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 289
12 - 18 January 2008


CONTENTS:

BURKINA FASO: Concern about rise in unwanted teenage pregnancies
COTE D'IVOIRE: UN warns of lingering threats to stability
NIGER: Press harassment hinders development, watchdogs warn
NIGERIA: Basic services crisis turns deadly in Kaduna
NIGERIA: Classroom shortages threaten primary education targets
WEST AFRICA: WHO warns meningitis outbreak has begun in region
WEST AFRICA: Food prices still rising, crisis feared
GLOBAL: Fund launched for poor countries struggling with high food prices


BURKINA FASO: Concern about rise in unwanted teenage pregnancies

Each year in Burkina Faso 500 girls experience unwanted pregnancies,
many of them going on to abandon their newborn babies in toilets, in
rubbish bins and behind buildings. The shocking phenomenon is becoming
most widespread in the capital Ouagadougou as more people move to the
city from the countryside. Rural traditions which mean girls often marry
at age 13 or younger, are clashing with the less conservative,
promiscuous city life. Girls, so uneducated they don't even understand
why they menstruate, have nowhere to turn as conservative values still
hold strong and public health services are inadequate according to
Asseta Sanfo, a government social worker.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76299


COTE D'IVOIRE: UN warns of lingering threats to stability

Nearly two years on from the signing of a peace accord widely deemed the
last, best chance for Cote d'Ivoire, "systemic factors of instability"
continue to threaten peace efforts, according to the UN, which has
extended the mandates of UN and French forces in the country. The UN
Security Council on 15 January voted unanimously to keep the UN mission
(UNOCI) and international forces in Cote d'Ivoire until 30 July 2008, to
support the organisation of "free, open, fair and transparent
elections". In a 2 January report on progress in Cote d'Ivoire, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called current plans by Ivorian leaders to
hold elections by June 2008 "very ambitious" and said such a timeline
requires parties to the conflict and international partners to "redouble
their efforts".

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76283


NIGER: Press harassment hinders development, watchdogs warn

Press freedom groups agree that an increase in arrests, intimidation and
harassment of journalists in Niger is impeding development in one of the
poorest countries in the world. At least 14 journalists were arrested in
Niger in 2007. Four of them are still in prison awaiting sentencing.
Among them are the Niger correspondent of Radio France Internationale,
the head of a Nigerien newspaper, and two French journalists who visited
the country in December to report for a French television channel.
According to the Nigerien government, the four current detentions are
related to reporting of an ongoing rebellion in the northern part of the
country, which the government has banned all national and international
journalists from covering.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76255


NIGERIA: Basic services crisis turns deadly in Kaduna

At least four people have been killed in the northern Nigerian city of
Kaduna during a violent protest over a three-year power blackout in a
poor part of the city. "I saw four dead bodies including that of a
pregnant woman that were shot by the police trying to quell the riots,"
Ahmad Abdulkarim, a resident, told IRIN by telephone from Kaduna.
Violence erupted on 15 January in Sabon Tasha, a sprawling neighbourhood
of some 35,000 residents on the outskirts of the city. A witness, Sahabi
Idris, said hundreds of youths turned out to protest the lack of
electricity in the area. "They set up barricades and burned government
buildings and vehicles."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76281


NIGERIA: Classroom shortages threaten primary education targets

The success of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme which aims
to provide free education to every child in Nigeria caused the number of
primary school leavers to more than double in 2007, creating a backlog
that the secondary education system is struggling to cope with. Over
49,000 children in the northern Nigeria city of Kano who completed
primary school in 2006 and wish to attend secondary school may not be
admitted due to a severe shortage of trained teachers and classrooms,
Kano government officials told IRIN. In the past year the number of
children leaving primary school in Kano city has increased from 46,460
in 2006 to 116,205 in 2007. In 2006, 42,000 of these students went on to
junior secondary school, while in 2007 66,900 were admitted, according
to local government statistics.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76243


WEST AFRICA: WHO warns meningitis outbreak has begun in region

World Health Organization has confirmed outbreaks of the deadly
meningitis bacterium in three West African countries, marking the start
of what experts have warned might be the worst meningitis epidemic to
hit Africa in a decade. "One district is on alert in Burkina Faso, an
epidemic has been reported in a region of Nigeria and there are two
cases in Niger, as well as cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo,"
Professor Kader Konde, director of WHO's Ouagadougou-based Multi-Disease
Surveillance Centre told IRIN. The WHO warned in October that 80 million
people out of roughly 350 million who live in 21 African countries
stretching from Ethiopia in the east to Mauritania in the west might
need to be vaccinated against the bacterium this year.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76303


WEST AFRICA: Food prices still rising, crisis feared

Food prices at markets across West Africa are already high for the time
of year and are still rising, market analysts warn, suggesting aid
agencies should prepare for a potentially serious hunger crisis later in
the year as people across the impoverished region may not be unable to
afford to buy enough to eat, despite food being available. Normally in
January and February cereal and grain prices in West Africa are driven
down as harvests from the year before start hitting the markets. But
production of cereals was low across the region in 2007 because of a
late start and early end to the rainy season, which affected production
of millet, sorghum and maize, and analysts say traders are seeking to
maximise profit by hoarding stocks, because they know the low production
will yield higher prices.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76323


GLOBAL: Fund launched for poor countries struggling with high food
prices

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched a
multi-million dollar fund for import-dependent poor countries to help
adapt their farming industries quickly to cope with galloping global
food prices. Concern is mounting at the FAO that poor countries' food
needs will not be met by outside production this year as prices for
basic commodities such as wheat are rising and supply is limited, FAO
director general Jacques Diouf said in the Burkina Faso capital
Ouagadougou on 12 January. The US$17 million fund will help fifty least
developed countries - poor countries that are most heavily dependent on
food imports - access fertilisers and seeds for corn, rice and sorghum
to boost domestic food production and insulate them from price shocks
when they fluctuate, Diouf told journalists.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76225


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