progress on prison reform say lawyers
Sun, Sep 20, 2009
ABUJA, - In June 150 prisoners escaped from Enugu state prison in southeastern Nigeria, beating wardens and raping female prisoners before they fled.
ZIMBABWE: Who actually owns the farm?
Fri, Sep 25, 2009
HARARE, A comprehensive land audit to establish who owns what after almost a decade of often chaotic land transfers in Zimbabwe is being stalled by a lack of money.
Veld fires stoke food production fears
Tue, Sep 29, 2009
HARARE, - The increasing incidence of wild fires is eroding food production in Zimbabwe, which remains a food insecure country despite a turnaround in agricultural production.
Jestina Mukoko - "Not bitter, but better"
Thu, Oct 01, 2009
"I am a widowed mother, and what I went through brought a lot of trauma to my family, especially to my son, who did not know if he had lost the only remaining parent that he had."
Farm labour shortage threatens food production
Wed, Nov 11, 2009
HARARE, - An acute shortage of labourers on Zimbabwe's newly resettled farms, combined with the farmers' inability to raise loans from financial institutions to purchase agricultural inputs, and money owed to them by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), do not bode well for food insecurity.
More than 2,000 Zimbabweans flee, fearing attacks
Tue, Nov 17, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, - Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official.
Weapons theft stokes fears of instability
Thu, Nov 19, 2009
HARARE, - The recent "suicide" of a senior army officer in the wake of a break-in at a military armoury in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, is sowing fears that the missing guns may be used to fuel instability.
Funds needed for displaced Zimbabweans
Thu, Nov 19, 2009
JOHANNESBURG, - The number of Zimbabweans displaced after some of their shacks in an informal settlement outside De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, were attacked and demolished by local South African residents, has risen to about 3,000, said the South African Red Cross Society.
Children who never existed
Fri, Nov 27, 2009
(Women and children's access to health services is worsening) JOHANNESBURG,- Workers living on a farm settlement about 35km from Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, bury their dead children secretly because parents cannot afford to get them to a clinic or hospital in time.
Expats not going home yet
Wed, Dec 02, 2009
LONDON, - Zimbabwean professionals in the UK say they will need to see real change before they would even consider going home, despite South Africa's ongoing attempts to resolve the disputes between the bickering partners in Zimbabwe's unity government.
Zimbabwean refugees would rather operate as illegals
Wed, Dec 16, 2009
The “humanitarian nature” of the mass movement of Zimbabweans to neighbouring Southern African countries has blurred the distinction between what is a “refugee” and an “economic migrant”, because such people fit neither category perfectly and fall between the cracks, a new report says.
BOTSWANA/ZIMBABWE: Cross-border shoppers disappear
Thu, Dec 17, 2009
FRANCISTOWN, - Relative silence has replaced the bustle that Francistown, on the border between Botswana and Zimbabwe, used to experience during the peak shopping period at Christmas.
Expats oppose tax in exchange for voting
Mon, Dec 21, 2009
WASHINGTON, - Zimbabweans living abroad may have to pay tax in exchange for voting rights and retaining their citizenship rights if the government embraces a proposal made by finance minister Tendai Biti in London on 13 December 2009.
MOZAMBIQUE-ZIMBABWE: Border town gets cut of diamond action
Tue, Jan 05, 2010
MANICA, - Without a four-wheel drive, Manica's potholed dirt roads are a challenge, but thanks to a steady stream of illicit diamonds from neighbouring Zimbabwe, more and more people in the impoverished town in western Mozambique can afford one.
The Seeds of Plenty
Wed, Jan 13, 2010
Harare — In 2009 Zimbabwe withdrew the local dollar and allowed the use of foreign currency to bring down hyperinflation, but outside of urban centres this money is often scarce and also makes food expensive, so Godknows Chuma started growing his own and discovered that his green fingers could provide for his family.
