WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 391 for 25 - 31 August 2007
DAKAR, 31 August 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:
MALI: Indignation dominates reaction as attacks in north escalate
NIGERIA: Flooding, rainstorms force people from homes in the north
NIGERIA: College slammed for HIV testing
MALI: Child marriage a neglected problem
GUINEA: ‘Open house’ at army base aims to ease military, civilian relations
NIGER: NGOs in north calling for peace
BURKINA FASO: School and books necessities not luxuries
COTE D'IVOIRE: Rural areas neglected by AIDS response
SIERRA LEONE: Election tensions could help or hinder democratic process
NIGERIA: Demolition plans bring new ethnic twist to Port Harcourt conflict
GUINEA: Cholera cases still rising
LIBERIA: HIV rates lower than feared
CHAD: Govt to provide US$600,000 of aid as flood damage spreads
LIBERIA: Floods displace hundreds in Monrovia
MALI: Indignation dominates reaction as attacks in north escalate
In a spate of attacks by armed militias in north-eastern Mali over the last week at least 35 soldiers have been kidnapped and 11 people killed by newly laid landmines, raising fears that escalating violence in neighbouring Niger is spreading to Mali. Between 26 and 30 August, a convoy of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture was attacked, a Malian army convoy was attacked, and in separate incidents 10 civilians and one soldier were killed when the vehicles they were traveling in hit landmines, army spokesman Abdoulaye Coulibaly told reporters in Bamako. The incidents have all taken place in the north of Sahel state, a desolate mountain region close to the border with Libya and Niger controlled by one of several former warlords in the region responsible for an uprising by the Touareg ethnic group in the 1990s, Ibrahima Bahanga. The Malian authorities have accused Bahanga of drug smuggling and banditry. Mohamed Toure, a former government official who has served in the north of Mali, told IRIN that Bahanga does not represent a reincarnation of the Touareg rebel movement. “People there don’t want anything but peace now,” he said.
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NIGERIA: Flooding, rainstorms force people from homes in the north
Flooding and rainstorms in two northern Nigerian states have left thousands more people displaced and killed many livestock, local officials said. Heavy rains lasting more than 12 hours in northeastern Kebbi State on 28 August submerged at least 300 houses in Dakingari village, leaving more than 3,000 people homeless, Bala Yusuf, an official of the Suru local council in charge of the area said.
“Nobody died in the flood but survivors lost their farms and animals,” said Yusuf. “And they have nothing to eat.” Many of the survivors are now sheltering in the local primary school, getting by on donations of food they have received from neighbours and friends. Rainstorms in northern Gombe State on the same day tore the roofs off many buildings and granaries in the village of Lakenturum in the Shongom district. The violent wind uprooted trees, knocked down walls and took away roofs, Danladi Garba, Shongom council chairman, said. The village health centre and two primary schools were also damaged in the storm.
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NIGERIA: College slammed for HIV testing
A private Christian university in Nigeria has come under fire from activists and health officials over its policy of compelling students to undergo HIV and pregnancy tests. Earlier this year, Covenant University, in Otta, a town near the port city of Lagos, in Ogun State, introduced mandatory testing for new students and those about to graduate, as part of its 'Total Man' concept. The university says this ensures that its graduates are not only academically sound but of high moral standard. Pregnant students who cannot prove they are legally married risk suspension or expulsion. Covenant University - rated as the best private tertiary institution in Nigeria last year - implements a strict code of behaviour: all students have to live on the campus and, among other restrictions, are not allowed to use mobile phones. "With the level of moral decadence in our society, the Covenant University is determined to ensure the purity of our graduates before they are released into the society. They must be found worthy both academically and morally," said Chancellor Bishop David Oyedepo, of Living Faith Church, which owns the university.
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MALI: Child marriage a neglected problem
Two years ago, in the western Malian village of Korera-Kore, a 13-year-old girl was forced into marriage during her school summer holiday. She died after complications during sex on her wedding night. This young Malian, whose case was documented by a local organisation called the Coordination of Women’s Associations and Non-governmental organisations (CAFO), is one of more than 60 million women globally who were married or in union before the age of 18, according to estimates by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Campaigners say forced early marriage, or child marriage, is a problem that has been largely untouched by the international community. In Mali it is considered by the research organisation Population Council as “one of the most severe crises of child marriage in the world today”; the few workers in this field say progress is too slow. “There hasn’t been a really concerted effort to address the issue [at the international level],” said Naana Otoo-Oyortey, a founding member of the Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls, a network of mostly UK-based organisations who campaign against early marriage and violence against women. “It’s been a neglected issue.”
