DAKAR, 7 September 2007 (IRIN) - 31 August 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: State health facilities halt all services in "indefinite" strike GHANA: Floods force some 10,000 from their homes BURKINA FASO: Lots of rain, little aid SIERRA LEONE: Election could turn on Kamajor war heroes/criminals CHAD: More aid needed now but peacekeepers not expected for months SIERRA LEONE: Not a lot of guns but a lot of frustration TOGO: Floods kill at least 17, cut off access to some 60,000 people NIGERIA: With new flooding in Sokoto, 50,000 people displaced nationwide WESTERN SAHARA: Lack of donor funds threatens humanitarian projects

MAURITANIA: Flood damage intensifies with more rains CHAD: Threat of public sector strikes still hangs over government CHAD: Floods hit refugees and displaced in east COTE D'IVOIRE: Diabetes sufferers call for government action on "neglected" disease WEST AFRICA: Floods prompt greater focus on risk reduction TOGO: Malnutrition unacceptably high, aid to start - UNICEF

MAURITANIA: UN refugee agency calls for funds to get Mauritanian refugees home

COTE D'IVOIRE: State health facilities halt all services in "indefinite" strike

In Côte d'Ivoire people are being turned away from public hospitals as all state doctors have gone on strike, shutting down even minimum services in health facilities across the country. "We've been here for two days, but no one wants to take care of us," said a teary-eyed Solange Atsé, accompanying her asthmatic sister to a main public hospital in the commercial capital, Abidjan. The strike, which began on 5 September, is the second in two months as negotiations with the government over pay scale and other trade union grievances have failed. In the earlier strike in August, hospitals provided some minimum services but this time round that is not the case. The medical trade union this time called for an "indefinite strike without minimum services", according to the union's secretary general, Amichia Magloire. The Minister of Public Health and Hygiene, Remi Allah Kouadio, has appealed to the state doctors to retain minimum services for the population but they have refused. This means that even people in urgent need are on their own. At a hospital in the Treichville neighbourhood of Abidjan, an ambulance carrying a patient was turned away on. "Not working here, go somewhere else," a guard at the hospital entrance told the driver.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74186

GHANA: Floods force some 10,000 from their homes

Flooding in northeast Ghana has killed at least six people and displaced some 10,000, according to local news reports. Local media reports said floods destroyed some 4,500 homes in the Upper East Region after torrential rains from 24 to 29 August. Sources in Ghana could not be reached due to problems with international calls to the country, but local news reports compiled by IRIN recount widespread destruction in the region. The floods reportedly resulted in part from a dam break in neighbouring Burkina Faso. An Agriculture Ministry official in Burkina Faso told IRIN that floods had destroyed many dams in the country over the past month. From 24 to 25 August 112mm of rain reportedly fell in the town of Sandema, where three people were reported dead. The flooding is also said to have caused the collapse of major bridges in the Upper East Region.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74184

BURKINA FASO: Lots of rain, little aid

Despite continued rain and rising numbers of flood victims in Burkina Faso, aid is limited in this Sahelian country, where, according to local press, flooding in the capital Ouagadougou is the worst in 54 years. So far, more than 35,000 people have been affected across the country, and 80 percent of them are homeless, according to the national council for emergency aid (CONASUR). The death toll has reached 33, with another 73 injured. Of the country's 13 regions, 11 have been affected. (The government says the numbers are likely much higher because continuing rain has prevented a global assessment.) Flooding has knocked over homes and schools, destroyed dikes and bridges and blocked access to some villages. According to local newspapers, a two-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall of her house crumbled on top of her. Yet more than a month after flooding began, the government says it is not receiving the aid it needs. "We need food and survival materials: mats, blankets, soap, plastic buckets," Amadé Bélem, the permanent secretary of the national council for emergency aid and the government's top crisis management official, told IRIN. "Certainly what is most worrying is that we don't have tents."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74175

SIERRA LEONE: Election could turn on Kamajor war heroes/criminals

In Sierra Leone's closely fought presidential election both sides are in their own ways vying for the support of the Kamajors, a former civil defence force whose leaders have been indicted by a UN-backed war crimes court. But for many citizens they remain heroes for having defended the country against brutal rebels. Traditional hunters before the decade-long civil war which ended in 2002, the Kamajors grew in number to over 20,000 and fought alongside British and Nigerian forces to reinstate and then defend the democratically-elected Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). However, in the 11 August parliamentary and presidential elections, the SLPP lost massively in most areas where the Kamajors are strong. Overall the SLPP lost its majority in parliament, and for the presidential run-off election set for 8 September the SLPP candidate Solomon Berewa is trailing opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma. In the first round Koroma took 44 percent while Berewa won only 38 percent. Though traditionally SLPP, many Kamajors have joined a new breakaway party called the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), whose leader, Charles Margai, is also lead defence counsel for one of the indicted Kamajors. In the upcoming election Margai, who came third in the first round of presidential elections on 11 August, has thrown his support not behind the SLPP, but behind the long-time rival opposition party.

