U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

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Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci


WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 404
24 - 30 November 2007


CONTENTS:

BURKINA FASO: Soldiers snub government offer
BURKINA FASO: Too many women dying in childbirth
CAMEROON-CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: CAR refugees in Cameroon fear
   returning home
CAMEROON-CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Refugees caught between violence
   and destitution
CHAD: Rebel attacks, banditry hit eastern region
CHAD: Wounded soldiers crowd hospitals as fighting intensifies
GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Coming home from the street - Photo Essay
NIGERIA: Abuja's splendid centre surrounded by urban blight
NIGERIA: Crop loss in north to have long-term consequences
NIGERIA: Driving to death
NIGERIA: Mixed reaction to army's apology
SENEGAL: Trapping flies, saving livelihoods in mine-littered Casamance
SIERRA LEONE: Musu: "The local chief says the man is always right"
SIERRA LEONE: For women, war's over but violence goes on


BURKINA FASO: Soldiers snub government offer

Retired soldiers in Burkina Faso have rejected a government bid to ease
grievances over pensions and other working conditions - complaints that
recently triggered military protests and threats of violence.

The government is offering in part jobs in the civil service to retiring
soldiers.

"We have rejected the government's propositions," Clement Ouedraogo,
head of a group of aggrieved retired soldiers, told IRIN on 28 November
just after the government announced new measures for the military. "We
say it's our demands or nothing."

Active and former soldiers have been demanding a five-year increase in
the retirement age, back pay for recently retired soldiers and increased
pensions to reflect the cost of living.

About 45 days after the latest military demonstrations government
officials told reporters on 28 November that they would offer retiring
military contractual jobs in the civil service or start-up funds for
farming or animal husbandry projects.

Government officials said 2,700 civil service jobs would be available
for retired military in addition to their pensions.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75600


BURKINA FASO: Too many women dying in childbirth

The United Nations Population Fund has launched a campaign in Burkina
Faso to drastically reduce maternal mortality by promoting assisted
delivery and prenatal consultations.

The campaign aims to reach 80 percent of women at the age to procreate
in rural areas, and 50 percent in the cities.

In Burkina Faso, according to the Ministry of Health, just 63 percent of
women see a doctor while they are pregnant, of whom only 23 percent do
so regularly.

Burkina Faso has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the
region, with 484 women dying per 100,000 deliveries.

"We realised that. we need to accelerate our work if we are going to
make a difference," said Olga Sankara, head of the health reproduction
programme at UNFPA's office in the capital, Ouagadougou.

The three-month campaign will include radio and television programs,
including dramas, to educate people about the advantages of prenatal
consultations and the advantages of delivering at health care centres.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75628


CAMEROON-CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: CAR refugees in Cameroon fear
returning home

Settled in eastern Cameroon where they fled to escape masked attackers
who hacked off people's ears, killed, kidnapped and raped with impunity,
45,000 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) do not envisage
going home.

"We will never return to CAR, even if it finds peace," said Aladji
Abdoulaye Gidjo Garga, father of a refugee family whose children have
been kidnapped several times. "We will never be able to forget
everything we suffered," he told IRIN in Borongo, a small village in
Eastern Province.

Northern CAR has seen a brutal conflict between the national army and
rebel groups that have burned hundreds of villages and displaced more
than 300,000 people - over 7 percent of the country's population - with
no end to the conflict in sight.

However, refugees in Cameroon to the west tell a different story. They
say in western CAR it is bandits - armed, masked, dressed in black or in
military getup and known locally as 'coupeurs de route' or 'zaraguinas'
- that are making normal life impossible.

So brutal was the violence against them that some of the refugees who
escaped from western CAR are certain of one thing: they will never be
able to face going home.

Observers suspect the attackers are former rebels or even disguised
military, but their identities remain unknown.

The violence is still happening. Some villages in Cameroon receive 20
new refugees every day. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that
7-10,000 more refugees will settle in Cameroon "in the near future".

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75567


CAMEROON-CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Refugees caught between violence and
destitution

Fatimatou Bouba has trouble holding back tears when she tells her story.

