In an unprecedented initiative, various technology-related companies have started a joint campaign to reach people outside Nairobi, where most information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been focused. The programme, which started last month in Nakuru, aims to take “ICT to the rural and marginalised areas. It is headed by online portal and business lobby, ICTVillage.com, with sponsorship from the information and communication ministry. Major ICT sector players including Safaricom, Celtel Kenya , Telkom Kenya and Postal Corporation of Kenya are also backing the initiative. The companies will converge on Mombasa next week for an ICT Roadshow. Over 20 ICT related-exhibitors will also display their products. They hope to guide members of the public through their services, explaining the latest solutions and strategies that have been successfully applied in more developed countries as well as in Kenya.For example, in a previous show in Nakuru, one company demonstrated accounting software, which has been used by some teachers savings and credit societies (Saccos) in the area to improve financial practices. The two large mobile providers are explaining how their newly launched money transfer systems—Safaricom’s M-Pesa, and Celtel’s Sokotele—could aid rural businesses.



Dr Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications, has called upon all residents of the Coast Province and neighbouring districts to visit the ICT Roadshow and see for themselves the products, packages and opportunities available.According to Peter Kimacia, founder of ICTvillage. com, the key objective of the roadshow is to showcase high-tech products and services that could help quicken the pace of economic and social development outside the capital city.“Those who attend will develop awareness and understanding of how ICTs can transform rural communities as well as establish contacts of individuals and organisations that are ready, willing and able to implement practical ICT- related initiatives in their areas of interest,” Mr Kimacia said in a release. The ICT Roadshow is also part of a wider Govermnent-led plan to establish a Digital Village Network (DVN). The DVN includes plans for ICT facilities distributed all over the country. It is seen as an integral part of an innovative Public Private Partnership, and the DVN will harness the potential of the rural sector by making computers and other ICTs more accessible and affordable to rural citizens. The plan is to bring together organisations in the public and private sectors, development partners and civil society organisations as well as individuals in Kenya and the diaspora to invest in ICT facilities.The initiative includes plans for ICT community resource hubs in each district, as well as commercial kiosks in every constituency and educational ICT facilities in every location.The proposed DVN will be overseen by the Information ministry.

Africa's jobless rate is nearly twice that of the rest of the world despite several years of rapid economic growth, according to a UN report released on Tuesday. The International Labor Organization (ILO) said African economies need to create 2 million more new jobs every year for their unemployment rate of 10.3 percent to fall to the global average of 6.3 percent by 2015, when the UN's Millennium Development Goals on reducing poverty come due. … ‘In Africa young people (are) three times more likely to be unemployed than adults,’ it said in the Decent Work Agenda in Africa report. … The report recommended that African countries seek to foster more employment-heavy sectors of their economies. ... Kick-starting job creation would require steps to reduce the time, cost and complexity of registering a business and ensure that property rights and contracts are better-enforced. … Other constraints to African employment growth include bureaucratic obstacles to international trade, difficulties in accessing credit, especially for women, and erratic tax regimes for entrepreneurs, the ILO found.” [Reuters/Factiva]



Reporting ahead of the ILO’s Africa regional meeting starting April 24, The Daily Monitor writes that “… ILO Regional Director Regina Amadi Njoku said the meeting, themed ‘Decent Work Agenda in Africa 2007-2015,’ is expected to deliberate on various issues related to Africa's development. …Njoku said although Africa had been registering encouraging economic growth over the past years, it was impossible to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) without employment-rich growth that generates decent employment opportunities. Africa needs 11 million new job opportunities yearly to meet the MDGs, but the jobs being created annually in Africa total not more than 8.6 million. HIV/AIDS, rampant conflicts, migration, and the brain drain of qualified Africans are challenges that are significantly affecting Africa's human capital and diminishing its work force, she said. …” [The Daily Monitor (Ethiopia)/Factiva]

As the world's leading association of HIV professionals, the International AIDS Society's (IAS) more than 10,000 members are working at all levels of the global response to HIV/AIDS. Our members represent scientists, clinicians, and public health and community leaders on the frontlines of the epidemic in 171 countries worldwide.

As the principal convener of the International AIDS Conference and the upcoming HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention Conference, the IAS is firmly committed to an evidence-based response to the epidemic, based on sound science. It is therefore with great concern that we note recent developments related to HIV treatment in the Gambia.