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CHAD: More aid needed now but peacekeepers not expected for months

Peacekeepers are unlikely to arrive in Chad for at least three months, according to senior UN diplomats who spoke following a joint military mission to the country by representatives of the European Union and the UN. Meanwhile the World Food Programme (WFP) is launched a new appeal for funds to assist Darfur refugees in Chad and victims of inter-communal clashes in Chad. "We would hope that the EU will be in a position to give us an operational concept in maybe two weeks. That's the time we need to do the work seriously and also bearing in mind that at any time we might have to verify the work in full cooperation with [Chadian President Idriss] Deby and the [Chadian] authorities," Jean Maurice Ripert, French Ambassador to the UN, told IRIN on 5 September. After the EU report is filed, the Security Council would adopt a resolution giving a mandate to the EU to undertake the mission. The Council of Ministers of the EU would then have to vote on the operation. "We would be looking at doing diplomacy on the ground and would hope this would be done by the end of September, if possible, in three months at the latest," Ripert said. "Then a practical operation by the end of October." UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is travelling to Sudan and Chad this week. "I want to go and see for myself the very difficult conditions under which our forces will operate," he said.

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SIERRA LEONE: Not a lot of guns but a lot of frustration

With an estimated 72,490 fighters disarmed in less than two years, observers agree Sierra Leone now has surprisingly few weapons for a country that was awash with them just six years ago. For this, credit goes to the UN and government disarmament and demobilisation programmes, but many say the root causes of the armed conflict remain. Efforts to re-integrate ex-combatants into society have been largely ineffective, the observers say. "Sierra Leone should not be wiped off the list of post-war countries that could return to conflict," Ibrahim Bangura the director of PRIDE, a non-governmental organisation working with ex-combatants, told IRIN. "Under the right conditions all the peace-building efforts we have seen so far may yet collapse." A portent, he said, can be seen with the campaign for the 8 September presidential election in which each of the main parties has brought in ex-combatants as bodyguards and for security. Bangura said security for the opposition All People's Congress is headed by former rebel soldier Idrissa Kamara nicknamed 'Leather Boots', who was only recently released from prison for having committed treason. The Sierra Leone People's Party's security is headed by Tom Nyuma, a well-known former army officer accused of multiple rights violations.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74151

TOGO: Floods kill at least 17, cut off access to some 60,000 people

Flooding has killed at least 17 people and displaced more than 7,000 in recent days in the Savanes region of northeastern Togo, which recent UN studies say is the country's poorest region with "alarming" rates of child malnutrition. Most of the people who died either drowned or were crushed when their houses collapsed, health workers said. "We saw the case of one child who died when the wall of his house collapsed onto him and his mother," Gaspard Fletou, a nurse at the hospital in Mandouri, the main town in the affected area, told IRIN. Floods washed out roads and bridges, completely cutting access to about half of Kpendjal prefecture, which has a population of some 123,000, UN and government sources told IRIN. Other prefectures affected are Oti, Tône and Tandjouaré. The area is some 600km from the Togolese capital, Lome. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) puts the number of displaced at 7,167, but assessments on displacements as well as infrastructure and crop damage are ongoing, officials said. Government officials in Kpendjal in a report issued on 3 September said many villages are cut off from major health centres and commercial activity. The destruction of crops "will cause great suffering for the population", the report said. It also said, "chicken farms are washed away; it's a disaster."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74144

NIGERIA: With new flooding in Sokoto, 50,000 people displaced nationwide

More than 5,000 people were made homeless by flooding in and around the northern city of Sokoto this week, bringing the number of victims to 50,000 throughout Nigeria in just two months, according to the national Red Cross. "We've not had this type of flooding for many years and people had become complacent," an official of the Sokoto State emergency services Audu Mustapha, told IRIN. "For many the floods came suddenly, leaving them no chance to escape," Mustapha said. Hardest hit by the floods in Sokoto State was Kiyawa village in Goronyo District and Gamgam in Shagari Local Council District where nearly all the houses and farmlands went under water, he said. At least 13 communities have been affected since floods started in the area two weeks ago, most of them located on the banks of the Sokoto and Rima rivers. At least 68 people have been killed in floods in various parts of the country which have occurred over the last two months. "The worst hit area is Plateau [State] where more than 20 people died," Abiodun Orebiyi, secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross, told IRIN. "Many of them were caught in flash floods; there was nothing they could do."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74138

