The socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic could result in 13 million cases of Child Early and Forced Marriage across the globe, Zambia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Dr Ngosa Simbyakula has cautioned.

Amb Simbyakula has told the United Nations that COVID-19 is threatening the progress made in the last decade to prevent and eliminate Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) which was estimated to be eradicated by the year 2030.

Dr Simbyakula stated that Child Early and Forced Marriage was not only a harmful practice but also a grave abuse of human rights which often jeopadised the education, health, well-being and future of millions of children in the world.

Dr Simbyakula said this during the adoption of a resolution on “Ending Child, Early and Forced Marriage” at the United Nations in New York. The resolution is co-sponsored by Zambia and Canada.

The resolution calls on the international community to take decisive action to overcome the unprecedented challenges nations are currently facing in order to protect and accelerate progress to end the vice of Early, Child and Forced Marriage.

“Before the COVID-19, we knew we needed to significantly accelerate the pace of progress to eliminate Early, Child and Forced Marriage by year 2030 as set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. COVID-19 is now threatening the progress made in the last decade to prevent and eliminate Child, Early and Forced Marriage and the socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 global pandemic could result in 13 million cases of Child Early and Forced Marriage. We cannot afford to see the hard-won progress slowed down or set back,” Dr Simbyakula said.

Dr Simbyakula informed the United Nations that the Government of Zambia was committed to ending Early, Child and Forced Marriage and was proud to have partnered with Canada and other cross-regional groups of countries to support the balanced and strong text in the resolution.

He however said Zambia was disappointed that despite the best efforts to reach the broadest possible consensus, some Member States had decided to propose amendments to the resolution whose text was balanced.

The Zambian envoy to the United Nations explained that over the past six weeks, during which Zambia and Canada co-facilitated several informal consultations, conducted three full readings of the text, invited relevant UN Agencies to brief participating delegations yet some Member States chose to table amendments to the resolution.
“We hope that for the sake of the important cause to eliminate Early Child and Forced Marriage and the integrity of the principles underlying all Third Committee negotiations, all delegations will join in adopting the draft resolution,” Dr Simbyakula said.

The resolution was however adopted by consensus with a record co-sponsorship of 114 Member States.

Ministry of National Development Planning Permanent Secretary Chola Chabala has commended the launch of a joint cooperation project between the Zambia Statistics Agency (ZAMSTATS) and Statistics Sweden.

Mr. Chabala was speaking at the annual African Statistics Day commemoration in Lusaka where ZAMSTATS and Statistics Sweden launched the joint bilateral project.
“As a demonstration to the importance of partnerships in improving production of statistics and its use, today we will witness the launch of a joint cooperation project between the Zambia Statistics Agency and Statistics Sweden. The overall objective is to enhance statistical capacity in ZAMSTATS to ensure production of timely, demand-driven and quality statistics and data for policy formulation,” said Mr. Chabala, who is in charge of Development Planning and Administration. “The specific areas of support are: strengthening the national statistical system; improved range and quality of statistical production; improved user access and understanding of existing statistics; and a robust ICT environment that supports efficient production of statistics.”

The theme for this year’s African Statistics Day is: “modernising national statistical systems to provide data and statistics to support sustainable peace and development in Africa.”
Mr. Chabala said the theme was chosen to raise awareness among decision-makers, technical and financial partners, data producers, researchers and the general public on the importance of governance and socio-economic statistics in achieving the goal of a free Africa.

He said the theme underscores the need for sustained peace, good governance and inclusive economic growth as essential ingredients to build a harmonious African community underpinned by vast social and economic opportunities for its citizens.

He said the the Zambian Government is cognisant of the need to undertake statistical reforms in order to promote production, understanding and use of official statistics.
Mr. Chabala said the new Statistics Act No 13 of 2018, which is being implemented will broaden statistics beyond the traditional areas of social, economic, financial, environment and agriculture but to include governance and other appropriate statistics.

And Deputy Head of Mission at the Swedish Embassy in Zambia, Susanna Hughes, said the role of Statistics Sweden will be to support ZAMSTATS in its capacity development and to provide advice on determining relevant and suitable methods and procedures for statistics in Zambia.

“The cooperation is premised on a peer-to-peer approach to development cooperation where the partners at ZAMSTATS work hand-in-hand with their peers from Statistics Sweden. By working together there is sharing of experiences and knowledge, and thus capacity is jointly developed,” said Ms. Hughes. “Our cooperation aims at increased access by the users to unbiased, reliable and quality statistics that are timely, accurate and relevant to meet their needs.”

And UNFPA Assistant Representative Sibeso Mululuma said it was gratifying that the Government of Zambia remains commitment to the successful undertaking of the Census.
“UNFPA wishes to reaffirm its commitment to collaborating with the Government and other stakeholders in: aadvancing institutional and ethnical capacity development for data collection, processing, analysis and use; uundertaking of the 2020 housing and population census; generating and practical use of geospatial data; ssupporting other national studies that relate to population and development, including the on-going Population Situation Analysis,” said Ms. Mululuma. “As we start to collectively engage in stakeholder consultation processes that will ultimately inform the development of the 8th National Development Plan; the use of disaggregated data by age, sex, geographic location, wealth quintile and all other variables relevant for the country is important.”

And speaking for United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Dr. Sizo Mhlanga acknowledged the growing interlinkages between development, peace security and human rights.

