Harare - An estimated 2.17-million Zimbabweans - perhaps a quarter of the country's population - are in need of food aid, the Red Cross said on Thursday.
In a statement, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies pleaded for international funds for urgent food aid to Zimbabwe. UN organisations also have appealed for more donor funds.
"In some parts of the country, the food situation is as bad as many of our volunteers and staff have ever seen it," said Emma Kundishora, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society.
Erratic rain - too much in some areas and too little in others - has damaged crops of corn, the staple food across the southern African nation. The former regional breadbasket also has been hit by acute shortages of seed and fertiliser. Continues Below ↓
At least four million Zimbabweans are estimated to have fled the nation's economic meltdown in recent years to find work in neighbouring countries and farther afield, leaving the population at about eight million, according to official estimates from the finance ministry.
The Red Cross expressed particular concern about the possible impact of existing and looming food shortages on people living with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
"Hunger is an especially brutal experience for these people," Kundishora said, describing people interrupting Aids medication because the drugs are too toxic without food.
"Once people do this, their situation deteriorates incredibly quickly," she said.
In December 2009, the Red Cross extended emergency food operation in Zimbabwe until October 2010, calling on donors for $33.2-million in extra funding. The agency faces a shortfall in funding of about $23.9-million, Thursday's statement said.
"Right now, the situation is already critical - more than two million people need direct humanitarian support," said Dr Stephen Omollo, the IFRC representative in Zimbabwe. "And we know that this will get worse as the upcoming harvest already appears to have failed."
Farmers organisations forecast local corn harvests this year of 500 000 tons, with annual consumption estimated at about 1.8-million tons.
Critics of longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe blame the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms since 2000 for the economic crisis that disrupted the agriculture-based economy.
Mugabe signed a coalition deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is now prime minister. But the unity government has been split by disputes over power-sharing since it was sworn in in February 2009. - Sapa-AP
Lusaka - Zambia has turned to China for financial help because of its attractive interest rates, President Rupia Banda said on Thursday.
"We need financing at concessionary rates where possible to build the necessary infrastructure," Banda told IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn during his visit.
"This is among the reasons we have looked to China for support," he added.
Relations between China and Africa's top producer of copper have flourished over the last five years.
Banda last week concluded his 10-day state visit to China, coming back with a $1-billion loan.
In June 2009, China Nonferrous Metals Company purchased a Zambian copper mine for $50-million and has announced plans to invest up to $400-million in the nation's mining sector. Continues Below ↓
Last month, the two countries signed a mining agreement and a deal to set up a joint economic zone.
Banda told Strauss-Kahn that Zambia had weathered the global recession well because of government's sound economic policies.
"When most of the economies around the world experienced a contraction, the Zambian economy grew by more than 6.0 percent," said Banda.
"Other economic indicators such as inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, debt sustainability rations and others equally improved," he added.
Zambia's major foreign exchange earner is copper, accounting for 80 percent of its export earnings. - Sapa-AFP
Harare - Zimbabwe will have to rely on its own resources to revive its economy because foreign donors are unlikely to provide nearly enough help, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Thursday.
A unity government formed by bitter adversaries President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last year says it needs at least $10-billion to fix an economy emerging from a decade-long slump.
But key Western donors have withheld aid and demanded broad political reforms and assurances that Mugabe is ready to genuinely share power.
Biti, a top official from Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said Zimbabwe would have to finance its projected budget deficit of $810-million from its own resources. Continues Below ↓
"It's very unlikely that donors will fill that $810-million gap, we're on our own," Biti said.
"Last year we got $35-million - $30-million from South Africa and $5-million from China. 2010 is going to be worse, we have to mobilise our own resources."
Critics accuse Mugabe, 86, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980 of ruining one of the continent's most promising economies through policies such as the seizure of white commercial farms to resettle landless blacks.
Although the power-sharing government has managed to stabilise the economy after 10 straight years of decline and inflation which peaked at 500 billion percent, the country is struggling to restore productivity, feed itself and repair its ruined infrastructure.
