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 449
11 - 17 October 2008


CONTENTS:

BENIN: Widespread smuggled gasoline costs economy, lives
GABON: Negotiations underway to resolve teacher strike
GUINEA-BISSAU: Cholera epidemic not yet peaked
GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Child trafficking on the decline say local
   authorities
LIBERIA: Mental health problems breed violence
LIBERIA: Would you fight again?
NIGER: Desert smuggling profits climb
NIGER: Are cereal banks best option to fight hunger?
NIGERIA: Malaria kills 401 people
SENEGAL: Protecting livelihoods through mangroves
WEST AFRICA: Cross-border FGM on the rise
WEST AFRICA: Tiny fonio cereal may hold big answers in food crisis
WEST AFRICA: Train the soldiers, protect the children
WEST AFRICA: Weighing free health care for all
WEST AFRICA: Voices from exile
WEST AFRICA: Region among the world's hungriest
GLOBAL: Donor response to food crisis inadequate, agencies say



BENIN: Widespread smuggled gasoline costs economy, lives

Up to 1,000 people die or are wounded every year in accidents caused by low-quality, high-lead smuggled gasoline that consumes victims in fiery accidents, according to Benin's Ministry of Commerce.

In 2007 the Benin government estimated that its oil-producing neighbour, Nigeria, supplied 551 million litres of contraband fuel, known as "kpayo" - "bad quality" in the local Fon language - compared to the regulated 81 million litres sold at gas stations in Benin.

"Kpayo" is sold at roadside stands at about half the US$1.33/litre price for gasoline at petrol stations.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80991


GABON: Negotiations underway to resolve teacher strike

More than 11,000 teachers are demanding better work conditions and more pay as they continue a nationwide strike in Gabon that started on 6 October, according to Marcel Libama, the secretary general of the National Education Union.

"We have decided to strike now because the education system in Gabon is almost on the floor," said Moussounda Gean-goen, a striking primary school teacher. "Teachers are badly paid, badly housed and badly transported."

Government officials started negotiations with union representatives on 14 October said Pierre Njuemamba, chief of staff at the Ministry of Education.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80934


GUINEA-BISSAU: Cholera epidemic not yet peaked

The cholera epidemic is still out of control across Guinea-Bissau, with the number of cases doubling in the past three weeks, bringing the total number of people stricken to 10,476 as of 9 October.

There have been 312 new infections in the past two days, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and 181 people have died from the disease.

"The epidemic is not under control. I don't want to be alarmist, but we haven't reached the peak and there are still new cases every day," Daniel Remartinez, emergency coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Spain, told IRIN from the capital Bissau.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80887


GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Child trafficking on the decline say local authorities

Child trafficking from Guinea-Bissau to Senegal is on the decline, partly due to better collaboration among local residents, civil society groups and government, local authorities said.

Government officials and aid workers say more and more sectors are on the watch for suspicious movement of children.

"Now a whole new set of actors are involved who weren't in the past - border police, governors, even truck-drivers unions, and we receive information from surveillance committees every two to three weeks about what is going on," Karyna Gomes, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson in Bissau, told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80928


LIBERIA: Mental health problems breed violence

Liberia's only mental health specialist says the country is experiencing an increase in post-traumatic stress disorders because the country's two disarmament processes during 14 years of conflict did not address the psychosocial needs of ex-combatants, especially that of youths.

Dr. Benjamin Harris said he returned to his home country of Liberia in 1996 to oversee health services for the UN-organised demobilisation, disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) of fighters following Liberia's first civil war from 1989-1996.

But violent political in-fighting after former president Charles Taylor took office in August 1997 ended nascent social services, said Harris. "The [DDRR] program ended without catering to the psychosocial needs of the ex-combatants," Harris said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80890


LIBERIA: Would you fight again?

Female ex-combatants are twice as likely as men to take up weapons again to escape poverty, based on a recent US-funded survey of more than 1,000 former fighters in Liberia. Almost 30 percent of the people surveyed said they were willing to take up arms again to earn a living wage, family and community acceptance, and respect for their tribe or religion.

Researchers concluded that ex-fighters at risk of returning to violence can destabilise a country still recovering from war.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80899


NIGER: Desert smuggling profits climb

Despite recently reinforced border security agreements between Mali and Algeria and between Libya and Niger, Nigerien ethnic Tuareg smugglers told IRIN their desert convoys through the Air Mountains are as profitable as ever. They smuggle West African migrants to North Africa, where some continue to Europe. IRIN met with three people-smugglers in Agadez from 7 to 9 October as they departed on one of their mountainous desert passages.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80929


NIGER: Are cereal banks best option to fight hunger?

Cereal banks - small warehouses used to buy, store and sell grains - have long helped Sahelian communities access affordable food year-round. But these community-run banks often run out of money. Borrowers default; bank managers price-gouge or simply steal money, leaving villages as hungry as before. But supporters say even a flawed solution to fight hunger is better than no solution, and founders of a new community cereal bank in Niger said they have a better model.

