Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-419: 14-Mar-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
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e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci
WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 419
8 - 14 March 2008
CONTENTS:
SUDAN-CHAD: Latest peace pact tries to revive past failures
GLOBAL: OIC to reduce inequality amongst Islamic states
BURKINA FASO: New protests against high food prices planned
CHAD: A semblance of education for a displaced child
SIERRA LEONE: Maternity hospital is "last resort"
GUINEA-BISSAU: Eating sacred turtles
WEST AFRICA: Rising food prices cause for concern
SUDAN-CHAD: Latest peace pact tries to revive past failures
After hours of wrangling over the text of their sixth peace accord in
two years, Chadian President Idriss Deby and Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir signed the latest agreement late on 13 March in the Senegalese
capital, Dakar, vowing once again to stop providing support to rebel
groups opposing the other. The stated aim of the accord is "to put an
end, once and for all, to disputes between the two countries and
re-establish peace in the sub-region." The accord was mediated by
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and signed during the Organization
of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in the presence of UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon and an array of African leaders and Arab and western
diplomats.
full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77294
GLOBAL: OIC to reduce inequality amongst Islamic states
Member states of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) are set to
agree on ways to reduce poverty and revise their charter to address the
huge imbalance in wealth between rich and poor countries in the Islamic
world at a summit meeting this week in the Senegalese capital Dakar.
"What is important here is that [the 57 member states of] the OIC are
amongst the richest and the poorest in the world," Senegalese Foreign
Affairs Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio said at a press conference on 11
March, following a meeting of some 30 foreign ministers who had spent
the day putting final touches on the revised OIC's charter. The new
charter is set to be adopted by some 37 heads of state on 14 March at
the end of the two-day OIC summit in Dakar, Senegal. "The plan is not
just to provide 'zakat' [charity] to poor states but a genuine mechanism
by which the wealth of Islamic states can be more equal," he said.
full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77262
BURKINA FASO: New protests against high food prices planned
A newly formed coalition against the cost of living formed by workers'
unions, consumer associations and human rights groups in Burkina Faso is
planning to march in the capital Ouagadougou on 15 March. The new
coalition will also denounce corruption and fraud that its members say
they believe are underlying massive price hikes for food in the country.
"We want to set up a larger front against these scourges and I think it
will send a strong signal to the government," Laurent Ouedraogo, the
chairman of the Confederation Nationale des Travailleurs du Burkina
(CNTB) and a member of the coalition said.
full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77275
CHAD: A semblance of education for a displaced child
Sitting on a plastic mat in an outdoor classroom at a site for people
displaced by violence outside the town of Goz Beida in southeastern
Chad, Ibrahim Abdoulaye Moussa has reason to pay attention in class.
"I'm in school to save my country," said the boy who is one of 180,000
displaced Chadians scattered around the vast semi-desert east of the
country. "I dream of being president." Before, in his home village of
Djedide along the border with Sudan, the closest school was a three-hour
walk. Only after he and his family arrived at this site was he able to
go to school for the first time. At 14 years old he is now in Grade 2 of
primary school.
full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77273
SIERRA LEONE: Maternity hospital is "last resort"
Two babies and several gaunt women are the only patients in the gloomy
wards of the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown. The
hospital is supposed to be the main training and referrals unit for
obstetrics in the country but its handful of staff were mostly found in
backrooms, drinking tea with their feet resting on the surgical tables
as they wile away their days in the eerily slow-moving wards. "This
hospital is a place of last resort for patients and staff," said Sister
Kanu, a nurse, who reckons conditions for mothers and hospital staff
have "barely improved" since the end of Sierra Leone's 11 year long
civil war which devastated government and social infrastructure. "By the
time women get here it's too late and the most we can do is to save the
mother," she said. "That's why you see so few babies."
full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77252
GUINEA-BISSAU: Eating sacred turtles
Of the many species of wild birds and animals that inhabit the 88 Bijago
islands spread over more than 10,000sqkm none is more sacred than the
turtle. "We Bajagoans see ourselves as the keepers of the turtles,"
Domingo Alves, the head game warden at Eticoga, the main village on
Orango island, told IRIN, adding that the animal is featured in many
local ceremonies. The problem is that Bajagoans also eat this most
sacred of animals, and, with the nets from the now ever-present
industrial fishing trawlers accidentally trapping more turtles than
before, all five turtle species in the archipelago are nearing
extinction.
full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77220
WEST AFRICA: Rising food prices cause for concern
Prices of cereals "continue to rise" in West Africa according to a Food
Crisis Prevention Network (FCPN) report distributed by the Famine Early
Warning System. "The food and nutritional situation could rapidly
deteriorate in some areas of the region especially with the possible
early arrival of the lean period if this price hike situation continues"
the FCPN briefing note, released on 7 March, said. For the moment the
food situation "seems overall satisfactory," it added but an assessment
of cereal producing countries Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, made by the
non-governmental organisation (NGO) Afrique Verte in early February,
confirmed a 25 percent increase in sorghum prices in the Maradi region
of Niger, an 18.5 percent price increase for millet and a 20 percent for
corn in the capital Niamey.
full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77211
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