DAKAR, 7 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - West African religious and traditional leaders meeting with political officials this week affirmed their commitment to eradicating female genital mutilation, saying that to abandon the practice is not to reject traditional or religious values.Full report

DAKAR, 2 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - In a region where 65 percent of the population is less than 30 years old, the lack of jobs is increasingly leaving West African youth with only two options - violence or migration, according to a UN report. Full report

DAKAR, 29 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - As nations gear up for a key World Trade Organisation meeting this month, West African cotton-producers are again slamming US and European cotton subsidies, which development experts say threaten the livelihoods of up to 15 million people dependent on the “white gold? in West and Central Africa.Full report

DAKAR, 22 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - As world leaders call for the benefits of new technologies to be shared more evenly around the globe, the reality on the ground in West Africa is a stark reminder of just how much work remains to be done.Full report

DAKAR, 22 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - As the UN launched its annual report on global AIDS statistics on Monday, activists warned that West African countries with low HIV/AIDS rates could not afford to be complacent. Full report

DAKAR, 21 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - This year’s food crisis in Niger - which prompted a media blitz of images of skeletal babies - was a mere symptom revealing chronic problems that grip the region, leaving its people teetering on the brink of disaster most years, UN and Sahel government officials say.Full report

YAOUNDE, 21 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - Fungus-impregnated fabric could soon replace chemically-soaked bed-nets as a defence against malaria, researchers claim.Full report

YAOUNDE, 18 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - A happy conclusion to the search for a malaria vaccination is still a far off dream failing better international coordination, warned a top French scientist on Friday.Full report

DAKAR, 7 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations is asking donors for US $3.2 million to help six West African countries fight cholera, which the UN says has killed at least 700 people and stricken over 42,000 in the region since June. Full report

DAKAR, 14 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - The school holidays are officially over across West Africa and children are beginning to settle in to another year at their desks. But perennial poverty, compounded by war, cholera and record floods, are keeping many budding scholars out of class.Full report

WEST AFRICA: Sierra Leone and Liberia settle, other conflicts still bubble

WEST AFRICA: African conference looks at living with AIDS at home

WEST AFRICA: Rejecting FGM not an affront to tradition

WEST AFRICA: Minding the information and communication gap

WEST AFRICA: War, cholera and floods blight start to new school year

WEST AFRICA: Sahel faces pockets of severe food shortage in 2005