On Thursday, Biti handed over $100-million - from a $510-million International Monetary Fund allocation Zimbabwe received last year - to government ministries and state enterprises for infrastructure projects ranging from water and sanitation to road construction and power generation.
The government used $50-million to purchase seed and fertiliser last year in a bid to rescue an agriculture sector hit by poor funding, planning and inadequate rains.
"The $100-million constitutes a major injection into the economy, a stimulus in our own small way," he said.
The government has also extended $19.5-million in credit lines for private sector firms.
Analysts say frequent wrangling over policy and the slow pace of reforms have held back progress by the fragile unity government. - Reuters
Zimbawe struggles to attract foreign aid-finmin Biti
* $150 mln IMF funds used for agriculture, infrastructure
* External support $35 mln in 2009, seen lower in 2010
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, March 11 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will have to rely on its own resources to revive its economy because foreign donors are unlikely to provide nearly enough help, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Thursday.
A unity government formed by bitter adversaries President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last year says it needs at least $10 billion to fix an economy emerging from a decade-long slump.
But key Western donors have withheld aid and demanded broad political reforms and assurances that Mugabe is ready to genuinely share power.
Biti, a top official from Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said Zimbabwe would have to finance its projected budget deficit of $810 million from its own resources.
"It's very unlikely that donors will fill that $810 million gap, we're on our own," Biti said.
"Last year we got $35 million -- $30 million from South Africa and $5 million from China. 2010 is going to be worse, we have to mobilise our own resources."
Critics accuse Mugabe, 86, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980 of ruining one of the continent's most promising economies through policies such as the seizure of white commercial farms to resettle landless blacks.
Although the power-sharing government has managed to stabilise the economy after 10 straight years of decline and inflation which peaked at 500 billion percent, the country is struggling to restore productivity, feed itself and repair its ruined infrastructure.
On Thursday, Biti handed over $100 million -- from a $510 million International Monetary Fund allocation Zimbabwe received last year -- to government ministries and state enterprises for infrastructure projects ranging from water and sanitation to road construction and power generation.
The government used $50 million to purchase seed and fertiliser last year in a bid to rescue an agriculture sector hit by poor funding, planning and inadequate rains.
"The $100 million constitutes a major injection into the economy, a stimulus in our own small way," he said.
The government has also extended $19.5 million in credit lines for private sector firms.
Analysts say frequent wrangling over policy and the slow pace of reforms have held back progress by the fragile unity government. (Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
For more humanitarian news and analysis, please visit www.alertnet.org
HARARE, 11 March 2010 (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.
The epicentre of the outbreak is the high-density suburb of Mabvuku. In the past two years the township has rarely experienced a reliable supply of water, forcing residents to dig shallow wells, which are easily polluted by ablutions and waste.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), "Typhoid fever is a bacterial disease, caused by Salmonella typhi. It is transmitted through the ingestion of food or drink contaminated by the faeces or urine of infected people."
Symptoms include high fever, headaches, constipation or diarrhoea, rose-coloured spots on the chest, and an enlarged spleen and liver, usually occurring from one to three weeks after exposure, and may be mild or severe.
The case fatality rate can be about 10 percent, but antibiotics can reduce this to below one percent. According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, complications occur in 10 to 15 percent of cases, the most serious of which are "gastrointestinal bleeding, perforation and typhoid encephalopathy".
The five deaths in Harare were originally attributed to malaria, but subsequent medical investigation determined the cause to be typhoid. Water bowsers have been deployed in Mabvuku and "health promoters are moving door to door, emphasizing sanitation and hygiene, and establishing if there are new cases of typhoid," Mungofa said.
Cholera
Zimbabwe is still on alert for cholera - between September 2009 and January 2010, 149 cholera cases were recorded, resulting in five deaths. An epidemic of the waterborne disease began in August 2008 and lasted for a year before it was officially declared at an end in July 2009, causing the deaths of more than 4,000 people and infecting nearly 100,000 others. The fatality rate was also nearly 5 percent, much higher than the usual one percent.
In an outbreak of typhoid between September 2004 and January 2005 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 42,564 cases of typhoid were reported, resulting in the deaths of 214 people.
