Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-445: 19-Sep-08
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 445
13 - 19 September 2008
CONTENTS:
NIGERIA: Bloody week in the Niger Delta
SENEGAL: Families demand justice for Joola ferry deaths
GUINEA: Strike suspended, health workers back on job
GHANA: Victims of military abuses to prosecute officers
BENIN: Flesh-eating Buruli ulcer 'neglected disease' spreads
TOGO: Mixed reactions to H5N1 flu confirmation
GUINEA-BISSAU: Cholera epidemic out of control
MAURITANIA: What will be the impact of post-coup cuts in donor aid?
GUINEA-SIERRA LEONE: Refugee status ends but many opt to stay
GHANA: Dodging faeces on the beaches
LIBERIA: Flood relief efforts continue
SIERRA LEONE: Dwellers refuse to leave flood-prone slums
BENIN: River flooding prompts fears of malnutrition, disease
BURKINA FASO: EU pledges more aid to fight malnutrition
NIGERIA: Bloody week in the Niger Delta
Even by the usual violent standards of Nigeria's conflict-ridden,
oil-rich southern Niger Delta region, it has been a bloody seven days,
with dozens of civilian casualties and many more wounded or displaced,
according to local observers, in clashes in Rivers state between the
military and rebel fighters. On 14 September, MEND declared war against
foreign-owned oil companies working in the Delta, pledging to destroy
oil pipelines and flow stations, and warning companies to evacuate their
staff and stop pumping. MEND claims five attacks since its oil war
threat.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80502
SENEGAL: Families demand justice for Joola ferry deaths
On 26 September, it will have been six years since 1,865 people died on
the Joola ferry, which carried more than three times the number of
passengers it was licensed to, when it sank off the coast of Senegal. No
one has been prosecuted in this continent's largest maritime disaster.
On 12 September 2008, French judge Jean-Wilfrid Noel issued nine
international arrest warrants against Senegalese officials who were in
power at the time of the sinking, holding them responsible, based on
maritime agreements between the two countries. On 19 September, ten
lawyers for the Senegalese government fought back, announcing plans to
counter-prosecute the French government for "abuse of authority and
bringing our institutions into disrepute."
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80500
GUINEA: Strike suspended, health workers back on job
Some government health employees returned to work on 18 September after
the Federation of Health Workers Union announced the temporary
suspension of its most recent 10-day strike. The union's secretary
general, Pierrette Tolno, told IRIN that though President Lansana Conte
agreed to union demands on 17 September, the suspension is only
temporary as the union waits to see if the government will give the
country's more than 7,000 public health employees a bigger share of the
2009 budget
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80474
GHANA: Victims of military abuses to prosecute officers
Victims of violations committed by military officers are taking their
case to the country's highest court after a military investigation
confirmed its officers were forcing parking offenders to violate corpses
in July 2008.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80473
BENIN: Flesh-eating Buruli ulcer 'neglected disease' spreads
A tropical flesh-eating disease, Buruli ulcer, is spreading across West
Africa and has infected at least 40,000 people leaving them with bloody
infected wounds and swollen skin ulcers, which at their worst, require
surgery or amputation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80472
TOGO: Mixed reactions to H5N1 flu confirmation
Togo's government has confirmed the H5N1 bird flu virus is responsible
for the 10 September outbreak that killed 3,500 birds and led to the
culling of an additional 1,500 others on three farms in Agbata, about
10km east of the capital.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80470
GUINEA-BISSAU: Cholera epidemic out of control
With 6,461 cholera cases and 122 deaths, experts say the cholera
epidemic in Guinea-Bissau is out of control. The number of reported
cases has doubled in the past three weeks. All of the country's 11
health regions have been affected, including the remote Bijagos islands,
60 km off the Bissau coast, which have reported 158 cases.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80450
MAURITANIA: What will be the impact of post-coup cuts in donor aid?
In a country that imports about 70 percent of its food, and where the UN
estimates more than one million suffer from chronic malnutrition, some
donors fear an extended embargo on development aid may hit not only the
power-grabbing military, but also civilians.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80445
GUINEA-SIERRA LEONE: Refugee status ends but many opt to stay
Some 6,300 Sierra Leonean refugees who have been living in Guinea for 20
years will lose their refugee status as of 1 January 2009 according to
the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), leaving them with a choice
to stay legally in Guinea as Sierra Leonean citizens, or to return home.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80434
GHANA: Dodging faeces on the beaches
On a hot afternoon at Jamestown beach, once considered to be one of
Accra's most famous beaches, 25-year-old Francis Cudjoe and his three
friends squat in the open air while in conversation. They are defecating
in full view on the beach, and they are not alone.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80395
LIBERIA: Flood relief efforts continue
Hundreds of residents along Monrovia's coast have lost, or are still blocked from their homes nearly two months after storms started on 20 July 2008, according to relief workers. The Liberian Red Cross Society estimates flooding has affected about 1,400 people.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80400
SIERRA LEONE: Dwellers refuse to leave flood-prone slums
More than 10,000 slum dwellers have been affected by an 11 September storm
= that tore down dozens of makeshift homes in Kroo Bay,one of the city's
larg= est slums, according to a government evaluation completed on 15
September.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80402
Awadjii Yekini, "I have nothing left to harvest this year"
ADJOHOUN, Awadjii Yekin is a 30-year-old farmer in Gangbam, a village in
Ad= johoun, which is 60 kilometres east of Cotonou. He grew up following
his father in the fields, until he came to work those fields himself.
Normally, his five hectares of land produce enough to feed him, his wife
and their two children. But in recent years, his worries grew with the
rising river.
http://www.irinnews.org/HOVReport.aspx?ReportId=80369
BENIN: River flooding prompts fears of malnutrition, disease
About 57,000 people in the Oueme river valley community of Adjohoun, 60km
e= ast of Cotonou, are threatened with malnutrition and water-born
diseases because of river flooding, which has wiped out more than 25,000
hectares of crop land, killed about 30,000 animals, flooded 18,000 homes,
and has displaced about 2,000 people according to local authorities.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80370
BURKINA FASO: EU pledges more aid to fight malnutrition
The European Commission (EC) is ready to increase its aid to fight
malnutrition in Burkina Faso if current EC nutrition projects prove to be
"success stories," said its humanitarian chief Louis Michel.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80371
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Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
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. Disaster Information listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
. guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
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West Africa www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/wafrica