JOHANNESBURG, 15 June 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

COMOROS: Bacar defies African Union and the Union government COMOROS: Government considers military option to resolve electoral crisis MOZAMBIQUE: Ammunition debris claims two children ZIMBABWE: Forests felled for firewood DRC-MOZAMBIQUE: First Congolese refugees volunteer for repatriation SOUTH AFRICA: Strike action affects health services SOUTH AFRICA: Local government minister dismisses claims of failed service delivery SWAZILAND: Are there any good men?

COMOROS: Bacar defies African Union and the Union government

In defiance of both the Union of Comoros government and the African Union (AU), Mohamed Bacar, 45, inaugurated himself for a second term as the president of Anjouan Island this week. In response, the Union has sent a high-level delegation to the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa for urgent talks.

The Indian Ocean archipelego held scheduled elections on two of its three islands on 10 June - Grande Comore and Moheli - after incidents of violence and intimidation during the run-up to Anjouan's election precipitated the poll's postponement until 17 June by the AU and the Union government.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72752

COMOROS: Government considers military option to resolve electoral crisis

A military solution to end the burgeoning electoral crisis on the Indian Ocean island of Anjouan, one of three islands comprising the Union of Comoros, is being considered by the government, IRIN has reliably learned.

Grand Comore and Moheli islands held scheduled elections on Sunday 10 June, but Anjouan's poll was initially postponed by a week after deadly clashes between Union government forces and the island's para-military police.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72715

MOZAMBIQUE: Ammunition debris claims two children

Two children were killed and one critically wounded earlier this week in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, when they accidentally ignited a bomb, raising fears that live ammunition was still scattered around the city months after deadly explosions at a local military arms depot.

Explosions on 22 March at the Malhazine national arms depot, about 10km from the city centre, showered more than 4,000 pieces of ordnance into 14 densely populated neighbourhoods, killing more than a 100 people, wounding more than 500, and destroying dozens of homes.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72753

ZIMBABWE: Forests felled for firewood

Firewood has become Zimbabwe's hottest seller, with demand shooting up since the introduction two weeks ago of widespread and prolonged power outages to give the irrigation of winter wheat fields a priority allocation of dwindling energy supplies.

Chamunorwa Chimombe, a beneficiary of President Robert Mugabe's fast-track land reform programme, which redistributed white-owned commercial farmland to landless blacks, now spends his day sipping beer beside the busy highway connecting the capital, Harare, to the town of Mazowe, while he sells firewood from trees felled on his newly acquired farm.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72688

DRC-MOZAMBIQUE: First Congolese refugees volunteer for repatriation

Groups of Congolese refugees left Mozambique for their homeland this week , the first to be voluntarily repatriated from the country since the return of peace to most parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after years of war. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees flew 116 people from Nampula, in northern Mozambique, to Kigoma, Tanzania, and from there they were ferried across Lake Tanganyika to the DRC's South Kivu Province.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72713

SOUTH AFRICA: Strike action affects health services

Industrial action since 1 June by the South African public sector workforce, who are demanding a pay hike, is taking its toll on the country's health services. The strike, termed as the biggest since the demise of apartheid by its organisers the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), a labour federation, has crippled schools, hospitals and public transport.

Full report:

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72719

SOUTH AFRICA: Local government minister dismisses claims of failed service delivery

South Africa's Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney Mufamadi, told IRIN in an interview that the rash of service delivery protests throughout the country since 2004 was a consequence of the ruling ANC government's successes, not its failures. "As we make progress in some municipalities, the residents in other municipalities become impatient: they expect their public representatives to deliver in the same way as progress is made in other municipalities," he said.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72735

SWAZILAND: Are there any good men?

'Are there any good Swazi men?' is the catchphrase of a competition to draw men into discussing gender-based violence in the kingdom's patriarchal society.

With Father's Day on Sunday 17 June in mind, the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), a non-governmental organisation, is using the competition as a publicity gimmick for a Men's Involvement Programme, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72751

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