With resources stretched thin, aid agencies struggling to contain a cholera outbreak across all but one of Mozambique’s 10 provinces hope the approaching end of the rainy season will bring some relief. Over 12,000 cases and 157 deaths have been recorded since 1 January 2009. The latest Southern Africa Regional Cholera Update, compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the highest number of cases had been recorded in the northeastern provinces of Nampula (3,033) and Cabo Delgado (2,427). (IRIN)
More than 100 Central African Republic refugees crossed the volatile border to south-eastern Chad over the weekend, joining over 6,800 others who began arriving earlier this year in two sites near the remote Daha village registered by the UN refugee agency. Another 2,500 new arrivals are sheltering just across the border in the Chadian village of Massambaye, 125 kilometers east of Daha. UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond said the arrivals – most of whom are women, children and elderly people – have told the agency that they escaped clashes between Government forces and rebels in northern CAR. (UN News Service)
The top UN envoy to the Congo (DRC) has hailed an accord signed March 23 between the Government and a rebel group that was a key combatant in fierce fighting, which uprooted hundreds of thousands of people last year. “The population of the eastern DRC, above all women and children, have been for too long the victims of armed conflict, displacement and sexual violence,” Alan Doss, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, said after taking part in the signing ceremony of a political and security agreement between the Government and the National Congress for People’s Defense (CNDP). (UN News Service)
More than a million people in Darfur will go without food rations by May unless new aid agencies are deployed, a joint Sudanese-UN assessment says. It also says there could be major water shortages within two weeks. The warning follows Sudan’s expulsion of 13 large foreign aid agencies, mostly from Darfur. Mr Bashir accuses them of spying for the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes in Darfur. Four of the expelled NGOs served some 1.1 million people, the report released on March 24 said. (BBC)
Swaziland’s High Court has ordered the government to adhere to the constitution by providing free education to primary school children. The labor support group, Swaziland National Ex-Miners Workers Union (SNEWA), brought the lawsuit to compel the government to honor the 2005 constitution, promulgated by sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III. In February 2009, Mswati said at the opening of parliament that free education was desirable, however, it was not feasible due to budgetary constraints. (IRIN)
The cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe appears to have passed its peak, says the World Health Organization (WHO). The number of new cases recorded in the week to mid-March nearly halved to 2,000, against 3,800 the preceding week and 8,000 cases a week in February. But the agency warned the weekly statistics were not always accurate. There have been more than 90,000 cholera cases in Zimbabwe since the start of the epidemic last August, about 4,000 of them fatal. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said official figures of the water-borne disease were probably a dramatic underestimate. (BBC)
Police in Bangladesh have discovered a large arms cache including weapons and bomb making equipment during a raid on an Islamic school, police say. They say that the raid was carried out by the elite anti-crime force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), in the southern coastal district of Bhola. RAB members found about 12 guns and several thousand bullets, police say. Islamic hardliners are suspected by the government of a role in a mutiny last month that killed 74 people. (BBC)
A new radio soap opera featuring the forbidden love story of a young Timorese couple is the latest initiative by the Government and the UN to raise awareness about reproductive health issues. Launched last week by the Ministry of Health and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the series spotlights a typical Timorese family as they deal with various subjects such as family planning and safe motherhood. “This initiative is one of the activities where the Ministry of Health emphasizes the importance of creating culturally-sensitive and rights-based materials addressed to the people of Timor-Leste,” said the Minister of Health Dr. Nelson Martins. (UN News Service)
United Nations investigators have accused the Israeli army of using an 11-year-old boy as a human shield during its recent Gaza offensive. Their report says troops ordered the boy to walk in front of them for several hours under fire, entering buildings and opening suspect packages. The UN team responsible for protection of children in war zones says it found “hundreds” of similar violations. Israel has denied the charges, saying morals are “paramount” in its army. Israel’s ambassador to the UN criticized the report as “unable or perhaps unwilling” to address attacks against its civilians by Palestinian militants. (BBC)
