Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) calls upon visiting Zambian President Rupiah Bwezani Banda to help establish the fate or whereabouts of several Namibian freedom fighters who had disappeared without a trace to date on Zambian soil between 1976 and 1978. The Zambian security forces, presumably acting on the instructions of then SWAPO President Sam Nujoma, rounded them up after they were accused of being “radicals” and or “rebels”.

More than $300m (£200m) of health funding to Zambia's government is being suspended by the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It said it was concerned about alleged corruption in connection with one or more grants to the health ministry.

The participants of the an international conference on “Women’s Leadership Conference” held in Lusaka at the Inter-Continental Hotel, 7-9 June 2010, have expressed dismay and anger at the unprofessional and unacceptable behaviour of the Second in Command of the Zambian Police for Lusaka Province (Mr. Chushi) for harassing and embarrassing a co-participant, Ms Jean Kapata, in the dining room at lunch hour on 8 June, on the pretext that she was allegedly holding an ‘illegal meeting’ of the Patriotic Front (PF) at the same hotel.

“I would like to thank everybody for the support that I have been given since Friday and before that,” The Post editor Fred M’membe told Reporters Without Borders as he was released this afternoon from Lusaka prison, where he had just spent three days. “I am very grateful to my fellow journalists,” said M’membe, who was sentenced to four months in prison with hard labour on 4 June on a contempt of court charge. “I have received more than the support I thought I would get and I deserve.”

On 3 June 2010, The Post newspapers and its editor in chief, Fred M’membe were found guilty of one count of contempt of court, a charge arising from an opinion article authored by United States of America-based Zambian Law Professor, Muna Ndulo and published by the newspaper on 27 August 2009. However, presiding Magistrate Simausamba reserved sentence to 4 June 2010. Meanwhile, M’membe’s lawyer, Remmy Mainza said the case in which his clients were convicted of was a misdemeanor which attracted a sentence of six months or a fine. He prayed to the court to give his clients a non- custodial or suspended sentence because the two were first offenders who had no track of a criminal record.

A landmark court case in Zambia is sure to reignite a debate about the pros and cons of mandatory testing for HIV. Zambia Air Force (ZAF) officers Stanley Kingaipe and Charles Chookole say they were tested and treated for the virus without their knowledge. ZAF has now been ordered to pay them compensation for mental anguish. The controversy about compulsory testing has been smouldering for some time. It was a stray remark by the minister of health at a HIV conference late in 2008 that started it. Kapembwa Simbao was reported as saying that too few Zambians were voluntarily going for an HIV test and that they should be compelled to do so.

Zambia's former finance minister, Katele Kalumba, has been jailed for five years for corruption. Lusaka High Court deputy director of operations, Edward Musona, sitting as magistrate on Wednesday, convicted Kalumba to five years, along with six others, including former finance permanent secretary Stella Chibanda and former finance chief economist Bede Mphande.

Recent homophobic statements by religious leaders and government authorities risk undermining Zambia's fight against HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Zambian leaders on May 17, 2010. Human Rights Watch called on government authorities to condemn statements that could discourage men who have sex with men from seeking health care and erode their fundamental human rights, and to reaffirm the importance of HIV testing and treatment for these men.

Northmead Assemblies of God Bishop Joshua Banda has advised the donor community to channel their funds to development programmes rather than supporting practises such as homosexuality that are alien to the Zambian society. And Bishop Joe Imakando of Bread of Life Church International said homosexuals and lesbians had no room in society because Zambia had been declared a Christian nation.

Zambia is pushing forward with formulating an anti-counterfeit draft law which will include medicines, despite the controversy that has surrounded similar laws in East Africa and despite having existing legislation which has been used to successfully prosecute counterfeiters of medicines

African Rights, REDRESS and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre have sent a confidential report to President Rupiah Banda of Zambia detailing the names and roles of 16 key suspects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda who are believed to be living in Zambia. The report follows a visit of President Banda to Rwanda in mid- January 2010 during which he expressed determination to take timely and effective action to ensure that Zambia is no longer a safe haven for individuals who are alleged to have taken part in planning, organizing and executing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organization of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), strongly protests the Zambian government’s on-going attempts to impose a statutory regulatory council on the media in the country, a move strongly opposed by the Zambian independent media community.

In many African countries, prison conditions are awful, and have been for years. The prisons are overcrowded. Prisoners often get little food. HIV and TB are widespread, and healthcare is inadequate. Large numbers of pre-trial detainees, often held for long periods awaiting trial, mix with the general prison population, and frequently have inadequate legal counsel.

Zambian police have placed influential opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema under house arrest in Mufumbwe constituency, which has been engulfed in political upheaval in the run-up to today’s parliamentary by-elections. Mr Hichilema’s UPND members allegedly assaulted a man, they claimed had impersonated a policeman, leading to their opposition leader’s arrest.

A shadow has fallen over Zambia's long history of generously hosting refugees from troubled countries since 36 foreigners were deported to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but the government says it is only trying to ensure security and order in camps that still shelter some 57,000 people. "We are hoping that [deportations] will stop," said James Lynch, country representative for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Zambia. The organization communicated its alarm at the expulsions to the Zambian authorities on 13 April.

In Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is responding to the worst cholera outbreaks in the country for many years. Over the last five weeks the number of cholera cases has risen dramatically to more than 4,500, while more than 120 people have lost their lives. Despite hopes that the outbreak has reached its peak the previous week and that the number of cholera cases will start decreasing, heavy rains that continue to cause severe floods in the city could potentially worsen the situation in the coming weeks.

First Lady Thandiwe Banda has said Zambia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and that safe motherhood is still far from being assured. Ms Banda was speaking in Lusaka when she officiated at the opening of a media capacity building workshop on the campaign for accelerated reduction of maternal mortality in Africa (CARMMA).

Eight hundred people displaced by excessive flooding and intense rains in Lusaka, the capital of southern African country Zambia. More than 60 families evacuated from their waterlogged shacks to a temporal resettlement campsite on higher grounds out of the Independence Stadium in Lusaka Nort

HIV-positive Bupe Mwamba, 22, lies next to her newborn baby girl at the rural clinic she just gave birth in and wonders if her baby is HIV-positive too. She has been for counselling throughout her antenatal check-ups and knows there is a chance her baby girl may be HIV-negative. But it still does not eliminate her fears and anxieties.

While Zambia undergoes a Constitution Review Process, the gay community in that country has been dealt a severe blow by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC)’s decision to adopt a clause that prohibits marriage between people of the same sex.