This concern is echoed by the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA), an independent association of HIV professionals in Africa, and the custodian of the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA), the biannual regional AIDS conference in Africa.

Earlier this year, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced that he had found a cure for AIDS. He began treating HIV-positive patients with a herbal treatment at the Presidential Palace, with the support of the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare. The initial ten patients, who were responding very well to antiretrovirals (ARVs), were required to stop ARVs in order to receive the herbal treatment. Blood samples from the patients were sent to Professor Souleymane Mboup of the University of Dakar, Senegal, who is the former Regional Representative for Africa on the IAS Governing Council, a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for AIDS in Africa, and the Chair of the next ICASA, to be held in December 2008. A public statement issued by the Office of the Gambian President on 12 February 2007 indicates that tests conducted by Professor Mboup showed undetectable levels of HIV in the samples submitted to him.

In response, Professor Mboup has issued the following statement:
"The interpretation by the Gambian authorities of the results of HIV antibody and viral load testing on blood samples sent to my laboratory is incorrect. Firstly, the results were obtained under false pretenses, when a technician approached us asking for training on our equipment because he had problems operating the equipment in his laboratory. We agreed, and in this process, he asked us to test some anonymous samples, which we later learned were from patients who had received President Yammeh's treatment. Of those samples that were HIV-positive (66.66%), none could be described as cured. Viral load was detectable in most cases. In some samples viral load measures were below the level detectible by the tests. This is not surprising, since these patients had been treated with ARVs prior to the administration of the herbal treatment. Effective antiretroviral therapy can reduce HIV viral load to below levels of detection. In addition, some of the patients were infected with HIV-2, and it
is well known that these patients would have lower viral loads compared to HIV-1 patients. However, extensive research over many years has shown that, even in patients whose HIV viral load is undetectable by standard testing measures, with further specific DNA and RNA testing, HIV can be found in the tissues of all patients.

"There is no known cure for AIDS. Under no circumstances may the tests conducted in my laboratory be used as proof of an alleged cure for HIV. For the results to be used in this way, tests must be conducted before, during and after treatment. International rules regulate the conducting of trials in order to prove therapeutic efficacy."

IAS President Dr. Pedro Cahn, President of Fundación Huésped in Argentina, added:
"Pharmaceutical and traditional medicines have benefited many people with various medical conditions across the world. All products that show promise in the treatment or eradication of HIV should be rigorously studied. The Gambian government has characterized criticism of its herbal treatment as "anti-African". This is not at all the case. The IAS believes that all reasonable approaches should be scientifically evaluated, including the current Gambian treatment being billed as a "cure". It is premature and unethical to label this product a cure if it has not been thoroughly tested and proven. Furthermore, to take patients off potent combination antiretroviral therapy, which has saved millions of lives since its introduction in 1996, is shocking and irresponsible."

The IAS urges its worldwide membership to hold their governments to account for unproven claims of AIDS cures. We advise health care workers and policy makers throughout the world to continue to implement ARV treatment programmes for all who need them, and to clarify the proven dangers of stopping ARVs, including the risk of disease progression and the development of drug resistance.

In closing, SAA President Dr. Femi Soyinka emphasized the continued need to work towards universal access to HIV treatment:
"WHO, UNAIDS and UNICEF last week released a report that noted that two million people in low- and middle-income countries were on ARV treatment as of December 2006. This represents a dramatic fifty-four percent (54%) increase from the 1.3 million that were on treatment a year ago, but is still far short of the estimated 7.1 million who are in need of treatment throughout the world. The world must continue to advance HIV prevention and treatment to all those who need it."

Air transport has contributed greatly to socio-economic development in Africa, says the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy of the African Union (AU). Opening a three-day annual forum on air transport in Africa at the AU headquarters here Monday, Dr Bernard Zoba, added that the AU attached due attention to air transport as the sector is a catalyst to bring about overall socio-economic development in the continent. Co-operation among African countries would promote safe, secure, and sustainable air transport, he said. The commissioner explained that senior African air transport officials would meet here soon to further discuss the challenges and opportunities of the sector. According to Executive Director of Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), Philippe Rochat, air transport generates 29 million jobs worldwide and half a million in Africa.



