Pop diva Madonna arrived in Malawi on Wednesday to adopt an African child and fund an orphan centre for 1 000 children, many of whom lost parents to HIV/Aids. A fleet of cars and trucks whisked the Material Girl and her entourage to an undisclosed location soon after their private plane landed at Lilongwe.
Malawi on Monday launched a week-long HIV testing campaign amid fears the fight against Aids is being hampered by people not knowing whether they have the virus. The campaign follows the revelation that only 15% of the country’s population of 12-million people have been tested for HIV/Aids.
The Malawi government is seeking details about a fire that left 12 dead, mostly migrant workers from Malawi, in the inner city of Johannesburg early on Wednesday, said a senior official. Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Davis Katsonga confirmed that seven of the dead were Malawi nationals.
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/ 18 October 2005
The Malawi Council of Churches has threatened to enter the country’s National Assembly draped in gowns to protest against opposition moves to impeach President Bingu wa Mutharika and to press politicians to focus on ”problems besetting the people”. It is estimated that up to 4,2-million Malawi citizens, of a population of 12-million, face serious food shortages.
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/ 23 September 2005
He was whisked away from his newsroom, bundled into a police van and detained for four years before being released without charge. Years later, Levison Lifikiro still isn’t sure of his crime. Instead he lives with the pain of losing his job and family as a constant reminder of those wasted years.
Food security experts in Malawi are keeping a close watch on maize prices in local markets as the country braces itself for another year of chronic food shortages. Humanitarian groups estimate that up to 4,6-million Malawians could face hunger this year after a dramatic drop in maize production.
The success of land reform in Malawi will depend on the cooperation of traditional leaders who remain sceptical of the process because they believe the new legislation will erode their authority, said civil society leader William Chadza. Chiefs in Malawi have traditionally had the authority to allocate land to their subjects.
Malawian civil society has welcomed tax reforms and subsidies for agricultural inputs in the 2005/06 budget that will ease the burden of small-scale farmers plagued by poor harvests again this year. Unveiling the budget on Friday, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe described the reforms as an attempt to "improve the economic buying power of individual Malawians".
Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika on Thursday accused his predecessor of complicity in a plot by his own party to assassinate him — but said he forgave all those involved. Former president Bakili Muluzi’s spokesperson and a representative of the governing United Democratic Front rejected the claim as outrageous.
Forty years after independence, Malawi is still unable to ensure food security for its population, which is growing at a rate of 2% a year, according to the country’s national statistical office. More than one million, or more than 10%, of Malawi’s population are facing starvation this year, the World Food Programme has announced.
A five-year community participation project in Malawi has improved the quality of education in more than 2 000 of the country’s schools. The project aims to alleviate problems linked to a the glaring shortage of facilities, poor management and an inadequate number of teachers.
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/ 3 February 2003
Almost a decade after their former president Kamuzu Banda lost power, Malawians are still terrified by rumours of government-sponsored vampires that circulated under his brutal reign and have held the popular imagination ever since.
The Western world’s response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Africa caused by Aids and hunger was woefully inadequate, hypocritical and immoral, says a top UN official.
Just two months after Parliament defeated a constitutional amendment that would have allowed President Bakili Muluzi a third term in office, the government announced it was trying again.