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GUINEA: ‘Open house’ at army base aims to ease military, civilian relations
In Guinea a civil-military dialogue group is organising an ‘open house’ at the country’s main military base, inviting citizens to meet with military officials to help “ease relations” between the two sectors which in recent months have met in the streets in deadly clashes. “Our country sorely needs this kind of exchange,” said Mohamed Kouyate, programme coordinator with Guinea’s Centre for International Trade and Development (CECIDE), which is helping organise the 6 September open house at the Alpha Yaya Diallo military base in the capital, Conakry. “The main aim is to ease relations between [defence and security forces and civilians], because a country’s development cannot happen without a solid understanding among the country’s various actors.” Guinea – where citizens’ patience is running thin over promised political and socioeconomic reforms – is still reeling from demonstrations in June 2006 and early this year when security and defence forces killed nearly 150 unarmed protesters and injured hundreds more. “That was a bad thing for our country. But we have to come back to an understanding," said Colonel Bissi Michel, who has taken part in ongoing meetings aimed at improving relations between the military and civilians. "Without understanding between us, the military cannot carry out its work.”
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NIGER: NGOs in north calling for peace
A mayor in northern Niger has warned that civilians are increasingly being caught up in insecurity caused by fighting between the Nigerien army and armed militias, and has called for an end to hostilities. “The goal is to limit the humanitarian crisis which is emerging, and to appeal to the warring parties for a halt in hostilities in the interest of everyone,” Issouf Ag Maha, the mayor of Tchirozerine and the head of a local association of non-government organisations (NGOs), told IRIN. Despite Maha’s call, analysts warn that insecurity in the region may be escalating, and possibly spilling into neighbouring countries. In two separate incidents in the last week the army in Mali has been attacked by armed fighters, although both the Malian authorities and the main militia group operating in Niger – the Nigerien Movement for Justice (MNJ) – have denied the attacks were related to the situation in Niger. Nigerien President Mamadou Tanja has imposed a three-month state of emergency on the Agadez region of northern Niger. “The state of emergency gives powers to the police, and defence and security forces to assure the defence and the security of citizens on the territory. The measure is made necessary by the insecurity which is increasing in the north. It is necessary to control the movements of people and goods in this region,” Communications Minister Mohamed Ben Omar told IRIN.
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BURKINA FASO: School and books necessities not luxuries
The Burkina Faso government will distribute millions of free books to primary school students and launch a pilot project to give no-fee schooling in a push to curb the number of people in the country growing up without even basic education. “This is the end of the time when reading and maths textbooks are seen as luxury items for parents,” pledged Odile Bonkoungou, minister of basic education and literacy, on 27 August, launching the free books project. Some 10.5 million books for primary school children in reading and maths classes have already been ordered, according to Bonkoungou. Of those, 3.5 million will be distributed this academic year. The programme will cost the government 1.5 billion CFA francs (US$3.1 million) in 2007, and 1.2 billion CFA francs (US$2.4 million) every subsequent year. Burkina Faso’s education ministry is also experimenting with no-fee schooling in 45 departments around the country this academic year. The initiative will be extended to the rest of the country in 2011. The project is in line with a push from the World Bank and the UN to encourage free education in developing countries worldwide.
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COTE D'IVOIRE: Rural areas neglected by AIDS response
Rural areas in Côte d'Ivoire seem to have fallen off the map in HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, and although the HIV prevalence rates are still lower than those found in cities, experts fear they could climb. "We have observed an imbalance in terms of the approach to the fight against AIDS in rural and urban areas," Professor Bassirou Bonfoh of the Swiss Centre for Scientific Research (CSRS) told IRIN/PlusNews. "Attention is focused a bit too much on urban areas, while rural areas remain a reservoir for the disease," said Bonfoh, who will speak at an international conference on health in poor urban areas, to be held in Abidjan, the commercial capital, next month. He warned that if nothing was done to address these inequities, this could cause greater complications for the country's HIV/AIDS epidemic. "Despite the strong fight against AIDS in urban areas, we cannot reach the results we seek if [this] disease eventually comes from the rural zones into urban areas." A failed coup in September 2002 sparked months of civil war in Cote d'Ivoire, eventually splitting the country into a rebel-held north and government-run south. The country's political and military crisis has led to huge population movements, disrupted social and health services, including health services in the war zones, and the slowdown of prevention and control programmes.
