DAKAR, 14 December 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

CHAD: Army forcibly recruiting youths, rights group says CHAD: Guy, "I know of four students from my school who disappeared that night" CHAD: Mounting rebel fronts hamper aid efforts CHAD: Violence and insecurity not just in the east COTE D'IVOIRE: Ex-rebels impose night-driving ban as attacks persist LIBERIA: Health user fees - helpful or harmful? NIGER: Humanitarian access cut to north NIGER: News filtering out of north suggests grave conditions NIGER: Population explosion threatens development gains NIGER: Rebels accused of launching Iraq-inspired "urban terror" campaign NIGER: Why are so many mothers dying? NIGERIA: At least six dead in sectarian violence NIGERIA: Gas flaring wrecking Delta communities NIGERIA: "Hundreds" dead in measles outbreak NIGERIA: Stepping up the fight against child-trafficking SENEGAL: Empty granaries in Casamance

CHAD: Army forcibly recruiting youths, rights group says

The Chadian military is reportedly recruiting young men by force, possibly including children, to help stem losses from recent fighting with rebels on several fronts in the east of the country.

Human Rights Without Borders (DHSF), a Chadian human rights group, says it has received reports of army units raiding private homes and taking children. Larger raids have also been reported in places where youths gather, according to several sources, including an eyewitness who spoke to IRIN.

The reported raids are said to be taking place in the capital, N'djamena, as well as in towns and villages around the country.

"Many of the youth being made to join the army are underage," according to Daniel Passalet Duezoumbe, head of DHSF.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75879

CHAD: Guy, "I know of four students from my school who disappeared that night"

Guy, a 22-year-old student at Lycee Félix Eboue in the Chad capital, N'djamena, claims he was one of the few who managed to get away from a campaign of forced recruitment reportedly underway there.

"On Saturday [1 December] my friend and I decided to go to see a movie at the local outdoor cinema in Habena, our neighbourhood – an episode of 24 hours with Jack Bauer.

"About an hour into the movie people behind us suddenly started screaming. I looked behind and saw soldiers wearing turbans and carrying rifles coming down the aisle, pulling all the men out of their seats and taking them away. The movie was still running while everyone in the cinema was trying to escape.

"Luckily my friend and I were sitting in the fourth row from the front next to a high mud wall that runs around the cinema. We scaled the wall, jumped into someone's private compound next door and ran out the gate and down the street.

"As I was running away I looked behind me and saw two army Toyota pickups and a big truck with soldiers forcing people inside. They were trying to wriggle away from the soldiers shouting 'leave me alone'.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75882

CHAD: Mounting rebel fronts hamper aid efforts

Fighting is breaking out in so many parts of eastern Chad that aid workers say they cannot even keep count.

"So many groups are involved now, it's impossible to know who is who," said one humanitarian official. "I don't even care about who they all are and what their names are. All I know is that they are threatening our ability to operate," the aid worker said.

Humanitarian agencies such as the UN World Food Programme are working to provide for the basic needs of more than 500,000 people in the area.

"WFP is concerned about the deteriorating situation in eastern Chad," WFP spokesperson Stephanie Savariaud told IRIN on 7 December. Conditions have led the agency to slow down its deliveries of food aid to refugees and displaced persons in the region, she said.

WFP gives monthly food rations to over 230,000 people who fled Darfur, as well as nearly 150,000 displaced Chadians. The organisation also helps up to 150,000 local residents affected by conflict.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75767

CHAD: Violence and insecurity not just in the east

The killing of a UN aid worker on 6 December in southern Chad, some 500 km from intense fighting in the east between the army and rebels, underscored that other regions of the country are also insecure.

"Certainly civilians and humanitarian workers are under attack in the east as a direct and indirect consequence of the fighting, but there are all sorts of armed groups in other parts of the country and banditry is rife," an international security officer in Chad told IRIN.

With an estimated 90 percent of the Chadian armed forces currently fighting in the east, armed groups elsewhere can just about do as they please, he added. "We also have reports of fighters in the east fleeing to other areas with the result that the overall level of insecurity is increasing."

Crime has also been high in the capital, N'djamena, with numerous reports of roaming gangs of youth attacking people indiscriminately.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75803

COTE D'IVOIRE: Ex-rebels impose night-driving ban as attacks persist

The head of the ex-rebel group 'Forces Nouvelles' in northwestern Côte d'Ivoire has banned driving after 6pm as a measure "to fully ensure" people's security in the region, where often-deadly road attacks have become an almost daily occurrence.

'Forces Nouvelles' commander in the regional capital Odienné, Ousmane Coulibaly, told IRIN on 10 December: "The decision has been made for reasons of security".

Attacks by Kalashnikov-wielding, masked men have become increasingly common in many areas of Côte d'Ivoire, particularly in the northwest and west, in the past several months.

