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

Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci


WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 405
1 - 7 December 2007


CONTENTS:

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-CAMEROON: CAR refugees in Cameroon diseased,
   malnourished, lack water
CHAD: Rebel fronts multiply in the east
CHAD: European force "blocked" for now
COTE D'IVOIRE: Tend to cattle then go to class
GUINEA-MALI: Authorities move to prevent border clashes
MAURITANIA: The real beginning of the end of slavery?
NIGER: Rape and beatings of women "normal"
NIGERIA: Government quits talks with Pfizer, dealing "serious blow" to
   families
SENEGAL: Citizens on coastal environment watch
TOGO: Haphazard supply of AIDS drugs endangers lives
WEST AFRICA: UN launches regional human rights office
WEST AFRICA: Groups call on governments to tackle violence against
   schoolgirls
WEST AFRICA: Meeting education targets - access versus quality


CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-CAMEROON: CAR refugees in Cameroon diseased,
malnourished, lack water

Most of the 45,000 Central African Republic (CAR) refugees living in
eastern Cameroon are diseased, malnourished and generally in bad health,
non-governmental organisation (NGO) and UN workers say.

Since 2005 the Mbororo pastoralists of western CAR have been fleeing
child kidnappings and violent attacks - including throat-slitting - by
masked bandits whose identities remain unknown.

The refugees arrive "very weakened, after long days of walking and a lot
of stress and they live in very difficult conditions", Eric Grimaldi of
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75646


CHAD: Rebel fronts multiply in the east

After a week of intense fighting between the Chadian army and the rebel
Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) in mountainous
Hadjar Marfaine near the Chad-Sudan border, another rebel group has
opened a second front farther north.

The Rally of the Forces for Change (RFC), led by Timane Erdimi, has
crossed into Chad from Sudan, the government announced at a closed
meeting with representatives of the international community in the
capital Ndjamena on 1 December.

The rebels have been seen heading east towards the town of Guereda, a
major humanitarian hub for assisting tens of thousands of Sudanese
refugees and displaced Chadians.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75659


CHAD: European force "blocked" for now

The 4,500-strong European force expected to start arriving in Chad and
the Central African Republic in November to protect aid workers and some
500,000 displaced civilians is on hold for now. The force, known as
EUFOR, currently consists of 23 military personnel holed up in a hotel
in Chad's capital N'djamena, 700 km west of the conflict zone.

"The process [of launching the force] has been blocked for the moment,"
EUFOR spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Poulain told IRIN on 4
December. "EU countries have not agreed on who should provide the
equipment we need to get started and they are no longer even having what
we call 'force-generating' conferences to discuss the matter," he said.

"Things must first be worked out at the highest [presidential and
ministerial] level before we can have another force-generating
conference to discuss how to get the force up and running," he said,
adding that even if next week EU countries were to agree on providing
the necessary equipment the force could not properly launch before
January.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75700


COTE D'IVOIRE: Tend to cattle then go to class

Shortly before noon 7-year-old Kolotioloma Soro, her 9-year-old sister
Anne-Marie and a crowd of other children tie up their cattle to bushes
and sit under a giant tree for a brief rest before their school lessons.

After a meal of millet cakes and milk, the children retrieve slates and
chalk they keep tucked away in nearby underbrush then situate themselves
in straight rows on the ground under the tree. "The teacher will be here
shortly," Kolotioloma says. "We'll review a bit before he arrives."

The children - in Fapaha village in Cote d'Ivoire's north-central
Korhogo region - are part of a programme, sponsored by the UN Children's
Fund (UNICEF) and run by the local NGO 'Animation Rurale de Korhogo'
(ARK), to provide schooling to children who spend their days tending to
family crops or livestock.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75689


GUINEA-MALI: Authorities move to prevent border clashes

After months of pleas to authorities from village leaders, the Malian
and Guinean governments say they will take steps to prevent further
violence over land rights along their border, where three clashes in
less than six months have killed 11 people and injured at least 30
others.

After late November meetings, authorities from both countries announced
the resumption of a long-inactive mixed patrol force along the
Mali-Guinea border.

"We have agreed . to provide border security forces from both countries
with adequate forms of communication, in order to encourage and expand
the exchange of information to better secure the border areas," said
Malian Minister of Territorial Administration, General Kafougouna Kone.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75642


MAURITANIA: The real beginning of the end of slavery?

Four months after the passing of a law criminalising slavery in
Mauritania, anti-slavery activists hope newly-announced funding for the
reintegration of former slaves will address the many problems they
continue to face in Mauritanian society.

"Quite obviously, we're very pleased with the announcement," said Biram
Ould Dah Ould Abeid, member of the anti-slavery organisation SOS
Esclaves, which has been leading the fight against slavery in Mauritania
for years. "The government is sending slaves a strong signal and it is
also proof that the authorities have heard our calls."

When slavery was criminalised in August, human rights and anti-slavery
organisations urged the government - as they had been doing for years -
to adopt accompanying measures for the law to be effective.

