SOUTHERN AFRICA: Crop outlook
Southern Africa's crop production prospects
are "generally satisfactory" despite the recent flooding in large
parts of the region, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)
said in its latest update.
The FAO said that the food supply situation in Angola remained "very serious" and that emergency food aid was needed for Angolan refugees in Zambia and Namibia.
It added that a joint FAO/WFP Food Supply Assessment Mission planned to visit Angola in mid April to review the harvest, assess the food supply situation and estimate the cereal import requirements, including food aid, for next year.
ZAMBIA: More troops for Angola border
Zambia has sent more troops to its border with Angola, news reports said on Tuesday.
President Frederick Chiluba was quoted as saying that Zambia had reinforced the troops along the border because it "did not want people to live in fear".
He was also quoted as saying that Zambia was ready to defend herself and would not tolerate any attacks. "Our policy is to be friendly with all our neighbours but if we are attacked we'll attack back," he said. "If in defending ourselves we kill some people God will forgive us."
AFRICA: Elephant poaching increasing
Elephant poaching has increased "sharply" since the 1997 decision to allow three southern African countries to hold one-off ivory sales, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said on Tuesday.
The EIA was quoted by Reuters as saying that there had been an upsurge in poaching, ivory seizures and demand for ivory since members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) agreed in 1997 to allow Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to sell ivory to Japan.
The EIA said that an aerial survey of Zimbabwe's Zambezi valley in late 1999 showed about 1,370 elephant carcasses, making up 11 percent of the population. It said that this contrasted with government figures which said only 84 elephants were killed in Zimbabwe in 1999.
Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa want to extend the sales and plan to petition the 11th CITES meeting which scheduled in Nairobi later this month.
[ENDS]
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