Zimbabwe Updates 1/28/09

Jan 28th, 2009 3:16 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

• Uncertainty remains over the future of power-sharing negotiations after the opposition said it would not accept the outcome of last weekend’s regional summit.
• Zimbabwe will present its annual budget this week, which analysts expect to contain desperate measures in the wake of economic collapse amid political crisis.
• Cholera deaths in Zimbabwe have climbed above 3000 as the disease now spreads to rural areas.
• Anti-apartheid activist Kumi is going on a hunger strike to pressure the South African government to demand faster political change in Zimbabwe and urge African leaders to isolate the country’s president, Robert Mugabe.
• The European Union has tightened its sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, EU officials have said. More than 60 individuals and firms with links to Mr Mugabe have been added to a list of those banned from travelling to the EU or doing business there.
• The Center for Global Development authors a memo to President Obama outlining what the new administration can do to restore democracy in Zimbabwe.
• Most schools in Zimbabwe stayed closed yesterday on the first day of term, presaging a second year in a row of almost no education for the country’s children.
• President Obama wants a fresh approach to toppling Robert Mugabe and is discussing with aides an unprecedented, US-led diplomatic push to get tough new UN sanctions imposed against the Zimbabwe regime, The Times has learned. During talks Mr Obama has had with his top Africa advisers in recent weeks, the central idea they focused on was taking the issue of Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council, but for the first time to combine such a move with an intense diplomatic effort to persuade Russia and China not to block the initiative.

-Chris Scott

TAGS: Barack Obama, Eye on Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Policy News, Zimbabwe