Hope and crops scorched again
Tue, Jan 26, 2010
HARARE, (IRIN) - Garai Hokonya, 53, a smallholder farmer in Chivhu district, about 120km southwest of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, has resigned himself to the unpalatable truth that the 12 hectares of maize he planted by hand are being devastated by an unseasonal and prolonged dry spell.
Typhoid kills five people
Thu, Mar 11, 2010
HARARE, (IRIN) - Typhoid fever has killed five people in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, and 30 others were being treated for the bacterial disease, the city's health director, Stanley Mungofa, told a media briefing on 9 March 2010.
SENEGAL: Killing babies to hide indiscretion
Mon, Apr 05, 2010
LOUGA, - In Senegal women who become pregnant outside of marriage - their husbands living abroad - commonly kill their babies out of fear and shame.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Instability returns to capital
Mon, Apr 05, 2010
DAKAR, - Bissau-Guineans have endured decades of coups and countercoups and many were hoping a peaceful presidential election in 2009 marked a step towards stability and development. But fear returned to the streets of the capital Bissau on 1 April, after the Prime Minister and Army Chief were detained by mutinous soldiers.
Opposition infighting raises spectre of violence
Fri, May 07, 2010
HARARE, (IRIN) - A public disagreement between Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Finance Minister Tendai Biti over pay increases in public servants' salaries is being seen as evidence of greater divisions between two of the most senior leaders of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Life is just not getting any better
Tue, May 25, 2010
HARARE, (IRIN) - The death of Zimbabwe's secretary for agriculture, Renson Gasela, and two other senior officials from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a car accident recently has highlighted the country's inability to respond to accidents, emergencies or disasters.
SA blames ‘illegal immigrants’ for crime
Sun, Jun 13, 2010
JOHANNESBURG — The “absurd” claim by Gauteng’s police chief that South Africa’s richest province was home to as many as three million “illegal” immigrants was part of a pattern by government departments to blame undocumented migrants for their own shortcomings, Loren Landau, director of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP), told IRIN.
No chance to prepare for the future
Wed, Jun 23, 2010
HARARE (IRIN) - Chenai Moyo, 18, is confident she would have passed the examinations at her school in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, but for two years in a row there was no money; now she has to fend for the family and depends on an older man for support.
New treatment guidelines yet to be implemented
Mon, Jul 19, 2010
HARARE, (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's government has adopted new guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for treating people living with HIV, but there may not be enough money to implement them.
Children doing time with their mothers
Wed, Aug 11, 2010
HARARE, (IRIN) - Sarah Moyo, 24 - not her real name - clasps her stunted one-year-old child to her chest as she talks to her visiting husband through a chain-link fence at the Central Remand Prison, on the eastern fringe of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.
ZIMBABWE: Diaspora can also discuss new constitution
Tue, Aug 17, 2010
HARARE, (IRIN) - The parliamentary committee in charge of reviewing Zimbabwe's constitution is actively inviting feedback and recommendations from the millions of Zimbabweans living abroad. (3 - 2 million Zimbabweans leave abroad)
LESOTHO-SWAZILAND: A customs union to prevent failed states
Thu, Aug 19, 2010
MBABANE, (IRIN) - Increasing strains on a century-old, five-nation southern African customs union is raising questions as to whether the sovereignty of its poorest members - Lesotho and Swaziland - is sustainable, considering their burden of HIV/AIDS and the global economic slowdown, among other factors
Diamond sale a false economic dawn
Mon, Aug 23, 2010
HARARE, - An auction of Zimbabwean diamonds has created an air of expectation that the country’s economic plight will be eased or even improved, but the stones realized as little as a fifth of their value, and most of the proceeds are expected to benefit controversial mining companies.
No temporary teachers, less schooling
Wed, Sep 15, 2010
HARARE, (IRIN) - A recent government directive forbidding unqualified teachers - estimated to comprise as much as 60 percent of the staff complement at rural schools - is causing severe disruptions to education.
Zimbabwe struggling to create a new constitution
Tue, Sep 28, 2010
Harare, - Violence has marred the series of outreach meetings being held across Zimbabwe, where members of the Constitutional Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC) come to hear what ordinary Zimbabweans want to be included in their new constitution.
