http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/44e3cabde3153d2739bed66591d4e84a.htmAFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 277 for 1-7 April 2006
07 Apr 2006 19:11:27 GMT
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JOHANNESBURG, 7 April (IRIN) - CONTENTS
ZIMBABWE: Women's lives the shortest, says UN report BOTSWANA: Diarrhoea epidemic kills 470 children COMOROS: Presidential campaigning kicks off NAMIBIA: Slow but steady progress towards a better life - new survey AFRICA: Health worker migration: can it be stemmed? ZAMBIA: Free healthcare works if quality service provided LESOTHO: 'Know your status' drive needs $12.5m and people's cooperation MALAWI: Opposition demands audit of maize imports
ZIMBABWE: Women's lives the shortest, says UN report
Zimbabwean women have a life expectancy of 34 years - the world's lowest, according to the UN's World Health Report 2006. While the World Health Organisation, who released the report this week said the decline could be attributed to the high HIV/AIDS prevalence, NGOs in Zimbabwe have linked the decrease to the worsening economic crisis in the country. Shortage of foreign currency to import medicines, the flight of medical personnel and an ailing healthcare infrastructure had devastated the country's health sector.
This week, a rights NGO headed by church leaders claimed that the military had taken control of food production by small-scale farmers in parts of southern Zimbabwe. The Solidarity Peace Trust alleged that under the guise of Operation Taguta/Sisuthi or 'Operation Eat Well', launched last year to help revive the agriculture sector, army units have "hijacked" plots and maize harvests in the southern province of Matabeleland, leaving the smallholder-farmers with no income or food.