DAKAR, 23 February (IRIN) - SIERRA LEONE: War crimes indictee's death is blow to Special Court LIBERIA-SIERRA LEONE: Refugees reluctant to return home WEST AFRICA: New meningitis vaccine could halve deaths

GUINEA-BISSAU: Hunger in a land of plenty NIGERIA: FAO warns more effort needed to check worsening bird flu crisis GUINEA: Martial law relaxed but strike continuing CAMEROON: Secessionist minority Anglophone group silenced CHAD: Obstacles to getting peacekeepers on ground

SIERRA LEONE: War crimes indictee's death is blow to Special Court

Sam Hinga Norman, the leader of the local civil defence militia that helped defeat the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during the 1991 to 2001 civil war but who was later indicted by the UN-backed court in Sierra Leone, has died.

"A verdict in the case was to have been delivered shortly," according to a press release issued on Thursday by the Special Court for Sierra Leone which had had him in detention.

Norman collapsed on Thursday morning following a medical procedure at a military hospital in Dakar, Senegal. "Initial indications are that Mr. Norman suffered heart failure during post-operative care," the statement said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70324

LIBERIA-SIERRA LEONE: Refugees reluctant to return home

Thousands of Liberian refugees sheltering in camps in eastern Sierra Leone are reluctant to be repatriated, saying they would rather stay where they are or resettle in another country.

Some of the refugees in two of the eight camps in Sierra Leone's eastern border province of Kenema said they felt conditions back in Liberia were not yet favorable for their return, despite assurances by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Liberian government that life had improved.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70310

WEST AFRICA: New meningitis vaccine could halve deaths

Every year between December and June winds combined with seasonal respiratory infections trigger outbreaks of deadly meningitis throughout West Africa's Sahel belt, which stretches from Senegal to Chad.

Just four cases of the fast-spreading illness are enough for health officials to declare an epidemic. But at least 1,300 people have already been infected this year in Burkina Faso, and 36 in northern Côte d'Ivoire, and 150 people have died.

As authorities in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire rush with emergency vaccinations, scientists in Mali are experimenting with a drug produced in India that they say could halve the disease's impact once tests are finished in 2009.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70308

GUINEA-BISSAU: Hunger in a land of plenty

Driving through lush farmlands, forests and mangrove swamps south from Guinea-Bissau's coastal town of Buba, it is hard to believe that the roughly 100,000 people who live and farm here could not find a way to feed themselves last year.

But the fact is that malnutrition shot up to beyond what the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) calls the 'emergency threshold' and relief agencies shipped in over 1,000 tonnes of food aid in 2006.

And although the crisis is over for now, next time it could be far worse.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70272

NIGERIA: FAO warns more effort needed to check worsening bird flu crisis

At the Costain live animal market in Nigeria's main city of Lagos chickens, turkeys and geese are still crowded together in the portable coops they arrived in from upcountry. Teenage boys helping buyers kill, clean and cut up the birds still do so with knives and bare hands, unprotected by gloves or face masks.

More than one year after Nigeria reported sub-Saharan Africa's first cases of the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus and one month after the illness claimed its first human life in the country, little has changed in the way birds are handled or slaughtered.

But old habits need to change and control measures must be improved in markets and on farms if Nigeria is to the curb the worsening spread of the virus, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Tuesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70281

GUINEA: Martial law relaxed but strike continuing

Life is slowly returning to relative normalcy in Guinea now that the government has eased a curfew imposed after nationwide unrest, but a general strike is ongoing.

President Lansana Conte called the curfew on 12 February to curb widespread looting and rioting, which had swept the capital, Conakry, and towns across the country during protests calling for his resignation.

Originally in force for 20 hours every day, authorities cut the curfew to six hours at the end of last week, and on Monday reduced it further to keep Guineans off the streets between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70282

CAMEROON: Secessionist minority Anglophone group silenced

About 20 members of an Anglophone secessionist group in Cameroon have been jailed for the past month without charge, reflecting what their lawyers say is the latest effort to silence government critics without providing due process.

The members of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) were detained on 20 January when they attempted to hold a press conference led by the group's vice chairman, Nfor Ngala Nfor. Two scheduled hearings on the case have been postponed.

"The authorities arrested them under the pretext that they weren't authorised to hold the meeting," said Blaise Berinyuy, a lawyer for the group. "In recent years arrests of this kind have been commonplace and the situation hasn't improved."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70258

CHAD: Obstacles to getting peacekeepers on ground

As the United Nations Security Council prepares for discussions this week on sending peacekeepers to eastern Chad, aid agencies working there are pressing the humanitarian need for rapid deployment, but observers in New York say significant political and logistical obstacles remain to getting boots on the ground.

Aid agencies have been complaining for months that frequent attacks on their staff and facilities in eastern Chad are making their work to help hundreds of thousands of refugees from Darfur and displaced Chadians impossible in some areas.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says fighting between Chadian rebels and the army has sometimes spilled over into the 12 refugee camps for people from Darfur. It has also accused the Chadian government of not doing enough to stop the camps from becoming militarised by rebel fighters crossing over from Darfur.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70240

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