WESTERN SAHARA: Lack of donor funds threatens humanitarian projects

The United Nations refugee agency warns that donor shortfalls are threatening its confidence-building projects in the Western Sahara and that a family reunion programme and other such initiatives will close in October if donors do not step up funding. "In January, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appealed for nearly US$3.5 million to continue family visits and telephone services initiated in 2004," the UN said in a statement on 4 September. "Only a little over half that amount has so far been funded," and the projects risk "coming to a halt" next month. Some 90,000 Sahrawi people live in refugee camps around Tindouf in western Algeria, where they sought shelter from a conflict between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro, or Polisario Front, which began fighting for Sahrawi independence in the early 1970s when Western Sahara was still a Spanish colony. There has been relative calm since 1991 when the UN brokered a ceasefire and set up the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), now the longest-serving peacekeeping mission in Africa. Morocco maintains its claims over the territory while the Polisario insists that it become an independent state, and UN-mediated talks to end the conflict have stalemated. Since 2004 UNHCR has run regular flights between the camps and Western Sahara in order to temporarily reunite families.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74134

MAURITANIA: Flood damage intensifies with more rains

As Mauritania tries to recover from floods that totally submerged the southeastern town of Tintane in early August, more recent rains have caused additional damage in other regions of the country. Heavy rains on 29-31 August have affected hundreds of families in the southern regions of Gorgol and Assaba. Dozens of families have been made homeless, according to preliminary information from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the government's Commissariat Chargé de la Protection Sociale et de la Sécurité Alimentaire (CCPSSA). Exact numbers are still difficult to come by, as the authorities are currently visiting affected regions to assess the situation. One person was found dead in Gorgol, Mbout Department, after being washed away, according to the CCPSSA. Five schools are now serving as temporary shelter for the displaced in the departments of Kaedi and Mbout. The government has already begun distributing food, tents and blankets in those two departments and will transport aid by boat to the department of Maghama, which has become inaccessible by road because of the rain. In Assaba, around 100 families have been affected in the village of Barkeol, and at least 97 homes were destroyed in the municipality of Kankossa, according to the CCPSSA.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74116

CHAD: Threat of public sector strikes still hangs over government

Trade unions in Chad have suspended a strike that closed hospitals and schools in the capital for three months, but some analysts are warning that the unions remain a powerful disruptive force and the significance of the strikes should not be underestimated. The strike, which started on 2 May, was suspended by union leaders on 27 August, pending arbitration by the International Conferation of Unions in Geneva, according to a communiqué released by union leaders. Union leaders threatened to take their dispute onto the streets but four-month strike turned out to be peaceful. "The strike is not over - it is simply suspended and can restart at any moment," union coordinator Djibrine Assali told IRIN. Large numbers of people in N'djamena, including from within the unions, have expressed frustration at the continued disruption and accused union leaders of enriching themselves at the expense of ordinary Chadians, but Assali said the results of the strike have "so far been positive". "We have obtained a 15 percent increase in salaries, and an increase of 2,000 CFA francs (US$4) to the pension benefits," he said, referring to an offer made to the unions by Chad's President Idriss Deby in early June. The Economist Intelligence Unit on 28 August warned that public sector strikes in Chad could be "of more immediate importance to the stability of the [Chadian] state" than an ongoing armed conflict in the country's remote eastern region between the army and several armed groups opposed to Chad's President Deby.

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CHAD: Floods hit refugees and displaced in east

Heavy rains in eastern Chad have caused rivers to overflow, washing out several camps for Chadians displaced by inter-ethnic fighting and refugees from Sudan's Darfur region. "It's already an enormously difficult situation and the heavy rain this year as well as the degradation of the roads have hindered our work," said Nicolas Kaburabouyou, head of protection for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) at the Goz Beida refugee camp in southeastern Chad. The worst hit area is Koukou, which is the site of a refugee camp housing some 11,000 people, around 6km east of the town of Goz Beida. According to UNHCR, the mud and straw shelters that refugees built themselves have been collapsing, sometimes with people inside. Refugees have been moving to higher ground to escape the flood waters. No cases of cholera have been reported, according to Kaburabouyou, but cases of malaria, a mosquito-borne illness which often contributes to the death of children weakened by malnutrition, have increased sharply. The waters are too deep for aid workers to reach the refugees, but some supplies have been transported using camels and horse and carts, Kaburabouyou added. Aid workers in Chad have come to expect these kinds of problems, according to Ann Maymann, UNHCR spokesperson in N'djamena. "During the rainy season there is always a lot of difficulty with logistics. The runways get flooded and many humanitarian flights are cancelled. It takes an enormous amount of time to get from one place to another."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74099