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SIERRA LEONE: Election tensions could help or hinder democratic process
The risk that Sierra Leone could again descend into the chaos and civil war of the 1990s remains unlikely ahead of the second round of presidential elections on 8 September, according to international officials - even after outgoing president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah threatened to impose a state of emergency following election-related riots in the main diamond town of Kono on 27 August and the stabbing of at least six people in Freetown. “We are keeping a close eye on the situation but we do not anticipate things deteriorating significantly,” head of the UN’s Integrated Office in Sierra Leone Victor Angelo told IRIN on 28 August. His spokesman Christain Stohmann said the violence was a sign that tensions are high as the second round is going to be close. “But the party leaders are doing their best to rein in their followers and we think the security forces now have the training and capacity to keep the situation under control.” In fact, many observers believe the tensions are good news for democracy.
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NIGERIA: Demolition plans bring new ethnic twist to Port Harcourt conflict
State government plans to demolish several slums in the unstable southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt could spark ethnic tensions, fuel violence, and leave up to 100,000 homeless. Rivers State Governor Celestine Omehia announced on 21 August his government would demolish 25 slum districts in the ramshackle waterfront area of the city that currently houses between 50,000 and 100,000 people, according to local estimates. Omehia’s announcement followed several weeks of violence which culminated in running street battles in Port Harcourt between armed fighters on motorbikes and the army, which strafed several parts of the city with attack helicopters, and finally ended the violence by imposing a curfew.
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GUINEA: Cholera cases still rising
At least 800 more people have been infected with cholera over the last week, bringing the total number of reported cases to 2,500 since January out of which 90 people have died, according to the Guinean Ministry of Health. “The number of people infected by the disease in Conakry has considerably increased since July,” said Sergio Martin Esteso, programme head for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Guinea, in a statement. “Of the 1,260 patients treated in the three centres where MSF works, more than 1,000 have been in the past three weeks.” “Once again, health facilities weren’t well enough prepared to cope with this emergency,” Esteso said. The disease has spread rapidly despite sensitization efforts including a national radio campaign organised by the government, the Guinean Red Cross and UNICEF, emphasizing the importance of clean water and proper hygiene.
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LIBERIA: HIV rates lower than feared
Reliable statistics on HIV/AIDS have been hard to come by in Liberia, slowly recovering from years of conflict, but two recently released surveys indicate a much lower HIV/AIDS prevalence rate than was previously thought. "This is a reliable survey, involving 7,000 households across the country, where individual blood samples were collected and tested for HIV, and this exercise is the first in 25 years," said Edward Liberty, head of the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS). Respondents sampled were in the age range of 15 to 49. The first post-war demographic and health survey, conducted by the LISGIS from December 2006 to July 2007 in nine of the country's 15 counties, indicated an HIV prevalence rate of 1.5 percent of the country's 3.2 million people. The civil war made most rural areas inaccessible, but when it ended in 2003, UNAIDS put HIV infection at 5.9 percent, while a 2002 Liberian government study estimated 8.2 percent.
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CHAD: Govt to provide US$600,000 of aid as flood damage spreads
As officials in remote regions throughout Chad report worsening flood damage, Chad’s government has pledged to provide US$600,000 to cover initial shelter, food and medicine needs. “A first evaluation of urgent needs has already been made, and a crisis committee has been put in place,” said government spokesperson Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor in a statement on 26 August. “It is necessary to assist the victims of the floods, and to plan ahead the medications that will be needed for epidemics,” the statement said. The government has unblocked 300 million CFA francs (US$623,000) to cover the initial needs of Chadians displaced in a first wave of floods in the south west region of Mayo Kebbi on 9 August. Chad has also appealed to the international community to provide assistance. Since the early August floods, destroyed houses and flooded fields have also been reported in the Tandjile region in the south, Salamat in the east, Lac in the west, and Hadjer Lamis in the north central region. Chad has 18 regions. Secretary General of the Salamat region, Ngarsadoum Sjimia, told IRIN on 26 August that at least 12 people have drowned in the Bahr Azoum river there, and three others were killed in Abou Déia, a town in the region.
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LIBERIA: Floods displace hundreds in Monrovia
Flooding has cut off piped water to a quarter million people in the capital, Monrovia, displacing hundreds of people and destroying or severely damaging homes. “Our treatment plant is now in the flood [waters], which has affected the pumping of safe drinking water… into Monrovia,” Hun Bu Tulay, managing director of the state-owned Liberia Water and Sewage Corporation, told IRIN. “About 250,000 people would be without piped water considering the estimated population on Bushrod Island [western Monrovia] and central Monrovia who benefit from our services,” Tulay said. He said he expected the plant to be up and running again by the afternoon of 28 August. Heavy rains over the weekend caused flooding in Red Hill, Caldwell, Doe, St. Paul Bridge, and Gardnersville communities near the St. Paul River in Greater Monrovia and in the western part of the capital, according to the humanitarian office of the UN mission in Liberia, UNMIL.
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