"People can transmit [typhoid] as long as the bacteria remain in their bodies; most people are infectious prior to and during the first week of convalescence, but 10 percent of untreated patients will discharge bacteria for up to three months," the WHO website said. "In addition, two to five percent of untreated patients will become permanent, lifelong carriers of the bacteria in their gall-bladder."
Typhoid Mary
The ability of outwardly healthy people to carry the disease was first identified in 1907 by George Soper, a civil engineer hired by a New York banker to trace the origins of an outbreak during their family holiday.
Soper identified the cook, Mary Mallon, as the carrier - who became known as Typhoid Mary - after research into her employment history found that the incidence of typhoid fever had followed her through seven separate jobs.
Mallon was put into medical isolation in New York for a few years, before being released on condition that she did not work as cook again. However, she returned to the line of work a few years later and was discovered working under a pseudonym after another outbreak of the disease. Mallon thought to have infected at least 51 people over a period of about 15 years, of which three died.
WHO estimates that about 22 million cases of typhoid occur annually, causing 216,000 deaths, mainly in school-age children and young adults.
dd/go/he[END]
A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org
New drive to tackle malnutrition in 12 million children
A new fight against malnutrition is being launched by The Department for International Development (DFID), focussing on the six countries that are home to half of all undernourished children under five in the world.
The new strategy will address the devastating impact that malnutrition has on life-expectancy, health and long-term productivity, and will have a direct impact on the life chances of 12 million children by 2015.
This comes ahead of a major international conference, organised by DFID, where new proposals will be laid out to get the Millennium Development Goals back on track. The goals form a blueprint for governments and development organisations to improve the lives of the world's poorest. Nutrition has an impact on almost all the goals – from maternal mortality to child health, education and gender equality.
The nutrition strategy sets out a range of immediate and longer-term measures to reach young children in the critical first 1,000 days from conception. This is the key window in which malnutrition has to be tackled - beyond a child's second birthday, harmful effects cannot be reversed.
Efforts will be focussed on Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Each country will draft an action plan to address the particular challenges of local conditions. India's will be the first, published later this year. India remains home to 40 percent of the world's malnourished children. DFID will invest an additional
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has renewed its plea for funds as hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food assistance. According to the most recent figures, an estimated 2.17 million Zimbabweans are currently in need of food aid , and this number is set to rise on the back of an expected failed 2010 harvest.
"In some parts of the country, the food situation is as bad as many of our volunteers and staff have ever seen it," said Mrs. Emma Kundishora, Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS). "In Masvingo, for example, the rains didn't come in time and the crops have already died."
The ZRCS and the IFRC are particularly concerned about the impact of the existing and looming food crises on people living with or affected by HIV.
"Hunger is an especially brutal experience for these people," continued Mrs. Kundishora. "In recent years, for example, we have seen many people default on their ART (anti-retroviral treatment) because the drugs are too toxic without food. Once people do this, their situation deteriorates incredibly quickly."
In December 2009, the ZRCS and the IFRC extended their emergency food operation until October 2010, calling on donors for 38.4 million Swiss francs (USD 33.2 million). However, despite the severity of the situation on the ground, the Red Cross is facing a funding gap of about 26 million Swiss francs (USD 23.9 million).
"We're very concerned about this and the impact it could have on the support we need to provide to families across the country," said Dr. Stephen Omollo, IFRC representative. "Right now, the situation is already critical – more than two million people need direct humanitarian support. And we know that this will get worse as the upcoming harvest already appears to have failed."
The Red Cross operation aims to support more than 222,000 people. As well as providing food aid, Red Cross volunteers will also work with communities to reestablish water points, and to help them better prepare for future planting seasons through the distribution of agricultural inputs and training.
For more information please visit: www.ifrc.org/zimbabwe.
For further information, or to set up interviews, please contact:
Stambuli Kim, communications officer (Zimbabwe Red Cross) Tel: + 263 11 517 264
Paul Conneally, head of media (Geneva) Tel: +41 79 308 9809
The Geneva-based International Federation promotes the humanitarian activities of 186 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies among vulnerable people. By coordinating international disaster relief and encouraging development support, it seeks to prevent and alleviate human suffering. The Federation, National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross together, constitute the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
What's in a place when it comes to political events? Quite a lot, in the case of these three locations that have all been central to post-war British politics.