A 34-year-old mother, of the ethnic Mbororo group, she fled the Central
African Republic (CAR) six months ago - like 45,000 others who have
crossed into Cameroon since 2005 - to escape the terror campaign imposed
by unknown attackers known only as 'coupeurs de route' or 'zaraguinas'
operating in the west of the country.

She has settled in a small Cameroonian village called Guiwa Yangamo,
about 400 km north-east of the capital Yaounde.

For Bouba, the nightmare started about one year ago in the north-western
region of Carnot, where she was living with her husband and seven
children.

"The 'zaraguinas' came to our home and kidnapped my 10-month-old son.
They kept him as a hostage for one month. We had to sell 15 oxen to pay
the ransom demanded by the abductors.

"When we got our son back, the skin on the soles of his feet was torn;
the 'zaraguinas' had forced him to walk through the bush with them as
they carried out other raids."

To avoid falling victim to another attack, Bouba and her husband decided
to flee to the region of Bouar, 100 km north of Carnot. But there, the
'coupeurs de route' hit again - this time kidnapping their 7-year-old
son. They sold nine bulls to get him back. The boy had to spend time in
hospital to recover from his four weeks in detention.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75602


CHAD: Wounded soldiers crowd hospitals as fighting intensifies

Fighting between the Chadian army and rebels has intensified in the east
of the country and hospitals in the eastern regional hub Abeche and in
the capital N'djamena are filling up with wounded soldiers.

"The Chadian military hospital in N'djamena is now full," an army
officer told IRIN.

Between 200 and 300 wounded have been moved from Abeche to the capital
this week, another source said. No civilian casualties have been
reported.

The hospital is normally open to the public but since 28 November the
army has closed it off and has increased the number of troops guarding
the building. Wounded soldiers are also being treated at public
hospitals in N'djamena.

The fighting is now mostly in the mountainous area which straddles the
border with Sudan called Hadjar Marfaine, according to a diplomat who is
closely monitoring the conflict in Chad's eastern provinces.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity the official confirmed that the
fighting between the army and the rebel Union of Forces for Democracy
and Development (UFDD) shifted there from where it had started earlier
in the week farther south near Farchana, less than 100km from Abeche and
near two major refugee camps, Treguine and Bredjing.

No information about the condition of the rebels has filtered out of the
remote region, but the army claims it has killed and wounded "hundreds"
of fighters.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75635


CHAD: Rebel attacks, banditry hit eastern region

In the past two days two different kinds of armed attacks have put aid
workers on alert in eastern Chad near Sudan's Darfur region: one by
robbers who attacked aid facilities; the other, a military offensive by
Chadian rebels near the town that serves as a hub for humanitarian aid.

"The fighting between the army and rebels appears to have taken place
outside the town of Hadjer Hadid [some 70 km from Abeche] but no shots
were fired in the town as far as I know," a humanitarian official in
Abeche told IRIN on condition of anonymity. "We heard that rebels came
to the town looking for water but we aren't really sure what happened."

"At this stage we do not expect either side to threaten humanitarian
activities," he added.

Aid workers say they are less concerned by the large-scale military
offensives taking place around them than the banditry.

On 25 November armed bandits attacked Koukou Angarana, about 180 km
southwest of Abeche. Two aid workers there were beaten with rifle butts
and a security guard was shot in the leg, according to Reuters.

Banditry has been on the increase over the last two weeks, according to
the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
in Chad, Eliane Duthoit. "Chadian security forces have made no arrests
[of armed criminals] that we know of," she said. "The criminals could be
renegade army or rebels. We have no idea. We just know they pose a
serious danger."

The rebels have been less threatening, even when they took control of
Abeche for 24 hours in November 2006. Aid workers were able to continue
most of their activities unimpeded.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75515


GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Coming home from the street - Photo Essay

On 21 November, 18 children returned home to a country they hadn't seen
in years. They were trafficked from Guinea-Bissau to Senegal, like
thousands of others - sometimes as young as four years old - who work
the cotton fields of Senegal's southern agricultural region or are taken
to religious leaders who force them to beg on the streets in return for
a Koranic education.

