Dar Es Salaam

Amani Karume, President of Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island state of Zanzibar, on Sunday inaugurated the isle’s new flag nearly four decades after it entered into union with the mainland state. The inauguration ceremony was marked by a 21-gun salute and singing of the island’s national anthem. The flag, a symbol of national unity in the island, is made up of green, gold, blue and black colours.

African leaders meeting in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam inked a United Nations-backed agreement on Saturday pledging to find peaceful solutions to conflicts in Central Africa’s Great Lakes region. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said it has taken 10 years to get all the leaders around the talks table.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government said on Thursday it is investigating reports of an ”isolated and regrettable” rocket attack on neighbouring Rwanda from its territory. A senior Rwandan army officer said on Wednesday that Rwandan rebels launched rockets across the border from one of their strongholds in the eastern DRC.

In the next six years, the number of Tanzanians killed by malaria could be halved. They just need to start using insecticide-treated nets. Currently, Tanzania has the highest rate of death from malaria in Southern Africa. A staggering 100 000 Tanzanians die from the disease each year.

Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa has urged for increased efforts in the fight against malaria, saying that in Tanzania, as in many other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the disease is killing more people than HIV/Aids does. ”With 100 000 malaria-related deaths every year, Tanzania is leading in such deaths,” he said.

Thousands of tourists flock to northern Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park every year to watch pink flamingoes, but recent mass deaths of the birds have brought a new tragedy. ”The death of more than 10 000 flamingoes in Lake Manyara is a real tragedy,” Tanzania National Parks director general Gerald Bigurube said.

Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa on Monday pardoned 4 485 prisoners as a gesture of goodwill on the 40th anniversary of the union between then Tanganyika and Indian Ocean islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, the government announced.

Tanzania’s semi-autonomous Zanzibar and Pemba islands will have their own flag before the end of the year, officials said on Thursday, for the first time since 1964. The government will soon invite artists to propose the format of the flag and colours before its final version is approved.

Tanzania’s National Aids Control Programme (NACP) has called for increased donour assistance to replenish stocks of condoms, saying a looming shortage could adversely affect campaigns against HIV/Aids.

The Japanese government is looking to extend its involvement in conflict resolution in Africa beyond just providing money to include participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations, an embassy official said on Wednesday.

Tanzania is not bound by a treaty, signed in 1929 when the east African country was under British colonial rule, that requires it to seek permission from Egypt to use water from Lake Victoria, the government insisted on Sunday.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders were set to meet behind closed doors on Tuesday, the last day of their summit, zooming in on issues crippling growth in the region, including Aids, political instability and poverty.

Southern African leaders said on Monday economic growth in their region can only be achieved by creating peace and stability, as they kicked off a two-day summit in Tanzania.

A tiny species of toad whose only known habitat is the misty banks of Tanzania’s Kihanzi river has been saved from extinction at the hands of the safari ant and thirsty hyro-power, a conservationist reported on Tuesday.

About 50 eminent personalities from across Africa will meet in the Tanzanian town of Arusha next week to discuss the effects of globalisation on the world’s poorest continent, the UN labour agency said on Friday.

Leaders of several African countries meeting in Tanzania’s economic capital on Monday warned Burundi’s two main rebel groups that measures would be taken against them if they continued to thwart efforts to end almost a decade of civil war.

Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa has pardoned 3 000 prisoners on his country’s 41st independence anniversary on Monday, a statement announced.

African political parties are to blame for the slow growth of multi-party democracy on the continent, top Kenyan minister and ruling party official Raila Odinga said on Thursday night.

Tanzania’s government has approved a -million bid by South African Airlines for 49% of state-owned Air Tanzania Corporation.

Peace talks between the government of Burundi and rebels embroiled in a nine-year civil war are finally set to begin next week, a Tanzanian official said on Friday.

Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of 29 miners who died of suffocation last week after an air compressor failure in a mine in northern Tanzania, state-owned radio reported on Sunday night.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday that his country was not in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the purpose of looting mineral wealth there.

Talks aimed at halting almost a decade civil war in Burundi were still on hold on Wednesday, a day after they were due to start in Dar Es Salaam.

Tanzania’s Prime Minister, Frederick Sumaye, announced two days of national mourning on Monday following the train accident that killed at least 200 people, officials said.