Residents in Odienné told IRIN they hear of such attacks – which often kill or seriously wound passengers – several times per week. In a recent incident, residents told IRIN, a traditional hunter or 'dozo' who was part of a team escorting a commercial truck was shot dead.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75794

LIBERIA: Health user fees - helpful or harmful?

Representatives of government, NGOs, the UN and donors in Liberia are probing the merits and drawbacks of health care fees, as the government weighs whether to maintain free services in public facilities.

In a national health policy released last month the government said that due in part to "crushing poverty" it was maintaining a suspension of fees for primary care pending further study.

As part of the government's deliberations, a broad-based committee is studying the impact of user fees for primary health care and options for financing the health sector. The research is in part to show the level of revenue gained from fees contrasted with the extent fees keep people away from health services, one development expert in Liberia said. Many who advocate lifting fees say they do not contribute significantly to government coffers.

Liberia's health policy document says, "In light of crushing levels of poverty, the Ministry [of health and social welfare] has decided to suspend the administration of user fees at the primary health care level."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75780

NIGER: Humanitarian access cut to north

Indiscriminately laid landmines, a sceptical government and a rebel group that has attacked aid workers are obstacles that will have to be overcome before relief efforts can start for an estimated 20,000 people affected by flooding and fighting in the country's remote north.

Read a report about the humanitarian needs in northern Niger

The most substantive aid that has been sent for displaced people so far was meant to be delivered by a coalition of local NGOs called SOS Iferouane and the French medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

However MSF was banned from operating in the north in October "for its own protection" by the government after several of its vehicles were hijacked by the rebel Nigerien Movement for Justice (MNJ).

All six of the convoys SOS Iferouane has sent since September have also been stopped by the MNJ, which apparently does not want the supplies to fall into the army's hands, according to sources.

Niger's army has deployed in the region but its presence has raised not allayed fears among aid workers, who say the soldiers only present another level of insecurity on top of the rebels as well as armed bandits and drug smugglers who are also believed to operate there.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75795

NIGER: News filtering out of north suggests grave conditions

Human rights organisations and aid workers in the Nigerien capital Niamey say news filtering out of the north of the country suggests a humanitarian emergency is unfolding.

The north has been affected by fighting since February 2007 when MNJ announced it was launching an armed campaign against the government to win more economic and political autonomy for people in the uranium- and petrol-rich region from the central government in the capital Niamey, 1,200 km south.

In August and September, heavy flooding that created havoc across West Africa also affected northern Niger.

"There's not much solid information coming out [of the north] but from what we do know it's a very worrying situation," said Ilguilas Weïla, president of the prominent Nigerien human rights organisation Timidria.

Several humanitarian sources in Niamey estimated the number of displaced people at around 20,000, including 9,000 people who lost their homes in heavy flooding earlier this year and a further 11,000 displaced by an ongoing conflict between anti-government rebels and the Nigerien army.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75792

NIGER: Population explosion threatens development gains

If the people of Niger (Nigeriens) remain uninformed about family planning and keep reproducing at the current rate the country's population will more than quadruple by 2050, imposing unmanageable demands on the economy, social services and the environment, according to research by Niger's national statistics agency.

Niger's population is counted by the Institute for National Statistics (INS), which compiles its own data through national surveys and censuses and by collaborating with UN agencies. It calculates the current rate of population growth is 3.3 percent every year.

If that growth continues, there will be 56 million people living in Niger by 2050, compared to 13.5 million today, the INS says. In 1960, Niger's population was just 1.7 million.

"We surveyed the country and found that the average number of children per mother is 7.1. However, we also asked them how many they would like to have - women said nine and men said 12, but some families said they would like 40 or 50 children," INS deputy director Adamou Soumana told IRIN.

"The only way to put it, is this is a society with a very pro-natal philosophy that encourages procreation." Soumana said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75801

NIGER: Rebels accused of launching Iraq-inspired "urban terror" campaign

A rebel movement that has already cut northern Niger off from humanitarian aid by laying mines throughout the region has denied responsibility for landmine explosions in Maradi and Tahoua in the south.

Two civilians were killed in the nearly simultaneous anti-tank mine explosions which occurred between 9pm and 11pm on 10 December.

According to sources in Maradi where an anti-tank mine exploded under a civilian truck, one person died and two others were wounded. Maradi is 400 km south of the northern capital Agadez which up until December marked the southernmost limit of violence in Niger.

In Tahoua, 350 km south-east of Agadez, sources said one person was killed and one wounded when another anti-tank mine went off under a civilian vehicle.

Both towns serve as hubs for aid agencies which are mainly running nutrition projects in Niger. The attacks were also reported on Nigerien state radio on 11 December.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75814

NIGER: Why are so many mothers dying?

Every two hours in Niger a woman will die during her pregnancy or while delivering a baby - a symptom of under-resourced health services, neglected transport and education infrastructure, and a lack of awareness among women of their rights, health officials and experts say.

Niger's 13.5 million people (Nigeriens), spread across a barren territory roughly the size of Western Europe, have missed out on much of the development that has happened in other countries on the African continent.

