NAMIBIA: Army cites captures along Angolan
border
The Namibia Defence Force (NDF) said
it had killed 12 Angolan UNITA soldiers, captured six, freed more than
300 civilians and recovered more than 400 head of cattle in recent operations
along the country's tense border with Angola. 'The Namibian' on Tuesday
quoted Emily Kazapua, of the public relations department in the ministry
of defence, as saying the statistics related to incidents from the end
of last year until September.
It said the figures excluded the killing of a suspected UNITA rebel on Sunday a week ago when NDF soldiers rescued a woman and her husband from armed men transporting looted goods to Angola. The incident took place at Shankara in east Kavango. Ten days ago a civilian shot dead a suspected UNITA rebel after 10 armed men attempted to steal from his house and from his neighbours.
"Asked what had happened to captured UNITA members and civilians found in UNITA-controlled areas, Kazapua said both groups had handed over to the Angolan government," the newspaper said. "The UNITA soldiers were killed in battles inside Namibia and during follow-up operations in Angola." The Namibian army did not list any casualties on its side. The latest statistics also listed an assortment of weapons captured by the army.
ZAMBIA: Angolan soldiers flee fighting
At least 90 Angolan soldiers have fled into Zambia from rebel-held areas of Angola and surrendered themselves to Zambian authorities, a senior police official told AFP on Monday. It said they were among a group of about 1,200 civilians who had fled fighting in Angola's Moxico Province.
"We have so far recovered 204 firearms from the soldiers and some explosives. The firearms were all AK-47 assault rifles," the official said. He said the soldiers were expected to be repatriated, he said. An official at the Angolan embassy confirmed that soldiers had fled into Zambia, but could not provide details, the report added. The Zambian government, which has been at pains to deny Angolan charges that it has granted asylum to UNITA rebels, has not commented on the incident.
SWAZILAND: American officials in talks with government
A United States government delegation has begun talks with Swazi officials on amendments to a controversial industrial relations law which has seen Swaziland left out of a key trade pact for African countries.
News reports on Tuesday quoted the US embassy in Mbabane as saying a team of US state and labour department officials had arrived in Swaziland to discuss technical aspects of the two-month-old law, which has been slammed as restrictive by the International Labour Organisation. Concerns over the Industrial Relations Act 2000 prompted Washington to exclude Swaziland from trade benefits under the recently passed African Growth and Opportunity Act.
[See also: SWAZILAND: IRIN Focus on economic downturn http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/swaziland/20000925.phtml]
MOZAMBIQUE: Threat of hunger in Manhica
The district's administrator of southern Mozambique's Manhica district has warned that some 4,000 people displaced by heavy floods earlier this year could face hunger because seeds for the current planting season were only being distributed this week.
"There are continued threats of hunger," Muianga was quoted in news reports as saying. "The greater part of the farmland is still waterlogged, and if it falls a little bit more, the rain will cause inundation that will harm the productive areas because the soils are already saturated." Meanwhile, Manhica was continuing its resettlement process, particularly for the 4,000 or so who were left without housing. "We're working for the restart of economic activity," he said, adding that the planting season is behind schedule since "we should have planted, but the seed distribution will be done only this week."
MALAWI: World Bank official says external factors hurting economy
Robert Liebenthal, the country representative of the World Bank has said in an interview carried by the daily, 'The Nation' that Malawi's economic woes should not be blamed on individuals because they were the result of external problems, especially escalating crude oil prices.
In remarks published on Tuesday, he said rising fuel procurement costs meant that the country's fuel retailers had to continue realigning their pump prices, a phenomenon which had negatively impacted on other sectors of the economy, especially transport. While the country was vulnerable to external shocks, Liebenthal said Malawi had also been affected by this year's low tobacco yield, which would have by now injected a substantial amount into the financial system and topped up foreign reserves.
"What is happening in the economy is surely no good news for anybody right now but with good economic management, the economy should be back on its feet again," he said. With inflation margins at 30 percent in September, up from 25 percent mid this year, Malawi was also grappling with high interest rates, which analysts said at 44.5 percent were too high to enable private borrowing.
MAURITIUS: Journalist Attacked In Port-Louis
A senior Mauritian journalist was attacked near his home in the capital Port-Louis early on Monday morning in what his newspaper called a "clear case" of political intimidation. The daily 'Le Mauricien' said its parliamentary correspondent, Patrick Michel, had been forced off the road on his way to work, and beaten up by two men who stole his mobile telephone.
Michel, however, managed to escaped from his attackers and reported the incident to police. In a brief front page report on the incident, 'Le Mauricien' said he had covered a number of stories and disclosures which led to the dissolution of the Labour Party dominated national assembly in August, and subsequent parliamentary elections in which the party was roundly defeated. "There is nothing to stop us from believing that this is a clear case of intimidation by one party or another which feels threatened by his disclosures in our columns," the paper said.
BOTSWANA: Foreign minister in SA talks
Botswana Foreign Minister Mompati Merafhe arrived on South Africa on Tuesday for three days of talks on regional and bilateral issues with his South African counterpart, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and other officials, the foreign ministry said in a statement. "Botswana is one of the most politically and economically stable countries in the region and in Africa," it said.
[ENDS]
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