Known as the talibes, the forced child beggars are often subjected to
horrible living conditions, beatings and sometimes sexual abuse. Many
are malnourished, uneducated and do not have access to health care.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75615


NIGERIA: Abuja's splendid centre surrounded by urban blight

Patience Israel, a 20-year-old hairdresser, lived in a decent home in
Karimo, a squatter settlement near Nigeria's political capital, until it
was demolished in January 2006.

"That day was like a war," said Israel, who had to move into a room with
her mother at Chika, another squatter settlement on the other side of
Abuja.

"It was so unexpected. [After the demolition] we had to sleep outside
for two days."

Central Abuja looks like a modern capital with wide streets and a
skyline with spectacular public buildings. But four years after a
massive urban demolition programme began in 2003, little progress has
been made in resettling the roughly 800,000 people that the Geneva-based
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) estimate have been
displaced.

As a result of this and the eviction of 1.2 million other people in
different parts of the country since 2000, COHRE has deemed the Nigerian
government "consistently one of the worst violators of housing rights in
the world".

Over 24 settlements have been demolished around Abuja, many by force.
"The government gave inadequate notice," said Deanna Fowler, coordinator
of the Global Forced Evictions Programme for COHRE.

"Sometimes they would come in, mark out houses, and evict within a week.
Other times they would wait months so people didn't know what to do,"
she said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75473


NIGERIA: Crop loss in north to have long-term consequences

Harvests in many parts of northern Nigeria were so poor this year that
many farmers may not have the means to plant next season.

"A lot of farmers will have nothing to invest," said Sabo Nanono, head
of Kano's chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), the
umbrella union of Nigerian commercial farmers.

He said at least 50 percent of produce was lost because of inadequate
rainfall and locust invasions. "We therefore look towards next year with
trepidation because we will not even recoup half of the money we
invested on our farms," Nanono said.

The season before last, cereal prices were low but many farmers had
bumper harvests and plenty of seeds for planting. "But poor yields this
season have thrown us into a deeper quagmire," Nanono said.

The problem is most immediate for subsistence farmers in the northern
states of Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Borno, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and
Kebbi.

Rain fell only four times this year in some areas. The loss has been
colossal, Sule Maikaza, a farmer in Rajo village in Jigawa State, told
IRIN. "I used to get at least 30 bags [of grain including sorghum and
cowpea] every season but this season I got only 10," he said.

"I don't know how we are going to face next season because a hungry
person [is a tired person and] can't cultivate much."

Traditionally, subsistence farmers set aside a portion of their harvest
to sow for the following season but Maikaza said that he would not be
able to do that now. "I have 12 people to feed," he said. "If I have
only 10 bags you can't expect me to keep some for planting next season."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75559


NIGERIA: Driving to death

One of the most dangerous things anyone can do in Nigeria is get into a
car. "Remember that every road user is mad," reads a hand out from the
Nigerian NGO, Volunteers from Safety Alliance. "You are the only sane
one."

With the oil boom in the 1970s the government built many expressways but
didn't maintain them. Gapping potholes suddenly appear on modern-looking
roadways around the country. Worse yet: Nigerians drive astonishingly
fast, and often with little or no training.

It is not just that there are more accidents in Nigeria; it is that the
accidents are more deadly. Officially around 50 percent were fatal in
2006, and that figure has been much higher in other years. Serious
injuries are even more common. Out of the 9,114 reported accidents in
2006, 17,390 people wound up in hospital.

At the national hospital in Abuja, trauma surgeon Oluwole Olaomi told
IRIN that out of the 703 patients he treated in the month of August, 114
were road accident victims, most between the ages of 20 and 40 years
old.

Nigeria is undergoing a "road crisis," but it is not being widely
discussed. Officially only about 400 people die on the Nigerian roads
each month, according to the head of the Federal Road Safety Commission
(FRSC) in Abuja, Osita Chidoka, but many deaths are never registered.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75562


NIGERIA: Mixed reaction to army's apology

The Nigerian army has apologised for a 2001 attack on a community that
killed some 1,000 people, but relatives and human rights advocates say
the move falls short.

In 2001 the Nigerian government sent troops to Benue State to stop
militants from the Tiv and Jukun ethnic groups from fighting each other.
But some Tiv militants turned on the army killing 19 soldiers. The
troops took revenge by attacking seven towns the largest being
Zaki-Biam.