Juliet Mashoko, "I was beaten on the head and all over the body"
Sat, Sep 25, 2010
Juliet Mashoko, a 61 year old grand mother, and victim of political violence during the 2008 Zimbabwe elections
HIV patients forced to pay up or go without
Tue, Oct 05, 2010
HARARE, - Rampant corruption in the provision of life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and other HIV services is threatening Zimbabwe's national AIDS response according to a recently released report by a local human rights group.
Zimbabwe seeks $415 million in humanitarian support
Tue, Dec 21, 2010
An appeal for $415 million in humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe in 2011 has been made by the government and humanitarian organisations.
No money for public sector wages
Mon, Jan 24, 2011
Zimbabwe's fiscal cupboard remains bare and the unity government will struggle to meet its wage bill for public sector workers in January 2011, finance minister Tendai Biti told the inaugural Global Poverty Summit in Johannesburg on 19 January.
ZIMBABWE: Some are more indigenous than others
Fri, Oct 14, 2011
HARARE, - Stallholders at the Mupedzanhamo market on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, thought they were immune to the 2008 Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, which requires large businesses such as banks and mining companies to relinquish at least 51 percent of their shares or interests to indigenous Zimbabweans.
South Africa: Deportation of Zimbabweans Tearing Families Apart
Tue, Oct 25, 2011
Harare — Doreen Sibanda, 27, was among the first undocumented Zimbabwean nationals to be deported in early October 2011 after South Africa apparently lifted its more than two year moratorium on expulsions imposed following widespread xenophobic violence in 2008.
Is another cholera epidemic on the way?
Mon, Dec 12, 2011
HARARE, (IRIN) - Waterborne diseases, such as typhoid, dysentery and watery diarrhoea - all approaching epidemic levels - are creating concerns that conditions exist for a reprise of the 2008/09 cholera epidemic, which killed more than 4,000 people and infected nearly 100,000 others.
Where pensions can mean poverty
Fri, Dec 23, 2011
After working for 42 years at a private company as an office messenger, Kamunjoma Dikani, 73, retired in 2000, just as Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation began to take root.
Kenya: Helping women to end sex-for-fish culture
Sat, Jan 07, 2012
KISUMU (Kenya) - For the past five years, Achieng*, a 35-year-old widow and mother of six, has sold fish on the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria; like many women in the fish trade, Achieng often has to have sex with fishermen in order to get the best catch of the day, a system known in the local Luo language as jaboya.
ZIMBABWE: Deportations rob vulnerable of remittances
Fri, Feb 10, 2012
HARARE, (IRIN) - Thousands of Zimbabwean households are feeling the effects of lost remittances from family members forcibly returned from neighbouring South Africa since that country resumed deportations of undocumented Zimbabwean migrants in October 2011.
ZIMBABWE: Child labour on the rise
Fri, Feb 24, 2012
HARARE,(IRIN) - Widespread poverty, a lack of social services and poor enforcement of legislation are hindering efforts to eradicate child labour in Zimbabwe.
ZIMBABWE: Imprisoned youths open to abuse
Wed, Apr 11, 2012
HARARE, (IRIN) - Simon Dube*, 15, has just been released from a Zimbabwean jail after serving a three-month sentence for theft. After his arrest he was detained for two days in a holding cell in Harare, where he alleged police assaulted him to extract a confession that he stole goods from his neighbour’s home.
ZIMBABWE: Sewage-fed vegetables give pause for thought
Mon, Apr 16, 2012
HARARE, (IRIN) - Maria Saungweme, 42, an informal trader and single mother from the low-income suburb of Glen Norah in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, uses sewage-infested river water to irrigate her two-acre vegetable plot.
Illegal mining causing damage to rivers
Thu, Apr 26, 2012
MUREWA, (IRIN) - Thousands of poor Zimbabweans have turned to illegal panning for precious minerals, but environmental and water experts say their activities are contributing to the drying up of rivers which many communities rely on for their livelihoods.