Its global economic impact is estimated to be three trillion USD or eight per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP). The figure for Africa is about 56 billion USD, he added. The theme of the forum is "Maximizing Civil Aviation's Economic Contribution by Providing Safe and Secure Air Transport in African Skies". It will discuss and review the various contributions, potential and challenges of the sector. The AU, in association with Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), the International Civil Aviation Organization IICAO) and the World Bank is hosting the forum.



Representatives of African civil aviation authorities, industry, and pertinent international organizations are attending the forum. In response to this growing sector, the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) started a five-year investment program in all the major airports in the country in 2006. It has ramped up its capital expenditure commitments to R19.3 billion from R5.2 billion to meet expected growth in passenger traffic beyond 2010, when the country will host the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup South Africa. Currently, ACSA's 10 airports handle more than 200 000 aircraft landings and 10 million departing passengers annually. As many as three-million tourists are expected during the World Cup, 40 percent more than the average annual number of tourists. Work is already underway at OR Tambo International Airport, including the construction of an additional duty free space and the Pier One development to handle the new Airbus A380 and more passengers through air bridges.

Development is about finding practical solutions to socio-economic challenges. It entails the use of technical skills and expertise of the kind you find among engineers. Yet engineering has been marginal to development practice over the last three decades.

This is partly because earlier designs of major infrastructure projects ignored a wide range of critical social, economic, and environmental factors. Large dams, for example, were associated with corruption, ecological harm, and social dislocation. Irrigation projects became breeding grounds for vectors of a variety of diseases. Large projects were also linked to macroeconomic distortions, especially those related to lending for questionable infrastructure projects. Such failures and poor maintenance of infrastructure project inspired international activism against engineering in general and large projects in particular.



This experience led to widespread skepticism over the role of engineering projects in development. Development agencies shied away from such projects or promoted approaches that underplayed the critical role of infrastructure in sustainable development.

The failure of subsequent development strategies has forced the international community to rethink the role of infrastructure and associated engineering activities. Engineering projects can help stimulate growth by contributing to sustainable development (for example, by creating job opportunities and raising agricultural productivity). They can also alleviate hunger by providing the physical infrastructure needed to advance agriculture. These technological measures themselves, however, do not solve the challenges of poverty and hunger. They must necessarily be part of an integrated strategy aimed at improving overall human welfare.



Africa’s ability to initiate and sustain economic growth depends in part on its capabilities in engineering, which in turn determines the capacity to provide clean water, good health care, adequate infrastructure, and safe food. Information and communications technologies (ICTs), which now impact nearly all fields of endeavor, can also play a critical role in expanding primary, secondary, and tertiary education. For example, ICT can facilitate distance learning and offering remote access to educational resources. Many other technologies hold the promise of significantly upgrading human welfare, especially for women, in Africa by improving energy sources, agricultural technology, and access to water and sanitation.



Effective health care is also dependent on infrastructure. Critical health interventions — including the treatment and prevention of malaria, HIV/AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and vitamin and other micronutrient deficiencies — require new treatments, new vaccines, and other strategies appropriate to local circumstance. Building domestic competence in fields like chemical and process engineering is critical to expanding the technological basis for improving healthcare. In this area, the ability to produce generic medicines holds the promise of improving poor people’s economic access to essential treatments. Engineering-based approaches such as redesigning houses and remodeling landscapes are examples of what can be done to help reduce mosquito breeding and malaria transmission, respectively. Improved engineering knowledge at the local level is indispensable for managing complex ecosystems, such as watersheds, forests, and seas, and for helping to manage the impact of climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Emerging fields such as industrial ecology offer new opportunities for addressing ecological challenges. Access to clean water requires continuous improvement in water supply and treatment technologies.



Technological innovation is becoming equally critical in the management of freshwater resources. For example, concern over water scarcity in agriculture is generating interest in alternative approaches that can reduce the amount of water used to produce a unit of grain. New challenges such as the threats of global warming demand greater investment in ecological engineering capabilities. Efforts should, therefore, be directed at providing support for institutions of higher technical learning that focus on building up domestic engineering capabilities. Failure to do so will result in countries that cannot keep up with basic economic maintenance.