ADMIRALTY HOUSE
When 10 Downing Street has needed refurbishment, the grandly-named Admiralty House, a stone's throw from Trafalgar Square, has often become the temporary base of British prime ministers.
But as the Radio 4 series It Happened Here reveals, post-war prime ministers have seldom found it a haven from the cares of office.
Harold Macmillian addressing the nation from Admiralty House in 1961.
For Harold Macmillan and John Major, events that took place at Admiralty House spelt the end of both their premierships.
For Macmillan it was the Night of the Long Knives in July 1962, when he sacked a third of his Cabinet. It was intended as the act of a reinvigorated premier five years into the job.
Instead it smacked of desperation. He resigned a sick man the following year.
John Major moved to Admiralty House in 1992 after the IRA's mortar attack on Downing Street the previous winter.
His temporary home proved to be a communications black hole when the pound was forced out of the European exchange rate mechanism that September.
The home secretary Kenneth Clarke said nearly everyone else in Britain knew more about what was happening to sterling than senior ministers did on the fateful day.
That was ironic, since Macmillan, while at Admiralty House, had been one of the very few people to know what was going on at the Cold War's most perilous moment - the Cuban missile crisis. His late-night phone conversations with President Kennedy in the autumn of 1962 took place there.
Still, the technophobic Macmillan found the hotline to Washington perplexing. He spoke to Kennedy as if he were addressing a public meeting.
Admiralty House was first opened in 1786
Nuclear war seemed imminent on Saturday 27 October. And it was from Admiralty House that Macmillan instructed the head of the RAF to place pilots on 15 minutes' warning to take off with Britain's then air-launched nuclear deterrent.
They were stood down. And while conflict over Cuba was averted, another location in the It Happened Here series has proved to be at the centre of war planning for more than half-a-century.
THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
The prime minister's office in the House of Commons is at the heart of the Palace of Westminster.
By its entrance is a small portrait of the nineteenth century prime minister Benjamin Disraeli. He was responsible for Britain acquiring a controlling stake in the Suez Canal. The canal would prove the undoing of one of his successors, Sir Anthony Eden.
The fact that Britain could no longer act with force in the world without at least American acquiescence was brought home to the Cabinet here in the starkest terms
In this office successive premiers have made historic decisions about waging war.
Clement Attlee in November 1950 won Cabinet backing to fly to Washington for emergency talks about the escalating war in Korea, in which British troops were involved.
He sought American reassurance about restraint in the possible use of nuclear weapons.
It was a key moment in British Cold War diplomacy.
Just six years later transatlantic relations were close to breaking point.
Then Sir Anthony Eden and his Cabinet had to respond to intensifying US pressure
against the deployment of British and French troops to the Suez Canal.
The attempt to wrest back control of the canal from Egypt's President Nasser had infuriated Washington.
US President Eisenhower threatened oil sanctions against Britain and not to support the pound which was already under relentless pressure on the foreign exchanges.
Faced with this ultimatum, the Cabinet was humiliated and backed down. The fact that Britain could no longer act with force in the world without at least American acquiescence was brought home to the Cabinet here in the starkest terms.
It was a lesson not lost on another Conservative prime minister three decades later.
Margaret Thatcher authorised an anti-Argentine naval task force from her office at the House of Commons
. For it was in her Commons' office in March 1982 that Mrs Thatcher authorised preparations for a naval task force to re-take the Falklands Islands from the Argentines.
American support for the operation would prove critical.
Initially there were doubts in London that it could be launched. But the First Sea Lord, Sir Henry Leach, persuaded the prime minister that it could and should be done.
So before the Argentines had even landed on the Falklands, plans to repel them had already been made.
LANCASTER HOUSE
The foreign secretary at the time of the Argentine invasion of the Falklands was Lord Carrington. He is also closely associated with the third location of the It Happened Here series - Lancaster House.
