Malaria is the leading cause of death in five of Namibia's northern regions, claiming the lives of 467 people since January this year, a senior health official told IRIN on Wednesday. "Most of these deaths are malaria-related. The incidence of malaria peaked earlier this year because of the heavy rainfall in the north," said Dr Petrina Usiko, director of primary health care services in the ministry of health.

Donor governments have failed to come forward with any money to help more than 600 000 women and children in Namibia survive the combined effects of erratic weather, severe poverty and a worsening Aids epidemic, UN aid agencies said on Tuesday. "We've received nothing. Not one cent," said Christiane Berthiaume, spokesperson for the World Food Programme. "This is one of the world's forgotten crises."

The devastating impact of HIV-AIDS on the education sector is of grave concern, says Basic Education Minister John Mutorwa. Motivating the largest allocation in this year's national Budget - a whopping N$2,4 billion - in the National Assembly, Mutorwa said the pandemic had the "potential to nullify all the good work that is being planned and done within the sector". The allocation, which is almost seven per cent more than last year, will provide for the education of 566 740 school children and 27 000 distance education learners, adult literacy for 40 000 people and the services of 23 000 staff, of whom 18 000 are teachers.

The food aid pipeline for 14,000 refugees in Namibia will face a complete break from June onwards, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. WFP Namibia programme head Abdirahman Meygag told IRIN on Monday the agency "only has small quantities of food, enough only for May distributions" in the main refugee camp at Osire and the Kassava transit centre.

The Namibian Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has strongly condemned what it says are several incidents of political corruption and bribery as well as intimidation over the last eight days. Pre-polling irregularities, vote buying, influence peddling and smear tactics as well as misuse of public funds characterize such incidents, the organisation said in a press statement.

Brushing off fears of Zimbabwe-style farm invasions, President Sam Nujoma assured Namibians on Wednesday that a land expropriation program would be conducted in a legal and orderly manner. Most of Namibia's productive farmland is owned by whites who make up less than 5 percent of the country's people. The government is in the process of identifying a number of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

An in-depth study of privatised water services in Namibia says that while prepaid water systems are being marketed as the solution to bad debts and water conservation, they are in fact worsening the plight of the country's most vulnerable. Titled 'Water Privatisation in Namibia: Creating a New Apartheid?', the report released by the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI), contends that the system is exposing thousands of the country's poor to preventable diseases and death.

Namibian farmers have reacted strongly to the government's suggestion that it might target farms with a record of poor labour relations for expropriation. In a statement sent to the Windhoek-based The Namibian daily newspaper on Monday, the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, while spelling out the criteria for expropriation, said that "aspects of eviction and dumping of labourers, though not a criterion to expropriate a farm", could be considered "because of the social aspect such action poses to the Namibian people".

At the rate land redistribution is going, it will take 40 years before half of Namibia's commercial farmland can land in the hands of black people. Present policies of land redistribution, described as transfer of commercial farmland from whites and foreigners to blacks, have led to only one percent of commercial land being redistributed every year. The above assumptions are contained in a research paper written by Robin Sherbourne, Director of Public Policy and Research at the Institute of Public Policy and Research (IPPR).

Kiswahili speakers can now spellcheck documents in their own language. A group of developers taking part in the Africa Source joined forces - and resources - to develop the first-ever Kiswahili dictionary. The project, led by Jason Githeko of Kenya and Translate.org.za's Dwayne Bailey produced the new dictionary in one of the training sessions during the conference.

A radical redistribution of land in Namibia could lead to disinvestment and undermine economic growth, a new study has warned. Land reform in the southwest African country has re-emerged as a political hot potato since last year. Frustrated by the slow pace of transferring commercial farmland from white to black Namibians, the government announced that it would accelerate the land reform process by expropriating property.

Namibian President Sam Nujoma has abandoned any prospect of a fourth term in office after a weekend meeting with leaders of his ruling SWAPO. The 74-year-old former guerrilla leader suggested only last week he would be willing to contest a fourth term - currently barred by the constitution - if asked by the party he led in a three-decade armed struggle for independence from South Africa.

Namibia is one of the first countries in the world to form a national coalition on the UN Literacy Decade. During a conference earlier this month, some 100 people representing various stakeholders in literacy came together to celebrate the launch of the Literacy Decade in the country. Representatives from Botswana and Cuba also attended the conference to share their experiences. The conference was organized by UNESCO Windhoek in collaboration with the Namibian Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture.

The Caprivi Regional Emergency Management Unit (REMU) is preparing to evacuate villagers from areas surrounded by floodwaters in the eastern Caprivi as the Zambezi River rises. It reached 6,42 metres, as measured at Katima Mulilo, yesterday. EMU Deputy Director Gabriel Kangowa said that three boats had been obtained from the military base at Katima Mulilo to move people to safety as well as for the delivery of food aid.

Calls for women to move from their cooking pots into decision-making positions are growing stronger by the day. During the celebrations of International Women’s Day, both Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Kaire Mbuende, and Women’s Action for Development Executive Director, Veronica de Klerk, called on women to take up positions of power. Four elections, namely, local, regional, parliamentary and general elections are scheduled between May and December this year.

Farming communities in Okakarara are caught up in a Catch-22 situation. Wild dogs are killing their livestock in growing numbers. Yet they may not kill the wild dogs because they are one of the world's most endangered species. Wild dogs have all along been a problem in the area but this year, says conservancy co-ordinator Gemon Kaapehi, the situation is so bad that farmers are losing cattle, sheep and goats on a daily basis.

Some youths in Okakarara are beating their unemployment woes by caring for bed-ridden AIDS patients. Under the name Home Based Care Givers, the 22, mainly youth, started giving care after realising that people living with HIV/AIDS are discriminated against and stigmatised. On a daily basis, they walk some 30 km to get to their bed-ridden clients spread around Okondjatu, Otjituuo and sometimes Okamatapati.

The United Nations will need US $5.8 million to help over 600,000 Namibian orphans, vulnerable children and women suffering the combined effects of erratic weather, severe poverty and a worsening HIV/AIDS epidemic. On Wednesday the World Food Programme (WFP) and UN's Children's Fund (UNICEF) launched an emergency appeal, noting that "tens of thousands of children and their families will face severe difficulties in the coming months, unless international assistance is forthcoming".

The seizure of the Hakhaseb multi-purpose community centre-kindergarten at Usakos on Monday has left many children and their family members traumatised. Usakos Municipal personnel, accompanied by armed Police officers, stormed the centre on Monday and locked the complex. Angry mothers told The Namibian that their children were having nightmares and anxiety attacks during the night. "The children are scared that the Police will come and lock them up," said Fielie Walda, whose one-year-old daughter attends the kindergarten.

The recent announcement by the Namibian government that it will begin to expropriate agricultural land held under freehold title for redistribution has grabbed the headlines. For many landowners and investors, this statement conjured up images of Zimbabwe-style land occupations. Reactions in Namibia have varied from expressions of shock by the Namibia Agriculture Union to praise from trade unions and the Council of Churches. The predominantly white Republican Party, formerly part of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, has described the intention to expropriate freehold agricultural land as “responsible, fair and reassuring”. To call the government’s announcement a “land grab” is an overreaction, argues this commentary published in South Africa's This Day newspaper.