Officially abolished in 1981, slavery continues to be practiced in all
Mauritanian communities, mostly in rural areas, by upper-class
lighter-skinned Moors (Berber Arabs) as well as black Africans. One
estimate by the Open Society Justice Initiative places the number of
slaves and former slaves at 20 percent of the population - or about
500,000 people - but the numbers are difficult to confirm.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75756


NIGER: Rape and beatings of women "normal" in Niger

The news that 70 percent of women in parts of Niger find it normal that
their husbands, fathers and brothers regularly beat, rape and humiliate
them came as no surprise to human rights experts in Niger.

"Women here have been indoctrinated by their families, by religious
officials, by society that this is a normal phenomenon," said Lisette
Quesnel, a gender-based violence advisor with Oxfam in Niger, which
produced the statistic from a survey of women in the remote Zinder
region of eastern Niger in 2006.

The frequency of the crimes and the impunity granted to the attackers
partly explain the broad social acceptance of it, activists say. Rape is
increasingly common in the capital Niamey.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75720


NIGERIA: Government quits talks with Pfizer, dealing "serious blow" to
families

Families affected by controversial drug tests in Kano, northern Nigeria,
say the state government's decision to quit settlement talks with the US
drug maker Pfizer has destroyed their hopes of any financial relief.

Authorities in Kano state have pulled out of negotiations over an
out-of-court settlement of a $2.75-billion suit against Pfizer.

"Kano state government is no longer inclined towards holding any direct
discussions with Pfizer, its retained counsel or employees," Kano's
justice commissioner Aliyu Umar said in a 28 November letter he sent to
Pfizer's counsel, Anthony Idigbe.

Kano state filed civil and criminal suits in March 2007 before the state
high court, demanding $2.75 billion in compensation from Pfizer for
allegedly carrying out an unauthorised test of a meningitis drug called
Trovan on 200 children in April 1996 during a triple epidemic of
measles, cholera and meningitis that claimed over 12,000 lives.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75761


SENEGAL: Citizens on coastal environment watch

Concrete walls, boulders, tyres; enclosed vegetable gardens: These are
just some of the means Senegal's coastal communities are using to stop
trash-dumping and sand-mining as well as the reckless chopping down of
the coast's protective trees.

These illegal but profitable activities are eroding Senegal's coast and
damaging the marine environment, and community groups and authorities
say it must stop.

"There is increased exploitation along this strip that must prompt the
local population to mobilise to protect this treasure," El Hadj Amadou
Beye, president of SOS Littoral (SOS Coastal), told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75674


TOGO: Haphazard supply of AIDS drugs endangers lives

A critical shortage of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in Togo has
temporarily eased with the arrival of a two-month supply of the
life-prolonging medication.

HIV-positive people and AIDS activists say an unstable supply of ARVs in
the country is putting lives in danger.

A stop-gap consignment of the generic drug, Triomune, arrived from its
Indian manufacturer on 28 November, four months after the order had been
placed; distribution began the next day. "They are making efforts to
catch up on lost time," said Augustin Dokla, president of RAS+, a
network for people living with HIV in Togo.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75711


WEST AFRICA: UN launches regional human rights office

Violence against women, human trafficking and migration are expected to
lead the agenda of a new West Africa office of the UN human rights
commission, a top UN official says.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) signed
an agreement with the Senegalese government on 3 December to set up a
regional office in the capital, Dakar. The office - the fourth regional
office in Africa - is expected to open in early 2008.

Kyung-wha Kang, UN deputy commissioner for human rights who was in Dakar
for the signing, told IRIN on 3 December that one priority is to help
make people aware that violence against women constitutes a breach of
fundamental rights. "People tend to think of violence against women not
as a human rights issue," she said. "But it is a serious, serious human
rights violation."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75685


WEST AFRICA: Groups call on governments to tackle violence against
schoolgirls

To improve girls' education, West African governments must adopt
national policies addressing all aspects of violence against schoolgirls
- who face rape by teachers, verbal abuse by male students and forced
early marriage by parents - a grouping of policy makers, teachers'
unions and civil society organisations has said.

"For all girls to go to school, the question of violence against girls
must be solved," said Victorine Djitrinou, international education,
advocacy and campaign coordinator for ActionAid International, which
organised a conference in Saly, Senegal, on violence against girls in
school from 1-3 December.

"Governments must take this on as a problem. Until now, that hasn't
happened," she said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75695


WEST AFRICA: Meeting education targets - access versus quality

Midway to the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000, several West
African countries have made vast efforts to achieve universal education
and gender parity in primary schools by 2015. But education officials
and teachers' unions say the push for increased access to education has
come at a cost.

"Right now, governments are making a lot of effort on quantity and not
quality," Victorine Djitrinou, international education, advocacy and
campaign coordinator for ActionAid International, told IRIN at a recent
conference on violence against schoolgirls held in Saly, Senegal.

While enrolment numbers have improved, retention and graduation rates
remain a serious problem and, in some cases, have even decreased.
Officials in many West African countries say tens of thousands of
unqualified teachers have a lot to do with it.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75724[END]


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