Aid groups pull back in Zimbabwe

Those facing hunger after the aid freeze include many children

Aid agency Save the Children is pulling staff out of rural areas of Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe's government froze all aid agency field operations.

Other aid groups are also believed to be withdrawing personnel. The ban on their work helping Zimbabwe's poor has provoked international outrage.

The opposition has urged a strong foreign observer presence to combat intimidation during polls this month.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is not being allowed to campaign openly.

See map of food shortages in Zimbabwe

His rallies were banned on Friday and another MP from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party was arrested on Saturday.

President Mugabe is being accused of trying to steal the presidential run-off election even before it has begun, the BBC's Caroline Hawley reports from neighbouring South Africa.

Less then three weeks before the planned presidential run-off, the opposition says violence is escalating.

There are reports of increasing numbers of roadblocks cutting off parts of the countryside where, according to human rights workers, most of the abuses occur.

'Two million at risk'

Aid groups believe the government does not want them out in the rural areas witnessing what is happening or feeding the hungry when the government can use food to buy votes, our correspondent reports.

The government has accused aid agencies of campaigning for the opposition. One aid worker told the BBC she had met opposition supporters who had had their ID cards taken away and their hands injured so they could not vote.

John Holmes, the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, has said the UN believes that two million people, particularly children, will be at greater risk as a result of the freeze on aid work.

Mr Mugabe is widely accused of economic mismanagement resulting in runaway inflation, soaring unemployment and the decline of Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, although he blames a Western conspiracy for the country's crisis.

With drought and failed harvests further reducing food supplies, aid agencies fear a rise in hunger.

Oxfam's international programme director, Penny Lawrence, told the BBC the organisation had suspended its work at the government's request.

"A lot of vulnerable people are very reliant on food aid and they don't have anything else to eat," she said on Saturday.

"Oxfam's been supporting over 300,000 people over the last few months and... August is a real food shortage period.

MP re-arrested

MP Eric Matinenga was arrested for the second time in two days, the MDC said.

Earlier charges of inciting violence had been dropped.

But the same charges were brought on Saturday, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

A number of MDC members of parliament have been arrested since the first round of the presidential election on 29 March.

South Africa has increased the number of observers it is sending to Zimbabwe, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told the BBC.

He said he hoped the observer missions being sent by the South African Development Community and the African Union would also "be substantially increased in numbers".

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