Despite huge oil revenues that go to the government of Nigeria, basic services such as a potable water supply, primary healthcare and electricity remain out of the reach for most people except the rich in Nigeria, and few believe this record is likely to change any time soon.

Poor access to these services has contributed to Nigeria being among the countries with the worst human development indicators in Africa, apart from those nations that were recently at war, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

"One of the big contradictions Nigeria has faced is the stark lack of access to basic social amenities for the vast majority of its people in contrast to the huge revenues that accrue to the government," said Laide Akinola, a programme officer with a local civic group, Social Rights Action. "It is a situation that is crying for remedy, Nigerians need a government that can show them some care."

Nigeria's new leader, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), was elected last Saturday in a vote that local and international observers criticised as unfair, disorganised and in many cases blatantly rigged, raising fears of a crisis of legitimacy that will undermine the government's ability to meet the needs of its citizens.

Analysts say Yar'Adua, if allowed to stand given the anticipated judicial challenges to his victory, has tremendous work ahead of him to improve the services the federal government is supposed to provide Nigeria's 140 million people.

Declining services

A joint UN children's agency (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO) report in 2006 showed national good water coverage failed to improve across Nigeria and instead fell from 49 percent coverage in 1990 to 48 percent 14 years later. The report predicted that Nigeria was unlikely to meet millennium development goals since coverage of 65 percent was required by 2004 to meet the targets.

Both UNICEF and WHO see a close correlation between an inadequate supply of clean water and the rise in cases of water-borne diseases in many parts of the country, with cholera and typhoid among prominent killers.

"A majority of the patients that come to our clinic these days either have typhoid or stomach upsets, pointing to water-borne infection," said Angela Ezeobi, a doctor who runs a clinic in the Surulere district of Lagos.

The Lagos Water Corporation, in charge of water supply to the city of at least 10 million people, recently took out newspaper advertisements blaming a poor power supply by the state electricity company for a recent inability to pump water to millions of customers, leading to an acute scarcity.

Official statistics show that only 10 percent of rural dwellers and 40 percent of people in the cities have access to electricity in Nigeria. More than 60 percent depend on traditional medicine while there are only 18.5 doctors for every 100,000 people in the country.

Although the federal government is responsible for providing electricity to Nigerians, as well as a degree of water and health services, state and local governments are also required to meet the needs of their constituents. To this end, the government has taken serious steps to try to reduce corruption at the state and local level that bleeds their areas of development funds. Most of the country's governors are currently under investigation for graft.

Promises and discouragement

President Olusegun Obasanjo defends his eight-year record in providing basic services, citing a jump in spending for the provision of water alone from about US$63 million before he came to power in 1999 to $430 million in 2006. He promised during a campaign rally in Abuja that the foundation he has set will be built upon by Yar'Adua as president.

In the meantime, people like 35-year-old Lagos resident Riskat Muri continue to make due on their own, like many Nigerians, to get the services they need.

For drinking water Muri relies on vendors who push jerry cans on carts through the streets, although what she can afford falls far short of her family's needs. If someone in her family gets sick, she relies on herbs and roots that women sell in a market nearby, although she would prefer to go to a clinic if it weren't so expensive. And at home her baby often cries because of the humid heat but the electric fan doesn't work because of perpetual power shortages.

"We live in the city but we don't enjoy any of the services of a city," said Muri. "Our leaders just don't seem to care how we live."

The UN Economic Commission for Africa launched the African Regional Network of the UN Global Alliance for ICTs and Development on 23 March 2007 on the sidelines of the African Civil Society Forum.

During the launching ceremony Ms Aida Opoku-Mensah, director of the ICT, Science and Technology Division at ECA stressed that the newly set up African Regional Network of the UN Global Alliance for ICTs and Development will help in bringing together all stakeholders active in Information and Knowledge Economy to reflect on strategies to ensure the effective implementation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) plan of action as well as the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals

The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group releases first comprehensive assessment of Bank support to transport

To meet the daunting challenges of rapid urbanization, sustained population growth and poverty in developing
countries, transport in large cities has to become a top priority on the global development agenda, alerted the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). The report, "A Decade of Action in Transport", released today,
takes stock of the Bank's important support for various transport modes,
covering nearly 650 projects and more than US$ 30 billion in lending to
developing countries over the past decade. It highlights the worsening urban
transport situation in many developing countries and urges countries and
international donors to help improve urban traffic management, while
continuing support for the development and maintenance of environmentally
sustainable inter-city and rural-urban linkages.