COTE D'IVOIRE: Diabetes sufferers call for government action on "neglected" disease

Diabetes patients in Cote d'Ivoire are appealing for help, as a lack of insulin in the country's public pharmacies has put the medicine out of reach for most, adding to the burden diabetics already face in fighting their disease in one of the poorest countries in the world. "The situation has become so critical," said Jonas Yao, vice president of the national association of diabetics. "People are going to die." The national stock of insulin ran out in March, making the medicine available only at more than double the price at private pharmacies, Yao told IRIN. Diabetes patients said the lack of affordable insulin is just one example of the government's failure to help care for people with the disease. Health experts say chronic illnesses like diabetes, despite their heavy human and socioeconomic toll, tend to lose out in competing for scarce resources with communicable diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria. Diabetes patients in Cote d'Ivoire say they are frustrated about a general disregard for diabetes in comparison to other more visible illnesses. "People neglect diabetes because it is not contagious like HIV," said Hortense Nouama, treasurer of the national association of diabetics.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74109

WEST AFRICA: Floods prompt greater focus on risk reduction

After the floods that have this season affected over 130,000 people in nine West African countries, according to the latest UN figures, humanitarian actors are urging international donors to invest in risk reduction and the mitigation of floods. "We know there have been floods in West Africa. This is not new," said Herve Ludovic de Lys, head of the regional UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for West Africa. "[But] there is no interest in prevention among the donors." In what the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) called "unprecedented" flooding in West Africa, tens of thousands of people in Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, The Gambia, Liberia and Nigeria have lost their homes or their livelihoods, and dozens have died. Rains have also destroyed critical water and transportation infrastructure. "We will see more and more of this problem every year because vulnerabilities are increasing and threats are becoming more frequent," said Stéphane Quinton, head of the West Africa office of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). "We have to move from response mode to reduction of risks. There are no other solutions."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74078

TOGO: Malnutrition unacceptably high, aid to start - UNICEF

The international community is sending therapeutic food to communities in Togo, where a UN study into children's health and welfare has shown that in some areas nearly one in three children suffers from acute malnutrition. The study, which was completed by the UN children's fund (UNICEF) in 2006, calls malnutrition rates in two regions in the north of the country and one in the south "unacceptably high". UNICEF is set to launch a project it says will save children's lives as well as help prevent malnutrition, which the study said causes 51 percent of child deaths in Togo. "Acute malnutrition is an indicator of a sharp degradation of a population's general state," said Stephane Quinton, head of the West Africa office of ECHO, the humanitarian aid arm of the European Commission. ECHO, which recently made an assessment mission to Togo, has given 500,000 euros (US$683,000) to assist children in the affected regions, where Quinton said conditions "have deteriorated significantly." UNICEF's study, which was endorsed by the Togolese government in May 2007, said in the northern regions of Savanes and Kara acute malnutrition stands at 32 percent and 24 percent respectively. The rate is 17 percent in the southern region of Maritime, close to the capital Lome.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74079

MAURITANIA: UN refugee agency calls for funds to get Mauritanian refugees home

The UN refugee agency is asking donors for US$7 million to help tens of thousands of Mauritanians return home nearly 20 years after ethnic fighting forced them to leave. Forced from their homes and livelihoods in 1989 the refugees – living in Senegal and Mali – have long insisted that their return be supervised and backed by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). In June the Mauritanian government formally requested UNHCR assistance with the repatriation. "We call on the international community to help Mauritania turn this painful page in our history," Moustapha Toure, spokesperson for the Mauritanian refugees, told IRIN. Some 25,000 Mauritanians are expected to set off from Senegal and Mali next month in UNHCR-operated boats and trucks, with the refugee agency providing food and protection along the way as well as assistance to local communities. Part of the funds – about $1.7 million – is earmarked for protection and monitoring of refugees' legal rights. "The authorities will provide returnees with the necessary documentation to ensure their access to civil rights, land and property in a dignified manner," UNHCR says in its appeal.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74090

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