JOHANNESBURG, 3 August 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS

ZIMBABWE: Rural living standards now apply in the capital ZIMBABWE: WFP launches appeal for emergency funding SWAZILAND: Hard times raise levels of abuse SOUTH AFRICA: Clamping down on botched circumcisions ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: Crossing the border to bring the groceries home SWAZILAND: First drought and food shortages, now fires SWAZILAND: Fires become a national disaster ZIMBABWE: ZANU-PF wants to make Mugabe president for life LESOTHO: One of the worst droughts in 30 years prompts US$18.9 million appeal COMOROS: An expensive stalemate

ZIMBABWE: Rural living standards now apply in the capital

The lifestyle normally associated with an urban society is fast disappearing from Zimbabwe's once bustling capital, Harare.

The city's 2.8 million residents are adopting a way of life more akin to the country's rural areas, where drinking water is drawn from shallow pits and electricity is all but unavailable, although the metropolitan area's population density has produced its own quirks, such as untreated sewage spilling onto the streets.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73551

ZIMBABWE: WFP launches appeal for emergency funding

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) made an urgent appeal for US$118 million on Wednesday, to provide immediate assistance to 3.3 million Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages.

The agency has already secured 138,000 metric tonnes (mt) of food for Zimbabwe, but requires another 207,000mt of cereals and other commodities, costing about $118 million, to cover its increased relief activities from now until the next harvest in April 2008.

See report:

SWAZILAND: Hard times raise levels of abuse

About 40 percent of Swaziland's one million people are facing acute food and water shortages; coping strategies have worn thin and frustrations are running high, all contributing to rising abuse and risky behaviour.

Poor households are reported to have engaged in negative coping strategies, including transactional sex, leading to a higher incidence of sexually transmitted infections and HIV.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73530

SOUTH AFRICA: Clamping down on botched circumcisions

By the time winter has ended, thousands of young South African boys will have gone through a month-long traditional rite of passage and become men.

But becoming a man can be a life-threatening business. The ancient ritual has come under fire in recent years as health authorities report serious complications from botched circumcisions by traditional surgeons.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73278

ZIMBABWE-SOUTH AFRICA: Crossing the border to bring the groceries home

Bulk traders have been flocking to South Africa for months to buy groceries for resale in Zimbabwe, but now a rapidly growing number of individual shoppers are arriving to stock up on essentials in Musina, about 13km from the border, in South Africa's Limpopo Province.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe launched "Operation Reduce Prices" in late June in an attempt to cap escalating prices as businesses tried to cushion themselves against the world's highest inflation rate by forcing retailers to slash their prices by 50 percent.

This has resulted in empty shop shelves and widespread shortages of basic commodities, and the International Monetary Fund has warned that Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation rate could reach over 100,000 percent by the end of 2007.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73512

SWAZILAND: First drought and food shortages, now fires

Swaziland has declared a national emergency in response to the raging fires that have swept through parts of the kingdom, engulfing as many as 300 homesteads, killing livestock and destroying crops and large swathes of commercial tree plantations.

At least a dozen people have died, and firefighters have sought to contain the blazes because high winds have made extinguishing them an all but impossible task.

See reports: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73496 And: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73574

ZIMBABWE: ZANU-PF wants to make Mugabe president for life

A recent central committee meeting of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party called for President Robert Mugabe to be installed as president for life, as well as the creation of ideological schools targeting preschool children.

The minutes of the party's central committee and politburo meeting on 30 March - the two most powerful ZANU-PF organs, both chaired by Mugabe in his capacity as president and first secretary of the ruling party - were adopted on 4 May and subsequently leaked to an IRIN correspondent.

See report:

LESOTHO: One of the worst droughts in 30 years prompts US$18.9 million appeal

The UN is appealing for US$18.9 million to feed more than 500,000 rural people struggling to cope with food shortages in one of Lesotho's worst droughts in 30 years.

Production of maize, the country's staple food, has dropped by more than half compared to 2006, causing a deficit that is likely to be further aggravated by decreased cereal production in parts of South Africa, which has also experienced below-average rainfall for much of this year, and which supplies approximately 70 percent of Lesotho's food requirements.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73492

COMOROS: An expensive stalemate

Tension is mounting as the political stalemate deepens between the Union of Comoros and one of its semi-autonomous islands, Anjouan, sparking fears of possible military action and postponing much-needed international development assistance.

Individual island elections in June re-ignited inter-island hostility between Anjouan and the other two islands in the archipelago, Grande Comore and Moheli.

See report: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org

IRIN news