"For 30 years, I have watched cereal banks fail around me," said founder Ibrahim Tanko. "It was always the donor who came in and imposed [its] vision of what the community needed." The village bank, founded in November 2007, is in Gobro, 20km outside of Zinder in Niger's driest agricultural zone.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80953


NIGERIA: Malaria kills 401 people

Malaria has killed 401 people in the last four weeks in northern Nigeria's Katsina state, according to local health officials.

"In the last 28 days 401 people have died of malaria which has become endemic in the state," Halliru Idris, director of public health in the state's health ministry, told IRIN. The death toll could be much higher because this figure does not reflect those who died at home, he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80992


SENEGAL: Protecting livelihoods through mangroves

Mangroves, one of the world's richest ecosystems, are declining in Casamance, southern Senegal, and thinning forests spurred the Senegal-based non-profit Oceanium to plant six million mangrove trees in a bid to reverse deforestation, thereby boosting fish stocks and reviving livelihoods.

Up to 15,000 youths from 130 villages helped with the two-month replanting effort, just completed, which was the first of its kind in Africa, according to Binetou Diagne, Oceanium's spokesperson.

One expert said it is critical to preserve mangroves. "Mangroves are one of the richest ecosystems in the world, and once they disappear water becomes very saline, and nothing can grow," said John Eichelsheim, project manager of the local environmental non-profit, Intervene, Development, Ecology and Environment (IDEE-Casamance), which works to protect Casamance's mangrove forests. "The more mangroves there are here, the more fish, shrimp and oysters there will be to eat and sell."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80906


WEST AFRICA: Cross-border FGM on the rise

Cross-border female genital mutilation / cutting (FGM/C) is on the rise in West Africa according to the UN, spurring the need to impose a region-wide law banning the practice, say experts.

Experts from the region met this week to discuss how to eliminate FGM/C across West Africa, at a conference sponsored by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou.

A study sponsored by UNIFEM to be released in late October 2008 said circumcisers or girls who undergo circumcision are increasingly crossing borders to perform or undergo the procedure to operate in countries with weaker FGM/C laws, and border police can do little to stop the flow.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80988


WEST AFRICA: Tiny fonio cereal may hold big answers in food crisis

Despite growing for centuries in some of the driest, toughest agricultural zones of West Africa, the fonio cereal has been neglected by most agricultural development programmes, according to the World Bank.

But skyrocketing rice price increases that have slammed rice-dependent West Africa and declining profits in other cash crops like cotton have some local producers turning back to the ancient cereal.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80980


WEST AFRICA: Train the soldiers, protect the children

An international NGO is using cartoons to spell out to African soldiers the rights and wrongs of how to treat a child.

Save the Children Sweden (SC-S) on 17 October wrapped up a five-day 'train the trainers' workshop for senior military personnel in Saly, Senegal, 80km south of the capital Dakar. The training and cartoon guide are part of efforts to bridge the gap in soldiers' education levels when it comes to children's rights.

"Children are often the first.and most affected by conflict. And soldiers are the first people deployed on the ground," said SC-S West Africa regional representative, Anniken Elisson Tyden.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80974


WEST AFRICA: Weighing free health care for all

West African governments considering lifting health care fees for all will soon have a guide to manage the financial impact of the move.

The guide, which the NGO Save the Children expects to launch in November, will show policymakers in developing countries how to estimate resource needs that may arise from abolishing fees.

Groups campaigning for free care for all say even minimal fees can be deadly when they cut off millions of the world's poorest from lifesaving basic care, while contributing only a small portion to health sector revenue.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80969


WEST AFRICA: Voices from exile

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has appealed to international donors not to cut back on aid to humanitarian programmes amid a global financial crisis that has shuttered financial institutions in rich countries. At the conclusion of UNHCR's annual meeting in Geneva from 6-10 October, Guterres said refugees remain the most vulnerable victims of the global economic fallout.

According to the UN 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is someone outside his or her country owing to a "well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion." IRIN met three refugees last week throughout West Africa; their stories from exile follow.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80892


WEST AFRICA: Region among the world's hungriest

The 2008 Global Hunger Index says sub-Saharan African countries have the highest level of hunger in the world, with Niger, Sierra Leone and Liberia experiencing "extremely alarming levels of hunger," however, this is still an improvement over 1990 levels.

The study, released on 14 October by anti-hunger non-profits the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute, Ireland's Concern Worldwide and Germany's Welthungerhilfe, compiled the most recent country data available - from 2006. It calculated the rankings based on the percentage of malnourished people, under-five underweight children, and under-five child mortality for 120 countries where hunger is a concern.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80912


GLOBAL: Donor response to food crisis inadequate, agencies say

Food security experts say international donors' response to the world's food crisis has been inadequate when compared to interventions to contain the global financial meltdown.

"Huge financial resources have been mobilised by the international community in a matter of days" in response to the global financial crisis, wrote Teresa Cavero in a report by the international NGO Oxfam released on 16 October - World Food Day.

While the US government put up US$700 billion to bail out financial institutions in one day, on 3 October, total global development aid for 2007 was $104 billion, according to Alexander Woollcombe, food security advocacy adviser at Oxfam in Dakar.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80954


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