This grand townhouse built in the early nineteenth century is within sight of Buckingham Palace.
Zimbabwe's independence was negotiated in this hall, the Long Gallery
That close proximity to the Crown is appropriate. In modern times, Lancaster House has been the place where former British colonies have achieved their independence.
Examples include Nigeria, Kenya and, perhaps most famous of all, Rhodesia. It finally negotiated independence from Britain in 1979 under the chairmanship of Lord Carrington, Mrs Thatcher's foreign secretary.
The main talks were held in the celebrated Long Gallery. Perhaps conscious of the broadly successful outcome of most negotiations here, the parties to the talks on the future of Afghanistan earlier this year met in the same place.
In 1979, Mrs Thatcher did not attend the formal sessions, leaving them instead to Lord Carrington. They were frequently difficult and protracted.
One of the most tense encounters took place in an ante room. Lord Carrington met Ian Smith, the leader of the white Rhodesian government which had declared unilateral - and unlawful - independence from Britain in the 1960s.
Lancaster House is still used for major events now
Ian Smith accused Lord Carrington of not giving the talks his full attention because he was also fulfilling his duties as foreign secretary. Meanwhile, he argued, lives were being lost in Rhodesia.
Lord Carrington, normally noted for his diplomacy, was on this occasion icily direct in his reply. But for you, he told Smith, no one in Rhodesia would be being killed. The white leader returned home shortly afterwards.
Lancaster House worked its magic nevertheless. The negotiations were finally completed before Christmas 1979 and the legally independent nation of Zimbabwe came into existence the following spring.
The third part of It Happened Here, presented by Professor Peter Hennessy, is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as the Sunday Supplement of
The Westminster Hour
on Sunday 14 March at 2245 GMT.
Harare, Zimbabwe - An estimated 2,17 million Zimbabweans - perhaps a fourth of the country's population - are in need of food aid, the Red Cross said on Thursday.
In a statement, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies pleaded for international funds for urgent food aid to Zimbabwe. UN organisations also have appealed for more donor funds.
In some parts of the country, the food situation is as bad as many of our volunteers and staff have ever seen it," said Emma Kundishora, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society.
Erratic rain - too much in some areas and too little in others - has damaged crops of corn, the staple food across the southern African nation. Continues Below ↓
The former regional breadbasket also has been hit by acute shortages of seed and fertiliser.
At least 4 million Zimbabweans are estimated to have fled the nation's economic meltdown in recent years to find work in neighbouring countries and further afield, leaving the population at about 8 million, according to official estimates from the finance ministry.
The Red Cross expressed particular concern about the possible impact of existing and looming food shortages on people living with or affected by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
"Hunger is an especially brutal experience for these people," Kundishora said, describing people interrupting AIDS medication because the drugs are too toxic without food.
"Once people do this, their situation deteriorates incredibly quickly," she said.
In December 2009, the Red Cross extended emergency food operation in Zimbabwe until October 2010, calling on donors for $33,2-million in extra funding.
The agency faces a shortfall in funding of about $23,9-million, Thursday's statement said.
"Right now, the situation is already critical - more than 2 million people need direct humanitarian support," said Dr Stephen Omollo, the IFRC representative in Zimbabwe. "And we know that this will get worse as the upcoming harvest already appears to have failed."
Farmers organisations forecast local corn harvests this year of some 500 000 tons, with annual consumption estimated at about 1,8 million tons.
Critics of longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe blame the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms since 2000 for the economic crisis that disrupted the agriculture based economy.
Last year, Mugabe signed a coalition deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who is now prime minister.
But the unity government has been split by disputes over power sharing since it was sworn in in February, 2009. - Sapa-AP
Zimbabwe faces a variety of difficult economic, political and social challenges as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, political oppression, increasing mortality rates and a worsening education system. Zimbabwe's current crisis, described by some observers as the country's worst humanitarian crisis since independence in 1980, has been attributed to gross government mismanagement, a severe nationwide drought and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The fact that Britain could no longer act with force in the world without at least American acquiescence was brought home to the Cabinet here in the starkest terms
