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 392
1 - 7 September 2007


CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: State health facilities halt all services in
   "indefinite" strike
GHANA: Floods force some 10,000 from their homes
BURKINA FASO: Lots of rain, little aid
SIERRA LEONE: Election could turn on Kamajor war heroes/criminals
CHAD: More aid needed now but peacekeepers not expected for months
SIERRA LEONE: Not a lot of guns but a lot of frustration
TOGO: Floods kill at least 17, cut off access to some 60,000 people
NIGERIA: With new flooding in Sokoto, 50,000 people displaced
   nationwide
WESTERN SAHARA: Lack of donor funds threatens humanitarian projects
MAURITANIA: Flood damage intensifies with more rains
CHAD: Threat of public sector strikes still hangs over government
CHAD: Floods hit refugees and displaced in east
COTE D'IVOIRE: Diabetes sufferers call for government action on
   "neglected" disease
WEST AFRICA: Floods prompt greater focus on risk reduction
TOGO: Malnutrition unacceptably high, aid to start - UNICEF
MAURITANIA: UN refugee agency calls for funds to get Mauritanian
   refugees home


COTE D'IVOIRE: State health facilities halt all services in "indefinite"
strike

In Cote d'Ivoire people are being turned away from public hospitals as
all state doctors have gone on strike, shutting down even minimum
services in health facilities across the country. "We've been here for
two days, but no one wants to take care of us," said a teary-eyed
Solange Atse, accompanying her asthmatic sister to a main public
hospital in the commercial capital, Abidjan. The strike, which began on
5 September, is the second in two months as negotiations with the
government over pay scale and other trade union grievances have failed.
In the earlier strike in August, hospitals provided some minimum
services but this time round that is not the case. The medical trade
union this time called for an "indefinite strike without minimum
services", according to the union's secretary general, Amichia Magloire.
The Minister of Public Health and Hygiene, Remi Allah Kouadio, has
appealed to the state doctors to retain minimum services for the
population but they have refused. This means that even people in urgent
need are on their own. At a hospital in the Treichville neighbourhood of
Abidjan, an ambulance carrying a patient was turned away on. "Not
working here, go somewhere else," a guard at the hospital entrance told
the driver.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74186


GHANA: Floods force some 10,000 from their homes

Flooding in northeast Ghana has killed at least six people and displaced
some 10,000, according to local news reports. Local media reports said
floods destroyed some 4,500 homes in the Upper East Region after
torrential rains from 24 to 29 August. Sources in Ghana could not be
reached due to problems with international calls to the country, but
local news reports compiled by IRIN recount widespread destruction in
the region. The floods reportedly resulted in part from a dam break in
neighbouring Burkina Faso. An Agriculture Ministry official in Burkina
Faso told IRIN that floods had destroyed many dams in the country over
the past month. From 24 to 25 August 112mm of rain reportedly fell in
the town of Sandema, where three people were reported dead. The flooding
is also said to have caused the collapse of major bridges in the Upper
East Region.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74184


BURKINA FASO: Lots of rain, little aid

Despite continued rain and rising numbers of flood victims in Burkina
Faso, aid is limited in this Sahelian country, where, according to local
press, flooding in the capital Ouagadougou is the worst in 54 years. So
far, more than 35,000 people have been affected across the country, and
80 percent of them are homeless, according to the national council for
emergency aid (CONASUR). The death toll has reached 33, with another 73
injured. Of the country's 13 regions, 11 have been affected. (The
government says the numbers are likely much higher because continuing
rain has prevented a global assessment.) Flooding has knocked over homes
and schools, destroyed dikes and bridges and blocked access to some
villages. According to local newspapers, a two-year-old girl was crushed
to death when a wall of her house crumbled on top of her. Yet more than
a month after flooding began, the government says it is not receiving
the aid it needs. "We need food and survival materials: mats, blankets,
soap, plastic buckets," Amade Belem, the permanent secretary of the
national council for emergency aid and the government's top crisis
management official, told IRIN. "Certainly what is most worrying is that
we don't have tents."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74175


SIERRA LEONE: Election could turn on Kamajor war heroes/criminals

In Sierra Leone's closely fought presidential election both sides are in
their own ways vying for the support of the Kamajors, a former civil
defence force whose leaders have been indicted by a UN-backed war crimes
court. But for many citizens they remain heroes for having defended the
country against brutal rebels. Traditional hunters before the
decade-long civil war which ended in 2002, the Kamajors grew in number
to over 20,000 and fought alongside British and Nigerian forces to
reinstate and then defend the democratically-elected Sierra Leone
People's Party (SLPP). However, in the 11 August parliamentary and
presidential elections, the SLPP lost massively in most areas where the
Kamajors are strong. Overall the SLPP lost its majority in parliament,
and for the presidential run-off election set for 8 September the SLPP
candidate Solomon Berewa is trailing opposition leader Ernest Bai
Koroma. In the first round Koroma took 44 percent while Berewa won only
38 percent. Though traditionally SLPP, many Kamajors have joined a new
breakaway party called the People's Movement for Democratic Change
(PMDC), whose leader, Charles Margai, is also lead defence counsel for
one of the indicted Kamajors. In the upcoming election Margai, who came
third in the first round of presidential elections on 11 August, has
thrown his support not behind the SLPP, but behind the long-time rival
opposition party.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74173