About 15% of World Bank funded projects over the past decade involved
transport, making it the largest sector of World Bank lending. During this
time, 80% of Bank support in transport went to the construction of
intercity-highways and rural road rehabilitation. IEG finds that the Bank's
past assistance to the transport sector has been well-managed and effective
with above-average project ratings. At the same time, the report recommends
that countries and donors focus more on crucial policy areas in order to
ensure cleaner, more efficient and safer transportation. And given the
increasing and vital linkages with energy, land use, urbanization, the
environment and climate change, future Bank programs in transport will
require a truly multi-sectoral approach.

According to Bank projections, over the next three decades the world's
population will grow by almost 40%, mostly in developing countries. This will
be accompanied by a huge expansion in the number of private motor cars, led
by China and India. It is predicted, that by 2020 road accidents may become
the third largest cause of death in these countries. Transport emissions also
account for nearly a quarter of man-made gases contributing to the
potentially disastrous consequences of climate change, i.e. about the same
amount as land use and deforestation.

"Transportation is crucial to a country's competitiveness in an increasingly
globalized world economy. Much has been achieved in building transport
infrastructure in developing countries, but with the growing population
density and rising environmental vulnerability, the solutions of the past
will no longer be adequate," said Vinod Thomas, IEG's Director-General,
"Countries and the development community will need to pay far greater
attention to the urgent issues of efficiency, safety, health and the
environment".

Better air quality in cities needs to become a major objective of policy
makers in developing countries, due to the soaring number of vehicles that
contribute to increased morbidity and mortality as well as long term
increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Worsening traffic congestion in big
cities is imposing huge costs on the urban population. Future policies and
investments in urban transport need to explore innovative solutions for
better traffic management, such as limits on the use of private automobiles,
and greater support for mass transit systems and public transport. The
removal of three-wheeled taxis in Dhaka, supported by the Bank, improved the
city's air pollution significantly, and provides a good illustration of what
can be done.

Countries need to place a greater emphasis on the maintenance of roads and
highways. IEG found that, due to overloaded trucks and lack of maintenance
services in poorer countries, scarce resources are too often being used to
rebuild previously completed roads. Without proper management, gravel roads,
for example, can deteriorate dramatically within just two or three years. The
competitive contracting for maintenance, where feasible, has proved
particularly effective in Bank-supported projects. In Argentina, for example,
the percentage of roads in bad condition was reduced from 41 to 6 % in just
five years.

"IEG has also found that airport privatizations and port concessions, which
the Bank supported in a few, mostly middle-income countries, had generally
led to greater efficiency, lower costs and better service. But the
expectations for wide-spread private sector involvement across the board have
not been fully realized and the public sector will continue to be an
important operator of basic transportation infrastructure in many countries,"
said Peter Freeman, the lead author of the report.

To increase developing countries' competitiveness in the global market,
transport and logistics must become more efficient. In some countries in
Sub-Saharan Africa, at least 20 % of export costs derive from transport. For
landlocked countries, such as Malawi, the figure can be as high as 55 %. Such
situations seriously reduce the potential gains from trade reforms.
Initiatives to make transport more effective are underway. With Bank support,
eight countries in Southeastern Europe, including Albania,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria and others, for example, have successfully
reduced border crossing delays and contributed to a rapid revival of trade.
Countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia are now undertaking similar
efforts.

"Transportation provides potential answers to some of the urgent challenges
of health, safety, security, poverty, and the environment," said Vinod
Thomas, "What is needed, however, is not just more investments but also
better investments - for sustainable results."

A controversial police crackdown on illegal mining late last year, followed by an environmental rehabilitation project in which small-scale farmers in central Zimbabwe were forced to participate, has left them struggling to find their feet and adversely affected food security.

Police arrested more than 20,000 "illegal miners" across the country in Operation Chikorokoza Chapera (No to Illegal Mining), which began in November 2006, and then rounded up local people and forced them to work on restoring the landscape. Many left their homes for safer places, while small-scale farmers were forced to abandon their fields in the planting season.

