A delegation comprising Japanese Ambassador Hisao Nishimaki, UN Resident Coordinator Hopolang Phororo, and UNICEF Country Representative Sam Ocran visited the Rundu Intermediary Hospital in the Kavango East Region recently.
 
The visit was part of an impact assessment of Japanese assistance to the Kavango East health sector.
 
The Kavango East Region's population of close to 220,000 is served by 31 health facilities, 28 health centres and clinics, two district hospitals, and the Rundu Intermediate Referral Hospital. 

Japan has, to date, dispatched more than 100 teachers across different schools, while the construction of additional classrooms in Namibia continues.

Funded through Japan's "Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects' programme, Namibia has been a beneficiary of school buildings and around 300 classrooms since 1997.

Japan's Ambassador to Namibia provided an update on this and other matters of mutual concern between the two countries to President Nangolo Mbumba at State House.

Four minors from Livaye Village in Kavango East who died from suspected food poisoning were buried in a mass grave over the weekend.

Eight children initially ate the food, of whom four died and the others survived, while the remaining four were discharged.

The incident happened on February 26.

According to family members, a 13-year-old boy had prepared a lunch of porridge and mutete, which the children consumed.

Another meal of porridge and soup was prepared by an older relative for supper, which the minors also consumed.

Employees of Kayova Lodge and the community in Kavango East are demanding the removal of the lodge's manager.

They claim that the management has diverted from the project's initial plan, from which the community was due to benefit.

The lodge was established for the development and upliftment of the community.

The target was the implementation of a kindergarten, a water project, and orphanages.

The project was founded by the late Catholic father Klaus Denner from Germany in 2003.

The Rundu Rural Constituency councillor says that despite various studies revealing that Kavango East is one of the poorest regions, the central government has not done enough to turn the tide. 

Paulus Mbangu was addressing the Minister of Mines and Energy during an engagement with the Kavango East Regional Council. 

According to Mbangu, four income and expenditure surveys were carried out between 1993 and 2014, and they all established that the Kavango regions were the poorest. 

An agricultural census in 1995 and 2005 had the same result.

The leader of the Landless People's Movement, Bernadus Swartbooi, says Rundu is in a deplorable state. 

During a media conference, the party leadership raised a number of concerns, mainly related to the town's infrastructure and land.

Leaders of the Kanono Women's Organisation, a small-scale farmers association in the Zambezi Region's Sibbinda Constituency, paid a visit to the green schemes in the Kavango East Region.

The team was led by the Councillor of Sibinda Constituency, Micky Lukaezi, and was undertaken to acquire knowledge and replicate good agricultural practices they learned during the visit.

The team has been in the region since Monday.

They visited commercial green schemes as well as small-scale farmers.

Namibia has recorded a total of 1,345 malaria cases since November 2023 in malaria-prone regions.

Cases are expected to increase significantly during the rainy season.

Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr. Ester Muinjangue, highlighted the ministry's concerns in an interview with nbc News.

Malaria cases have been on the rise in malaria-endemic regions.

Of the total 1,345 cases recorded nationwide, 133 were found to be severe and resulted in hospital admission.

The acting Education Director in the Kavango East Region says despite the difficulties experienced by learners prior to the exams, the region is bound to perform better in 2023 than it did in 2022.

Christine Shilima was speaking ahead of the release of exam results by the Ministry of Education on Wednesday.

Shilima says there were various factors that negatively affected the teaching and learning process, saying some learners were not psychologically ready for the exams.

A staggering number of reported child abuse cases are piling up at the offices of the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare (MGEPESW).

Deputy Minister Bernadette Jagger says her ministry continues to collaborate with stakeholders, particularly the police and the prosecution, to ensure that victims receive the required care.

Within its limited human resources structure, Jagger says her ministry has managed to second social workers to the gender-based violence protection units in the |Khomas , Kavango East, Oshana, and Kunene regions.