Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-420: 21-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
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci
WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 420
15 - 21 March 2008
CONTENTS:
GLOBAL: Governments fail to invest enough to combat malnutrition
LIBERIA: Special court for sexual violence underway
WEST AFRICA: Bad economic policies driving migration
GHANA-LIBERIA: Cessation clause invoked over refugee demos
SENEGAL: Rebels act on kidnap threats in Casamance
CHAD: Civilians flee as government targets critics
GHANA: Response to "thriving" child sex industry too weak
LIBERIA: Too many cooks
MAURITANIA: Record hunger predicted in 2008
CHAD: Govt suspends due process to destroy 1,000 houses
LIBERIA: Special court for sexual violence underway
The Liberian government has created a special court to deal with not
only rising rape cases, but also other forms of violence against women,
Liberia's Information Minister Laurence Bropleh told IRIN. During the
war the rape of girls and women was widespread. Since peace was sealed
in 2003, sex crimes - and impunity for them - have persisted throughout
the country.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77406
WEST AFRICA: Bad economic policies driving migration
DAKAR, 21 March 2008 (IRIN) - If West African governments are serious
about reducing migration from their countries they must invest in
improving living conditions and reducing inequality, according to
sociologists, economists and other experts meeting in the Senegalese
capital, Dakar, this week. "As long as governments do not attack the
longstanding and structural problems that make people leave, I think
they are completely off-track," Cheikh Omar Ba, a Senegalese sociologist
with the Initiative for Rural and Agricultural Futures said.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77404
GHANA-LIBERIA: Cessation clause invoked over refugee demos
ACCRA/DAKAR, 20 March 2008 (IRIN) - Ghana's government has invoked a
clause of the 1951 Refugee Convention to force the UN Refugee Agency
(UNHCR) to close operations for 26,000 Liberians in Ghana. The move came
after the Ministry of the Interior arrested 630 Liberians on 17 March,
mostly female and child refugees, for holding a one-month protest which
aid officials said obstructed food distributions in the Buduburam camp.
UNHCR staff had reportedly been threatened by the protestors.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77397
SENEGAL: Rebels act on kidnap threats in Casamance
ZIGUINCHOR, 20 March 2008 (IRIN) - Rebels belonging to the Movement of
Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) kidnapped 16 villagers in Bissine,
64 km east of Ziguinchor near the Guinea-Bissau border on 16 March
before releasing them two days later, according to different local
sources. "The [rebels] have done this to intimidate villagers wishing to
return because they do not want these villages repopulated as they are
close to their rebel bases," a Senegalese military officer told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77395
CHAD: Civilians flee as government targets critics
DAKAR, 20 March 2008 (IRIN) - The Chadian government has continued to
detain an unknown number of people without charges since rebels invaded
the capital N'djamena for two days in early February, despite lifting a
state of emergency on 15 March. "Detainees should be released
immediately or charged with a crime and accorded all their rights,
including immediate access to a lawyer and a hearing before an impartial
judge to determine the lawfulness of their detention," Human Rights
Watch (HRW)'s Africa Director Georgette Gagnon said in a statement
issued on 20 March.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77394
GHANA: Response to "thriving" child sex industry too weak
By early evening the corridors of the Soldier Bar brothel in a busy
commercial area of Accra were already filled with long queues of young
girls and their clients, when heavily armed police stormed in, arresting
all 160 of the girls. With an estimated 20,000 children on the streets
of Accra, many already engaged in child labour, the owners of the
brothel did not find it difficult recruiting child sex workers. "We knew
it was wrong but the money was good," Matthew Abanga, the brothel's
manager, told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77389
LIBERIA: Too many cooks
The shelves of Monrovia's premier bakery are lined with freshly baked
bread, cream buns and iced doughnuts. A customer stands at the counter
enquiring about a wedding cake while a baker in a white paper hat slides
trays of warm baguettes out of the oven.
Trained bakers are unable to put their skills to good use because there
are simply too many of them, according to a report from the Women's
Commission for Refugee Women and Children (WCRWC). NGO skills-training
programmes that typically focus on skills such as soap-making, hair
braiding, baking, tailoring and pastry-making have turned out far more
people than there is demand for, the report found.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77386
MAURITANIA: Record hunger predicted in 2008
Food security experts predict that Mauritania, where 70 percent of food
eaten is imported, may face its highest ever levels of hunger in 2008,
and aid agency representatives are concerned they do not have enough
money to meet people's needs amid skyrocketing food prices and dwindling
cereals for sale on world markets. "This could be the year of all
dangers. All the shocks may be present - oil price rises, raw material
price rises, food commodity price rises, a reorganisation of the main
ocean trading routes, as well as a weakening of the dollar," Giancarlo
Cirri, representative of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77366
CHAD: Govt suspends due process to destroy 1,000 houses
A presidential decree suspending due process and clamping down on civil
liberties following a two-day rebel attack on the capital was later also
used by the mayor of N'djamena to evict thousands of residents and
demolish their homes.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77365
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