CHAD: More aid needed now but peacekeepers not expected for months

Peacekeepers are unlikely to arrive in Chad for at least three months,
according to senior UN diplomats who spoke following a joint military
mission to the country by representatives of the European Union and the
UN. Meanwhile the World Food Programme (WFP) is launched a new appeal
for funds to assist Darfur refugees in Chad and victims of
inter-communal clashes in Chad. "We would hope that the EU will be in a
position to give us an operational concept in maybe two weeks. That's
the time we need to do the work seriously and also bearing in mind that
at any time we might have to verify the work in full cooperation with
[Chadian President Idriss] Deby and the [Chadian] authorities," Jean
Maurice Ripert, French Ambassador to the UN, told IRIN on 5 September.
After the EU report is filed, the Security Council would adopt a
resolution giving a mandate to the EU to undertake the mission. The
Council of Ministers of the EU would then have to vote on the operation.
"We would be looking at doing diplomacy on the ground and would hope
this would be done by the end of September, if possible, in three months
at the latest," Ripert said. "Then a practical operation by the end of
October." UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is travelling to Sudan and
Chad this week. "I want to go and see for myself the very difficult
conditions under which our forces will operate," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74163


SIERRA LEONE: Not a lot of guns but a lot of frustration

With an estimated 72,490 fighters disarmed in less than two years,
observers agree Sierra Leone now has surprisingly few weapons for a
country that was awash with them just six years ago. For this, credit
goes to the UN and government disarmament and demobilisation programmes,
but many say the root causes of the armed conflict remain. Efforts to
re-integrate ex-combatants into society have been largely ineffective,
the observers say. "Sierra Leone should not be wiped off the list of
post-war countries that could return to conflict," Ibrahim Bangura the
director of PRIDE, a non-governmental organisation working with
ex-combatants, told IRIN. "Under the right conditions all the
peace-building efforts we have seen so far may yet collapse." A portent,
he said, can be seen with the campaign for the 8 September presidential
election in which each of the main parties has brought in ex-combatants
as bodyguards and for security. Bangura said security for the opposition
All People's Congress is headed by former rebel soldier Idrissa Kamara
nicknamed 'Leather Boots', who was only recently released from prison
for having committed treason. The Sierra Leone People's Party's security
is headed by Tom Nyuma, a well-known former army officer accused of
multiple rights violations.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74151


TOGO: Floods kill at least 17, cut off access to some 60,000 people

Flooding has killed at least 17 people and displaced more than 7,000 in
recent days in the Savanes region of northeastern Togo, which recent UN
studies say is the country's poorest region with "alarming" rates of
child malnutrition. Most of the people who died either drowned or were
crushed when their houses collapsed, health workers said. "We saw the
case of one child who died when the wall of his house collapsed onto him
and his mother," Gaspard Fletou, a nurse at the hospital in Mandouri,
the main town in the affected area, told IRIN. Floods washed out roads
and bridges, completely cutting access to about half of Kpendjal
prefecture, which has a population of some 123,000, UN and government
sources told IRIN. Other prefectures affected are Oti, Tone and
Tandjouare. The area is some 600km from the Togolese capital, Lome. The
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) puts the number of displaced at 7,167, but
assessments on displacements as well as infrastructure and crop damage
are ongoing, officials said. Government officials in Kpendjal in a
report issued on 3 September said many villages are cut off from major
health centres and commercial activity. The destruction of crops "will
cause great suffering for the population", the report said. It also
said, "chicken farms are washed away; it's a disaster."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74144


NIGERIA: With new flooding in Sokoto, 50,000 people displaced nationwide

More than 5,000 people were made homeless by flooding in and around the
northern city of Sokoto this week, bringing the number of victims to
50,000 throughout Nigeria in just two months, according to the national
Red Cross. "We've not had this type of flooding for many years and
people had become complacent," an official of the Sokoto State emergency
services Audu Mustapha, told IRIN. "For many the floods came suddenly,
leaving them no chance to escape," Mustapha said. Hardest hit by the
floods in Sokoto State was Kiyawa village in Goronyo District and Gamgam
in Shagari Local Council District where nearly all the houses and
farmlands went under water, he said. At least 13 communities have been
affected since floods started in the area two weeks ago, most of them
located on the banks of the Sokoto and Rima rivers. At least 68 people
have been killed in floods in various parts of the country which have
occurred over the last two months. "The worst hit area is Plateau
[State] where more than 20 people died," Abiodun Orebiyi, secretary of
the Nigerian Red Cross, told IRIN. "Many of them were caught in flash
floods; there was nothing they could do."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74138