There are just a handful of paved main tarmac highways, and most people live in remote villages miles from a road, school, health centre or local government office.

Fatima Trapsida, director of the Gazouby maternal health hospital in the capital, Niamey, says this is the first obstacle to getting women to the help they need: "Getting to a doctor can mean taking a horse and cart, waiting for public transport, or paying for the petrol for one of the country's ambulances."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75869

NIGERIA: At least six dead in sectarian violence

At least six people have been killed and 30 critically injured since clashes between Muslim and Christian communities in the north-central Nigerian city of Bauchi broke out on 11 December, Red Cross workers and residents said.

Some 3,000 people have fled their homes in the area of the fighting, witnesses said. The government has ordered a 9pm to 6am curfew and closed the local university, which has often been the site of violent clashes.

Fighting started 11 December and continued to the next day, following a dispute over the planned construction of a mosque at a secondary school in Yelwa - a mixed Muslim and Christian neighbourhood of the city.

"We have recovered six dead bodies," Adamu Abubakar, Red Cross director in Bauchi, told IRIN by telephone.

"The situation is still tense and hundreds of people have fled their homes and are now seeking refuge in police barracks," Abubakar said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75863

NIGERIA: Gas flaring wrecking Delta communities

Civil society groups in the Niger Delta region have warned that the government is destroying communities' health and Nigeria's environment by flouting laws against gas flaring, a technique used in oil production.

For decades gas flaring has been used to separate crude oil from the associated gases that are extracted with it, but Nigeria flares more gas today than any nation in the world after Russia, even though it is only the world's eighth largest oil producer.

In most other countries the excess gas has been harnessed to generate power, but about 50 communities in the oil producing Niger Delta region have had to put up with gas flares burning continuously for decades.

Bari-ara Kpalap from the Nigerian non-governmental organisation (NGO) Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, which is based in the Delta and represents a large ethnic group there, said oil and gas flaring had caused devastating pollution for the region's farming communities.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75824

NIGERIA: "Hundreds" dead in measles outbreak

A measles outbreak has killed at least 200 children in Nigeria in recent weeks according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The Nigerian Red Cross is sending teams to affected cities in northern Nigeria to train volunteers and educate communities about prevention, according to a 13 December report by the IFRC, which contained the estimate of deaths.

Hundreds more children are infected, with cases in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states, according to Mahmud Mustapha, director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in charge of seven north-western states.

"Conservatively the death toll in this outbreak may exceed 200 across the city [of Zaria in Kaduna state] because one needs to go round to hospitals to grasp how bad the situation is," Murjanatu Saminu, a nurse at Tudun Wada maternity hospital in Zaria, told IRIN.

"The situation is alarming because the number of measles cases being brought to this hospital is just unbelievable," she said. "We receive at least 17 cases a day."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75883

NIGERIA: Stepping up the fight against child-trafficking

In a welcome centre in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, a small finger traces the words of an English text book; a young voice struggles to pronounce the words. Ruth is 13 years old and only in grade 3. But for her, this is a major achievement.

At the age of five, Ruth was trafficked from her village in southern Nigeria to Gabon, further south on the Gulf of Guinea. For years of her life, she never attended school.

Taken by an uncle who promised to care for and educate her in Gabon, Ruth was instead required to cook, clean and take care of his children. Often deprived of food and sleep, she spent four years selling water at the market.

"Each time I brought the money and asked to go to school as he promised, he would tie a rope around my leg and beat me, beat me again and then lift me up and let me fall on the floor," Ruth recounted, her small frame shivering from time to time.

Finally, in 2003, a family friend discreetly showed her the way to the Nigerian embassy. After investigation, she was returned to Nigeria but now lives at a welcome centre in Abuja. Both she and her mother, widowed and poor, thought that arrangement was in her best interests - to avoid being trafficked again.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75783

SENEGAL: Empty granaries in Casamance

After a truncated rainy season in Senegal's southern Casamance region, granaries are empty and many families are getting by on one meal a day.

Residents say as a result of food shortages some children are missing school, many families are divided as men leave to seek work, and people are increasingly turning to the production and sale of charcoal to make a living.

"Members of my family have not been able to eat their fill for three months now," said Abdoulaye Diémé, a farmer who lives in Niaguis village east of the regional capital, Ziguinchor. "We have no chance for a rice harvest this year – the few rice crops we were able to plant dried out because of the abrupt end to the rains."

This year the rainy season in Casamance – generally from June to end October – began in July and ended early October. In many areas across West Africa, flooding destroyed crops or erratic rains disrupted farming.

A November report by the Inter-State Committee to Fight Drought in the Sahel (CILSS), included regions in south and central Senegal in a list of zones across West Africa considered "at risk".

The report said, "Clearly late planting, floods and the abrupt end to rains have provoked production losses and other damages" including the loss of human life and livestock.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75861

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org

IRIN news