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 436
12 - 18 July 2008


CONTENTS:

BURKINA FASO: Urban poor most at risk from high food prices
AFRICA: USA must improve aid balance - Refugees International
SENEGAL: Deadly lead recycling industry cripples Dakar neighbourhood
COTE D'IVOIRE: City on go-slow as residents protest sudden fuel price
   rise
MALI: Iddar Ag Ogazide: "They like to enslave the children early"
MALI: Thousands still live in slavery in north


BURKINA FASO: Urban poor most at risk from high food prices

The World Food Programme fears up to 75 percent of Burkina Faso's city 
dwellers may be unable to access adequate food stocks as they struggle 
to cope with the combined impacts of a bad 2007 harvest and high global 
food prices, according to a July food security survey. Prices of most 
staple products have been rising steadily in Burkina Faso since October 
2007. Oil is 50 percent more expensive than in the same period last 
year, another staple sorghum is up by a quarter, and local rice by 27 
percent, according to WFP.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79330


AFRICA: USA must improve aid balance - Refugees International

Imbalances between US spending on defence, diplomacy and development are 
affecting the USA's ability to stabilise fragile and conflict-prone 
African countries, the US-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) 
Refugees International concludes in a new report. "The headline is that 
at the moment [US] policies are out of whack," said Refugees 
International President Ken Bacon. "That is affecting our ability to act 
effectively and coherently in Africa and to carry out the war on 
terrorism in a coherent, long-term and effective way."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79308


SENEGAL: Deadly lead recycling industry cripples Dakar neighbourhood

In the Dakar suburb of Thiaroye/Mer earlier this year 22 children died 
from lead poisoning over a three month period and in June a further 31 
children were found to have potentially lethal levels of lead in their 
blood. While these children undergo emergency medical treatment, the 
government now faces the daunting task of identifying and treating 
further victims and decontaminating the neighbourhood once and for all. 
A June mission to the affected area by the Minister of Health and the 
World Health Organization (WHO) revealed 71 people were suffering from 
poisoning, according to Dr. Coly, head of the fight against diseases at 
the WHO. But he says many more could be in danger.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79291


COTE D'IVOIRE: City on go-slow as residents protest sudden fuel price 
rise

Thousands of business-owners have closed down their shops across the 
capital today and several of the city's main roads have been blocked in 
protest of a government decision to stop fuel subsidies, which caused 
prices to rise steeply overnight. The government, which has been 
subsidising fuel prices for the past three years, removed these 
subsidies on 6 July because it could no longer afford to keep them in 
place. As a result the price of a litre of fuel rose by 29 percent in 24 
hours, and the price of diesel by 44 percent.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79246


MALI: Iddar Ag Ogazide: "They like to enslave the children early"

Iddar Ag Ogazide, a black Tamasheq, was born in 1973 at Tinahamma near 
Ansongo in northern Mali, 1350km north of Bamako. His family have been 
owned by the Touareg Ag Baye family at Intakabarte for several 
generations. In March this year Iddar finally decided he had had enough 
and made a dramatic escape. "I was born into slavery because my mother 
was a slave. My owner's family had bought her grandmother, so that made 
our whole family inheritable slaves."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79239


MALI: Thousands still live in slavery in north

People continue to be enslaved in northern Mali, according to Malian 
human rights organisation Temedt, despite a widespread belief that 
slavery no longer exists in the country. Read more in the Hear our 
Voices on Iddar Ag Ogazide. "The government believes slavery ended with 
independence, when many of the people who had been living as slaves in 
the colonial period were freed," said Temedt President Mohammed Ag 
Akeratane, "but I would estimate there are still several thousand people 
living in slavery or slavery-like conditions in modern Mali." According 
to Temedt, which means "solidarity" in the Touareg language Tamasheq, 
slavery continues in the north in the region of Gao 1,200km north of the 
capital, Bamako, and around the town of Menaka 1,500km north of Bamako.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79242


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International              web: www.cidi.org
.  Disaster Information          listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
.                              guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Africa                  www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/wafrica