WESTERN SAHARA: Lack of donor funds threatens humanitarian projects

The United Nations refugee agency warns that donor shortfalls are
threatening its confidence-building projects in the Western Sahara and
that a family reunion programme and other such initiatives will close in
October if donors do not step up funding. "In January, the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appealed for nearly US$3.5 million to
continue family visits and telephone services initiated in 2004," the UN
said in a statement on 4 September. "Only a little over half that amount
has so far been funded," and the projects risk "coming to a halt" next
month. Some 90,000 Sahrawi people live in refugee camps around Tindouf
in western Algeria, where they sought shelter from a conflict between
Morocco and the Algerian-backed Frente Popular de Liberacion de Saguia
el Hamra y Rio de Oro, or Polisario Front, which began fighting for
Sahrawi independence in the early 1970s when Western Sahara was still a
Spanish colony. There has been relative calm since 1991 when the UN
brokered a ceasefire and set up the UN Mission for the Referendum in
Western Sahara (MINURSO), now the longest-serving peacekeeping mission
in Africa. Morocco maintains its claims over the territory while the
Polisario insists that it become an independent state, and UN-mediated
talks to end the conflict have stalemated. Since 2004 UNHCR has run
regular flights between the camps and Western Sahara in order to
temporarily reunite families.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74134


MAURITANIA: Flood damage intensifies with more rains

As Mauritania tries to recover from floods that totally submerged the
southeastern town of Tintane in early August, more recent rains have
caused additional damage in other regions of the country. Heavy rains on
29-31 August have affected hundreds of families in the southern regions
of Gorgol and Assaba. Dozens of families have been made homeless,
according to preliminary information from the World Food Programme (WFP)
and the government's Commissariat Charge de la Protection Sociale et de
la Securite Alimentaire (CCPSSA). Exact numbers are still difficult to
come by, as the authorities are currently visiting affected regions to
assess the situation. One person was found dead in Gorgol, Mbout
Department, after being washed away, according to the CCPSSA. Five
schools are now serving as temporary shelter for the displaced in the
departments of Kaedi and Mbout. The government has already begun
distributing food, tents and blankets in those two departments and will
transport aid by boat to the department of Maghama, which has become
inaccessible by road because of the rain. In Assaba, around 100 families
have been affected in the village of Barkeol, and at least 97 homes were
destroyed in the municipality of Kankossa, according to the CCPSSA.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74116


CHAD: Threat of public sector strikes still hangs over government

Trade unions in Chad have suspended a strike that closed hospitals and
schools in the capital for three months, but some analysts are warning
that the unions remain a powerful disruptive force and the significance
of the strikes should not be underestimated. The strike, which started
on 2 May, was suspended by union leaders on 27 August, pending
arbitration by the International Conferation of Unions in Geneva,
according to a communique released by union leaders. Union leaders
threatened to take their dispute onto the streets but four-month strike
turned out to be peaceful. "The strike is not over - it is simply
suspended and can restart at any moment," union coordinator Djibrine
Assali told IRIN. Large numbers of people in N'djamena, including from
within the unions, have expressed frustration at the continued
disruption and accused union leaders of enriching themselves at the
expense of ordinary Chadians, but Assali said the results of the strike
have "so far been positive". "We have obtained a 15 percent increase in
salaries, and an increase of 2,000 CFA francs (US$4) to the pension
benefits," he said, referring to an offer made to the unions by Chad's
President Idriss Deby in early June. The Economist Intelligence Unit on
28 August warned that public sector strikes in Chad could be "of more
immediate importance to the stability of the [Chadian] state" than an
ongoing armed conflict in the country's remote eastern region between
the army and several armed groups opposed to Chad's President Deby.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74095


CHAD: Floods hit refugees and displaced in east

Heavy rains in eastern Chad have caused rivers to overflow, washing out
several camps for Chadians displaced by inter-ethnic fighting and
refugees from Sudan's Darfur region. "It's already an enormously
difficult situation and the heavy rain this year as well as the
degradation of the roads have hindered our work," said Nicolas
Kaburabouyou, head of protection for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) at
the Goz Beida refugee camp in southeastern Chad. The worst hit area is
Koukou, which is the site of a refugee camp housing some 11,000 people,
around 6km east of the town of Goz Beida. According to UNHCR, the mud
and straw shelters that refugees built themselves have been collapsing,
sometimes with people inside. Refugees have been moving to higher ground
to escape the flood waters. No cases of cholera have been reported,
according to Kaburabouyou, but cases of malaria, a mosquito-borne
illness which often contributes to the death of children weakened by
malnutrition, have increased sharply. The waters are too deep for aid
workers to reach the refugees, but some supplies have been transported
using camels and horse and carts, Kaburabouyou added. Aid workers in
Chad have come to expect these kinds of problems, according to Ann
Maymann, UNHCR spokesperson in N'djamena. "During the rainy season there
is always a lot of difficulty with logistics. The runways get flooded
and many humanitarian flights are cancelled. It takes an enormous amount
of time to get from one place to another."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74099


