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News Briefs 28 September 2000 No women soldiers for Botswana yet Press reports said that the president's office has finally decided the government has no plans to recruit women into the Botswana Defence Force. "Your understanding that there is such a plan is incorrect. Women can only be recruited after necessary facilities such as accommodation have been addressed," the reports quoted an official as saying. But this is contrary to earlier statements by the then acting minister for presidential affairs and public administration, Tebelelo Seretse, who said that the Botswana Defence Force would recruit its first ever female soldiers by August 2001. Seretse, now commerce and industry minister, was answering a question in parliament on when Botswana would have its first female soldiers. (PANA) New floods feared in Mozambique A meeting of the regional Weather Forecast Forum held in Botswana recently warned of this possibility in various areas of southern Africa, recommending that weather information be widely publicised in the entire region. "Some of the areas in the sub-region experienced floods during the last rainy season and in some of them soils are still waterlogged," said a report from the meeting, adding that despite predictions of normal rainfall, "there is a risk of floods. On the other hand, the areas that experienced drought, in the north-east of the region, are not going to have the same situation." The meeting also recommended monthly monitoring of the weather changes in the various countries of the region, and a further meeting will take place in December to assess the changes that will have occurred by then. The participants also advised that all weather information be made available to all institutions dealing with disaster management - health, water supply and agriculture - in order to allow the necessary planning of their activities. (AIM) Churches urge parties to end war The appeal was made during an ecumenical prayer service held recently by the churches' umbrella body, the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) in the Namibia-Angola border town of Rundu. During the occasion, church leaders appealed for prayers for the residents of the north-eastern part of Namibia, who are suffering as a result of the fighting. Both Rev Nangula Kathindi from the Anglican church and Catholic Archbishop B. Haushiku, general secretary and president of the CCN respectively, emphasised that the Angolan crisis could not be settled by the barrel of the gun. In a message read by his political affairs advisor, Namibian President, Sam Nujoma, appealed to churches, local communities, traditional and government leaders to act in unity and consult on ways to bring to an end the senseless deaths and injuries of local populations as a result of the war. The conflict between the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government and the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) has resulted in the death of an estimated one million people and displacement of millions more. A symbolic gesture at the service was the lighting of a "peace candle" by an Angolan soldier and a school principal, who each have been maimed by landmines. Prior to the prayer service, church leaders visited the Rundu hospital where they offered prayers. (The Namibian) South African to sit on IMF board His alternate director will be Mallam Usman, who has served as finance minister in Nigeria. For the past two years, Rustomjee has been an alternate IMF director. Before this he was adviser to one of the World Bank's African directors. South Africa is part of an IMF 21-country group that is made up mostly of English-language African countries. The position is rotated every two years. (IRIN)
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