“Development cannot happen when there is no peace and without development peace is precarious and the respect for human rights in times of conflict is never threatened,” said Dr. Mhlanga.

This is according to a media statement issued by Ministry of National Development Planning spokesperson Chibaula D. Silwamba.

Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo has directed the Zambia Airforce and Chongwe council to ensure that all developments on the disputed land between private developers and the National Airports Corporation is resolved.

Speaking when he inspected the land under dispute less than a kilometer from Kenneth Kaunda International airport this morning, Mr Lusambo directed ZAF chief of operations, Brigadier General William Lungu to enhance surveillance activities to ensure that there are no developments taking place in the area.

Mr Lusambo observed that 35 private developers have sued the NAC over the land in question, saying no developments should take place until the matter is addressed.

And Brigadier General Lungu said ZAF is determined to safeguard the security of the airport and sewer ponds that are situated on the land in dispute.

“We don’t want to compromise the security of the airport,” he said.

And Commissioner of Lands George Sindila noted that though offer letters were given to the private developers, the Ministry of Lands will wait for the court to determine whether or not the developments are taking place on the NAC land before the next course of action is taken, as the matter is in court.

“We as the Ministry of Lands are not in a position to create property on top of other properties, so we will wait for the courts to decide over the case before we take the next course of action.

“ We cannot proceed if it is discovered that it falls within the airport boundary, we cannot proceed, but if it is outside the airport grounds we will proceed,” he said.

And Chongwe council legal counsel, Namakau Sumbwa said the council which wanted to start numbering the area halted its plans but was stopped by the Ministry of Lands.

Police in Mpongwe district have picked a body of man aged 40, found murdered and tied to a tree by unknown people. Confirming the development to ZANIS in an interview, Copperbelt Deputy Police Commissioner, Bothwell Namuswa has identified the deceased as Evans Kamwemfu found hanging from a tree in sitting position with blood oozing from his nose and shoeless.

The incident happened yesterday between 11 and 17 hours. The late Kamwemfu was also found with a rope tied to his neck and unto to a branch of a tree of about 25 metres from the ground.

“It appears that this person was killed and then put in a position to show as if he had committed suicide. Police examined the body and found no physical external injuries,” he said.

Mr. Namuswa said the matter was reported to Mpongwe police by a man identified as Jabulani who found the deceased 2 hundred metres away from the main road, south of Mpongwe boarding secondary school where he took his animals for grazing.

No arrests have been made.

Meanwhile, Mr. Namuswa has disclosed that police in Mpongwe have launched a manhunt of two armed men who attacked a 70 -year- old man identified as Joe Bwalya of Kanyenda area in Mpongwe.

Mr. Namuswa said Mr. Bwalya was attacked while in his kitchen by the two men armed with a short gun who ordered him to lie down.

The two armed suspects then grabbed Mr. Bwalya’s phone and commanded him to take them to the room where he was putting money.

Thereafter, Mr. Bwalya took the two bandits to one of the rooms in the house where he gave them K 530 and later managed to grab both barrels of the short gun from them.

“He reported that he took them by surprise when he grabbed their short gun. Then they started struggling to get back their weapon until one of them managed to pull away and ran away.

“ The other one remained struggling with Mr. Bwalya but later freed himself and dropped a round of the short gun,” Mr. Numuswa said.

He said the matter was reported to the police adding that officers later rushed to the scene and picked the round of a short gun which will be used as evidence adding that no arrests have been made so far.

Mr. Namuswa has since called on residents in the province to avoid carrying cash while on the move and also keeping cash in their homes as bandits will want to take advantage of the situation.

Water blues have hit the northern part of Ndola district for almost a week making affected residents to appeal to the Utility firm , Kafubu Water and Sanitation Company to address the crisis immediately.

The affected areas are namely Minsundu, Northrise, Chifubu, Pamodzi, Mitengo, Kanini, Chipulukusu, Hillcrest,Kansenshi, Dolla Hill, Twapia among others.

“It is unacceptable going for seven days without water especially that we are already in the rain season. And surprising enough, Kafubu water has not engaged us on the matter,” lamented some affected residents

George Bwalya, a resident of Northrise on his colleagues’ behalf said people have now resorted to fetching water from shallow wells which he added are ‘breeding grounds for bacteria that cause diarrhea disease.

Mr. Bwalya added that the affected communities are now hesitant to use their flushable toilets whenever answering the call of nature.

“This is unacceptable. We can’t continue leaving like this. Why would people start running away from their own homes because of water? We are urging Kafubu to stop playing games, we want proper services,” Bwalya said.

And Isaac Simata said some sections of Chifubu Township last saw a drop of water from taps on Monday last week, describing the situation as ‘unacceptable.’

But when contacted for a comment, Kansenshi ward Councillor, Brenda Mwamba has expressed ignorance on the matter.

Ms. Mwamba said she is not aware of the erratic water supply in her ward.

Meanwhile, Kafubu water has attributed the erratic supply of water to technical power challenges currently affecting it’s Minsundu 1 and Minsundu 2 water treatment plants.

“Kafubu Water and Sanitation Company Limited would like to inform its esteemed customers that there is erratic water supply and no water in some parts of Ndola’s Northern zone, “ the utility firm’s Public Relations Unit said.

This is due to technical power challenges affecting our Minsundu water treatment plants,” read part of the statement issued by the public relations unit obtained by ZANIS.