Faced with the world's highest annual inflation rate - more than 1,700 percent - and 80 percent unemployment, thousands of Zimbabweans, including professionals, have abandoned their jobs to dig for minerals in rural areas across the country.

Illegal gold panners, known as 'makorokoza', left a trail of gullies and pits in Gokwe, a cotton-farming district in Midlands Province, about 260km west of the capital, Harare.

Many subsistence farmers had to give up working on their plots, and abandoned and now derelict thatched huts dot the countryside in and around Chevecheve village in Gokwe. Some residents have returned, but a number of huts remain unoccupied.

"The police came and raided the area, arresting a number of the makorokoza and, after several crackdowns, the gold panners disappeared. That was when we were forced to attend a meeting in the village at which we were told that we should participate in filling up the gullies," Saiton Mukudu, a village elder, told IRIN.

He said the police accused Chevecheve residents of causing damage to the environment by mining illegally; they took the names of all the villagers and ordered them, including teenagers and the elderly, to use shovels to fill up the gullies and pits, and this "obviously scared those who decided to leave the area".

People who refused to participate were hunted down and sometimes beaten up. "We suggested to the police that the government should instead make arrangements for volunteers to get involved and get paid either in cash or kind, but they would not hear of that, saying we were all responsible for the damage to the environment," Mukudu said.

"I do not disagree with the police that the environment has been badly damaged. In fact, we also had problems with these makorokoza because sometimes they invaded our fields and disturbed our farming activities. They also even went as far as digging up graveyards, but the point is that most of them came from other places," he added.

He had to take care of some of the homesteads after the fleeing villagers pleaded with him to do so.

Missed out on planting season

Margaret Chimboza, 43, a widow, recently returned to her home. "I am devastated by what the police did. I have never participated in illegal panning all my life since I could adequately cater for my family on the cotton that I produced on my plot." She "escaped" to a nearby farm, where she worked as a casual worker.

"It was therefore extremely unfair for the police to come and round all of us up and accuse us of damaging the environment. After all, even if it is true that there were people who were indiscriminately digging up the earth, the timing of the operation was wrong because it was the farming season and we had to abandon our fields."

Having missed out on planting season, Chimboza, who is also asthmatic, now has to raise funds to reconstruct her home and feed her two children, who have also been unable to return to school.

"It is a real drawback because my children have to spend the whole year doing nothing and can only resume next year, assuming there is no operation like that again," the frail woman said.

Legal miners affected

Many legal small-scale miners have also been left in a quandary after their operations were stopped by the police. Joseph Rukodzi owned three gold mining claims in the Ngezi district 20km west of Kadoma town, about 125km southwest of Harare, but when the operation started he was accused of mining illegally and forced to close them down.

Rukodzi was among more than 50,000 small-scale miners who were forced to abandon their livelihood after the police crackown last year, when the government alleged that the country was being prejudiced of large quantities of foreign currency, as illegal miners smuggled minerals out of the country.

"I was surprised that the police insisted that I should stop operating, even after I produced valid certificates that showed clearly that I was a registered miner and had been operating for five years," Rukodzi told IRIN. He had managed to build a house in Kadoma and intended to start a grocery store with the profits from his mining venture before the clampdown.

He had made numerous visits to the police and even approached Home Affairs officials for the release of his confiscated equipment and certificates, but to no avail.

"Some of my friends have paid bribes to the police and are back in mining, but I don't see any reason why I should go to the extent of giving them a kickback when I am in this business legally. Besides, where will I get the money to pay them when I have not been generating money for five months?" he said.

Earlier this month, George Kawonza, president of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation, reported that only 100 small-scale miners had been allowed to resume mining. The crackdown on illegal miners was scaled down when some of the miners testified to a parliamentary committee that influential government officials were soliciting bribes from them and participating in illegal mining activities.

Innocent Makwiramiti, an economist and former chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), said the government had "gone overboard" in carrying out the operation.

"It was legitimate to put a stop to illegal panning, but the methods that the police used were extremely wrong: they have left a trail of suffering through the indiscriminate closure of mines and disruption of farming activities, worse still now that the country has been hit by another drought," Makwiramiti told IRIN.

"But it is vital to also consider why illegal mining is so rampant in the country," he said. "Something should be done to fix the economy."