This month the army officially acknowledged for the first time what its
troops had done. "It all happened because we had to play our role, and
we are sincerely apologising and pray that you understand our own role
as enshrined in the constitutional role," said Chief of Army Staff Gen.
Luka Yusuf at a conference in Benue State attended by the country's top
military leaders.

Yusuf added that the army "is now more focused, result-oriented and
committed to upholding the rule of law and protecting the security of
lives and property".

Whether his apology is adequate is a matter of opinion.

Some Nigerians have said it is a sign that the country's security forces
are undergoing a human rights revolution, bringing an end to the era of
impunity that was integral to military rule. "We cannot but commend
General Yusuf and the military high command for summoning the courage to
apologise for a wrong done to the Zaki Biam people", a recent editorial
in the local newspaper the Daily Champion said.

But the army announced no plans to compensate the families of those
killed nor has it said it would prosecute any of the soldiers
responsible for the massacre.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75513


SENEGAL: Trapping flies, saving livelihoods in mine-littered Casamance

farmers in Senegal are learning how used plastic water bottles and a few
dollars could save hundreds of dollars they lose annually to a
fruit-destroying fly.

Government agriculture officials and aid groups are training producers
in the use of a trap made of local and recycled materials - far cheaper
and more accessible than imported traps. In turn the producers will
train other farmers.

The effort is expected to provide considerable relief to mango producers
who for at least four years have seen the fly gut their livelihoods.
Mangoes have become particularly important to many farmers in the
embattled Casamance region since landmines have forced them to give up
other crops.

"This is really a huge sigh of relief for the farmers of Casamance,"
said Ibou Goudiaby, who has five hectares of mango trees just south of
the Casamance capital, Ziguinchor.

"This will allow us to recover our plantations, which are our only
source of revenue until demining is complete." He called for stepped up
efforts to train farmers in methods to kill off the fly, saying,
"Without this effort all of Casamance would sink into misery because
most of us are cultivators."

Residents across Casamance are being hit by food shortages due to poor
rains. And many families depend on mango crops because they grow during
the rainy period - from July through September - the lean period for
other crops. Farmers in Senegal live on the export of mangoes as well as
their local sale.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75533

SIERRA LEONE: Musu: "The local chief says the man is always right"

At age 16 Musu was forced to marry a man twice her age. Seven years
later, she has three children she can barely feed and scars from regular
beatings by her husband.

She would often go to her parents' home after "the quarrels", but they
only persuaded her to return to her husband. About six months ago she
fled to the capital, Freetown.

"They forced me to marry this man. I did not want this man.

"He would take alcohol and he was beating me every day, forcing me to
give sex every day. Sometimes he beat me with his hands, sometimes with
a cane made of wood.

"The children [ages two, three and six] sometimes see the beatings, but
they are too young to understand and know.

"The man wants me to give more children. He says, 'I will beat you - you
don't want to have sex, you don't want to have another child.' Sometimes
he beats me on my face. He accuses me of having another man.

"But I don't want another child. Even the three children I have, to
raise them is very difficult. My man is not working.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75522


SIERRA LEONE: For women, war's over but violence goes on

Musu, 23, does not want more children. She has trouble feeding the three
she already has. She has paid for this decision with regular beatings
and rape by her 45-year-old husband.

"The man was beating me every day, forcing me to give sex every day,"
Musu told IRIN from the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown, where she is
staying with a distant relative after fleeing her husband.

"He wanted me to have more children. He beat me and beat me. I'm tired."

Musu said the local chief disregarded her pleas about abuse by the man
she was forced to marry at age 16. She has not gone to the police
"because I don't have any money. They always ask for money". Despite
recent laws aimed at boosting women's legal status in Sierra Leone,
powerlessness in the face of violence remains an everyday fact of life
for countless women like Musu.

In a 1 November report Amnesty International said the legacy of the
"unimaginable brutality" against women during the country's 1991-2002
civil war feeds violence against them today. During the war, some
250,000 women and girls - about a third of the female population - were
brutally raped, tortured and kept as sex slaves, the report said.

"Rape is the only war violation that continues to today," Amnesty's
Sierra Leone researcher Tania Bernath told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75511


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