African Officials to Discuss HIV/AIDS at Annual Southern African Development Community Meeting in Angola
Officials representing the 14 countries of the Southern African Development Community yesterday met in Luanda, Angola, for a two-day annual conference to discuss issues important to the region, including the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the region's food crisis, Agence France-Presse reports (Agence France-Presse, 10/1). The heads of state and government of Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and the Vice Prime Minister of Mauritius are taking part in the meeting, which will be led by Angolan President Jose Dos Santos (Xinhua News, 10/2). The leaders are planning to discuss ending the region's famine, which has been exacerbated by and has had an effect on the region's HIV/AIDS epidemic. The United Nations estimates that as more than 14 million people are in danger of starvation in the region, which already has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world (Agence France-Presse, 10/1). "We cannot do everything with internal resources and we urge all our partners to come to our aid and help us tackle this problem," Dos Santos said, adding, "We will have to work very hard to tackle AIDS, because it is a constant threat to all our efforts to develop the region" (Reuters, 10/2).
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