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 390
18 - 24 August 2007


CONTENTS:

BURKINA FASO: Census shows population growth rising
CHAD: Revised plan for peacekeeping raises concern
COTE D'IVOIRE: Health care fees up for discussion
GUINEA: Cholera epidemic multiplying despite intense efforts
LIBERIA: Government hunger strategy signifies shift to development
MALI: Thousands of flood victims could be stranded when schools reopen
NIGER: Floods wreak havoc across the country
NIGER: Migration benefits still seen to outweigh risks
NIGERIA: Lull in Port Harcourt fighting is likely to be temporary
NIGERIA: Construction of hundreds of local health centres suspended


BURKINA FASO: Census shows population growth rising

Burkina Faso's population is growing increasingly rapidly largely
because every woman in the country bears on average seven children,
according to national census results published in August. Burkina Faso
has a population of 13.31 million which is expanding by 2.95 percent
every year, the census showed. If the current growth rate continues, the
country, which is among the very poorest in the world, will be more than
20 million strong by 2020. "The census indicates that between 1996 and
2006 the population grew by 341,000 every year, which is considerable",
says Bamory Ouattara, director of the National Institute for
Demographics and Statistics (INSD).
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73851


CHAD: Revised plan for peacekeeping raises concern

For humanitarian officials in Chad a revised UN plan for a peacekeeping
mission in the east of the country raises more questions than it answers
regarding its mandate, rules of engagement and, most importantly,
whether it will help or hinder ongoing relief operations in the area.
The plan was proposed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 10 August.
"Certainly I am pleased that there is a new [international] commitment
to have a force as the government's capacity to provide security is
almost non-existent," the UN humanitarian coordinator for Chad, Kingsley
Amaning, told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73893


COTE D'IVOIRE: Health care fees up for discussion

The Ivorian health ministry is reviewing its policy of charging fees for
health services, hearing recommendations from UN agencies, aid groups
and other experts on potential changes to the 10-year-old system. The
effort comes as aid organisations are lobbying the government to provide
free health care, at least to some at-risk groups. The government is
"evaluating the health cost recovery system, in place since 1996, to see
what has worked and what has not," N'da K. Simeon, head of
communications at the Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene, told IRIN.
But he said the evaluation is not linked to a debate swirling in Cote
d'Ivoire over the merits of free access, saying it is simply time to
take stock of a policy that has existed for more than a decade.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73918


GUINEA: Cholera epidemic multiplying despite intense efforts

Almost 1,800 people have been affected by a cholera outbreak in Guinea
which has caused 67 deaths, according to the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Conakry. In the same
period last year, just 30 cases of cholera were reported, resulting in
zero deaths, according to OCHA. "The epidemic is quite serious this
year, but the government and humanitarian partners are doing everything
they can to treat cases and prevent the spread of the disease in
Guinea," Madeleine Maka Kaba, OCHA spokesperson told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73823


LIBERIA: Government hunger strategy signifies shift to development

Liberia is finalising a strategy aimed at boosting the government's
capacity to tackle hunger and malnutrition - one pillar of an overall
turn towards development after years of stop-gap measures aimed at
picking up the pieces from war, observers say. "This is the Liberian
government reorienting itself towards development," said researcher Todd
Benson of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), who
assisted agencies working on the strategy. The national "Food Security
and Nutrition Strategy", developed by the government in collaboration
with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), identifies how the government will coordinate itself
to tackle chronic hunger - a challenge across the region but
particularly in Liberia where 14 years of war gutted infrastructure and
left massive poverty and malnutrition.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73831


MALI: Thousands of flood victims could be stranded when schools reopen

Malian authorities are scrambling to find alternative shelter for
thousands of people who lost their homes in recent floods, more than
half of whom are currently living in school buildings. "It's an aspect
[of the crisis] that does not attract people's attention but it's a
problem all the same," said Idrissa Traore, chief of operations for the
Malian Red Cross. Since the beginning of July, flooding has swept right
across Mali - from the western region of Kayes along the border with
Senegal to the central regions of Segou and Mopti, destroying hundreds
of homes and killing up to 15 people according to the Malian government.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73808


NIGER: Floods wreak havoc across the country

Large-scale flooding has hit seven of Niger's eight regions, affecting
close to 13,000 people across the country - some of whom may be
inaccessible to aid organisations, according to the Nigerien government.
"The situation is serious," said Hamani Harouna, coordinator of Niger's
National Early Warning System for food crises and floods. Since
mid-July, rains have flooded at least 36 villages, destroyed close to
1,300 homes and killed three people, Harouna said, adding that 12,979
people are known to have lost their homes, farmlands, or both. Of those,
the Nigerien Red Cross estimates that 10,000 people are now homeless and
living in schools, although the government does not have an official
tally.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73902


NIGER: Migration benefits still seen to outweigh risks

Migration has been an essential mechanism for survival in the harsh
climate and erratic agricultural conditions of the Sahara and Sahel
regions for as long as people have lived there. Perhaps a third of the 2
million people who live there are considered nomads, according to
various statistics. Millions of others travel far and wide to find work
during the dry season, sending back money to help their families
survive, and then returning home themselves during the rainy season to
work, plant and harvest from June to November. But sitting outside the
office of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Niger, a
group of former migrants recently arrived back in Niger from Libya said
migration gave them a life of misery in the Libyan capital Tripoli,
battling abusive employers, malaria, and low wages.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73822


NIGERIA: Lull in Port Harcourt fighting is likely to be temporary

Despite heavily armed government troops manning roadblocks and
patrolling the streets of Nigeria's main southern oil city Port
Harcourt, many locals say the militias which the troops have been
fighting, are still located in and around the city and that the current
peace is temporary. "What we have here is a war over who controls the
various rackets that are going on in this city," Abel Wogu, a Port
Harcourt resident and businessman, told IRIN. "Every evening you have
people representing the most powerful gang leaders going round the
filling stations to collect payments," said Wogu, alleging that the
owners of a large petrol station destroyed in August had either failed
to pay one of the armed groups or had come under the control of a rival
group.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73820


NIGERIA: Construction of hundreds of local health centres suspended

Recently-elected Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua has suspended
the construction of 774 healthcare centres throughout his country,
drawing questions on how his administration plans to tackle the
increasingly dire health care situation in Africa's most populous
nation. "Whatever the rights or wrongs of the suspension of the
contract. the fact remains that Nigeria has in recent years spent less
of its budget per capita on healthcare than any other African
government," Ben Foot, programme director for Save the Children in
Nigeria said. According to the Nigerian Ministry of Health, the
contracts for the building of one health centre in each of the 774 local
council districts, which was drawn up during former President Olusegun
Obasanjo's tenure, was to be funded by direct monthly deductions from
local council accounts.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73917


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