COTE D'IVOIRE: Diabetes sufferers call for government action on
"neglected" disease

Diabetes patients in Cote d'Ivoire are appealing for help, as a lack of
insulin in the country's public pharmacies has put the medicine out of
reach for most, adding to the burden diabetics already face in fighting
their disease in one of the poorest countries in the world. "The
situation has become so critical," said Jonas Yao, vice president of the
national association of diabetics. "People are going to die." The
national stock of insulin ran out in March, making the medicine
available only at more than double the price at private pharmacies, Yao
told IRIN. Diabetes patients said the lack of affordable insulin is just
one example of the government's failure to help care for people with the
disease. Health experts say chronic illnesses like diabetes, despite
their heavy human and socioeconomic toll, tend to lose out in competing
for scarce resources with communicable diseases like tuberculosis,
HIV/AIDS and malaria. Diabetes patients in Cote d'Ivoire say they are
frustrated about a general disregard for diabetes in comparison to other
more visible illnesses. "People neglect diabetes because it is not
contagious like HIV," said Hortense Nouama, treasurer of the national
association of diabetics.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74109


WEST AFRICA: Floods prompt greater focus on risk reduction

After the floods that have this season affected over 130,000 people in
nine West African countries, according to the latest UN figures,
humanitarian actors are urging international donors to invest in risk
reduction and the mitigation of floods. "We know there have been floods
in West Africa. This is not new," said Herve Ludovic de Lys, head of the
regional UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
for West Africa. "[But] there is no interest in prevention among the
donors." In what the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC)
called "unprecedented" flooding in West Africa, tens of thousands of
people in Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal,
The Gambia, Liberia and Nigeria have lost their homes or their
livelihoods, and dozens have died. Rains have also destroyed critical
water and transportation infrastructure. "We will see more and more of
this problem every year because vulnerabilities are increasing and
threats are becoming more frequent," said Stephane Quinton, head of the
West Africa office of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office
(ECHO). "We have to move from response mode to reduction of risks. There
are no other solutions."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74078


TOGO: Malnutrition unacceptably high, aid to start - UNICEF

The international community is sending therapeutic food to communities
in Togo, where a UN study into children's health and welfare has shown
that in some areas nearly one in three children suffers from acute
malnutrition. The study, which was completed by the UN children's fund
(UNICEF) in 2006, calls malnutrition rates in two regions in the north
of the country and one in the south "unacceptably high". UNICEF is set
to launch a project it says will save children's lives as well as help
prevent malnutrition, which the study said causes 51 percent of child
deaths in Togo. "Acute malnutrition is an indicator of a sharp
degradation of a population's general state," said Stephane Quinton,
head of the West Africa office of ECHO, the humanitarian aid arm of the
European Commission. ECHO, which recently made an assessment mission to
Togo, has given 500,000 euros (US$683,000) to assist children in the
affected regions, where Quinton said conditions "have deteriorated
significantly." UNICEF's study, which was endorsed by the Togolese
government in May 2007, said in the northern regions of Savanes and Kara
acute malnutrition stands at 32 percent and 24 percent respectively. The
rate is 17 percent in the southern region of Maritime, close to the
capital Lome.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74079


MAURITANIA: UN refugee agency calls for funds to get Mauritanian
refugees home

The UN refugee agency is asking donors for US$7 million to help tens of
thousands of Mauritanians return home nearly 20 years after ethnic
fighting forced them to leave. Forced from their homes and livelihoods
in 1989 the refugees - living in Senegal and Mali - have long insisted
that their return be supervised and backed by the UN refugee agency
(UNHCR). In June the Mauritanian government formally requested UNHCR
assistance with the repatriation. "We call on the international
community to help Mauritania turn this painful page in our history,"
Moustapha Toure, spokesperson for the Mauritanian refugees, told IRIN.
Some 25,000 Mauritanians are expected to set off from Senegal and Mali
next month in UNHCR-operated boats and trucks, with the refugee agency
providing food and protection along the way as well as assistance to
local communities. Part of the funds - about $1.7 million - is earmarked
for protection and monitoring of refugees' legal rights. "The
authorities will provide returnees with the necessary documentation to
ensure their access to civil rights, land and property in a dignified
manner," UNHCR says in its appeal.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74090


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