In Brief

Appeal No. 05AA018; Programme Update no. 2, Period covered: July to November 2005; Appeal coverage: 150.4% (adjusted as per revised appeal budget). Click here to go directly to the attached Contributions List, also available on the website.

Programme Update no. 1 dated 10 August

In contrast to the bright Christmas lights in Harare's First Street Mall, residents here say it was the pungent smell from the raw sewage flowing freely in the streets that literally extinguished the Christmas spirit.

"It is difficult to convince these

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told ZimOnline in an interview on Tuesday that the party, which has splintered into two warring factions after serious disagreements over participation in last month's senate election, had resolved to use confrontation to end Mugabe's uninterrupted 25-year rule.

"There will be mass arrests, injuries

Weekly Introduction
Update of Seasonal Outlooks at Four-Months Lead: April – June 2006

Northern Horn of Africa

Climatology is expected across most of the region, except locally over northwestern and southwestern Sudan, where there is a slight tilt in the odds favoring below normal rainfall. There is a slight tilt in the odds favoring above normal rainfall locally over eastern Ethiopia, northern Somalia, and portions of Djibouti. Climatology is expected elsewhere.

Gulf of Guinea

Aid agencies estimate that some 12 million people are food insecure in the region, which has suffered widespread crop failures due to erratic weather. The impact of HIV/AIDS, deepening poverty and the weakened capacity of governments to care for people in need have exacerbated the current crisis.

The agency said that most farmers in resettlement and communal areas reduced areas their put under crops as drought killed their cattle last season.

The worst affected homesteads lost between five and 15 cattle each as the critical shortage grazing and water deepened, it said, adding the shortage of draught power coupled with the rising cost

(B) Middle East,Central Asia and Eastern Europe: (1) Pakistan

(C) East & Central Africa: (1) Burundi (2) Congo, DR (3) Ethiopia (4) Kenya (5) Rwanda (6) Sudan (7) Tanzania

(D) West Africa: (1) Chad (2) Liberia

(E) Southern Africa: (1) Lesotho (2) Malawi (3) Mozambique (4) Namibia (5) Swaziland (6) Zambia (7) Zimbabwe

(F) Latin America and Caribbean:

The Zimbabwean government has predicted a steady agricultural led economic growth rate of between two and three percent in 2006.

Agriculture is projected to register a 14.8 percent positive growth on the back of a normal rainy season, increased

President Robert Mugabe's government has rejected offers of emergency aid from the world body for thousands whose homes were destroyed during its urban clean-up campaign this year, although it says it wants U.N. help to build permanent homes.

Mugabe has led vicious attacks on the