DAKAR, 28 September 2007 (IRIN) - Dakar, 28 September 2007 (IRIN) – CONTENTS:

BURKINA FASO: Lack of medical specialists, equipment forces patients abroad for care BURKINA FASO: Girl's death prompts search for new strategies to fight FGM CENTRAL AFRICA REPUBLIC-CHAD: France takes the lead on new UN-EU peacekeeping mission LIBERIA: Less cholera with better hygiene NIGERIA: What has Yar'Adua done for basic services? WEST AFRICA: Flood damage pushes back school term for millions WEST AFRICA: Widespread flooding tests governments, aid community

BURKINA FASO: Lack of medical specialists, equipment forces patients abroad for care

Five-year-old Salamata Compaore in Burkina Faso suffers from a malformation of the heart that leads to shortness of breath, stunted growth and sometimes heart failure. Last month, she appeared on national TV in an appeal for help with an operation overseas. "Without surgery, she will die," said Professor Patrice Zamsoré, head of the cardiology department at the Yalgado hospital, the largest in Burkina Faso. An expensive trip abroad is the only hope for people like Compaore, in Burkina Faso and other countries in the region where medical specialists and equipment to treat many conditions are unavailable. Some of the most common health problems in Burkina – cardiovascular disease and cervical and breast cancer – cannot be treated inside the country. Advanced surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy materials are not available.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74555

BURKINA FASO: Girl's death prompts search for new strategies to fight FGM

The death of a 14-year-old girl from female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has sparked shock and anger in Burkina Faso, which has been seen as far ahead of other African countries in the fight against the practice. "Sorrowful and shocking" is how Aïna Ouédraogo, permanent secretary of the National Committee for the Fight against Excision (CNLPE), described the girl's death. The teenager was one of 15 girls – aged 4 to 14 – who were circumcised the week of 17 September in the rural town of Pabre, 15km from the capital, Ouagadougou, CNLPE's Ouédraogo told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74529

CENTRAL AFRICA REPUBLIC-CHAD: France takes the lead on new UN-EU peacekeeping mission

France will be the largest single troop contributor to a new joint UN-European Union "multi-dimensional" peacekeeping mission to Chad and Central African Republic authorised by the UN Security Council on 25 September. The former colonial power of both countries already has a military base in Chad and some troops in Central African Republic (CAR). It is expected to contribute about half of the EU force of 3,000 to 4,000 troops to support the new UN Mission, MINURCAT. Deployment is expected to start in November, preceding the arrival of the UN-African Union hybrid force expected in the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan early next year.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74506

LIBERIA: Less cholera with better hygiene

Faced with unsafe water and poor sanitation systems, aid groups in Liberia are encouraging people to wash their hands, put bleach in drinking water and find safe ways of disposing of human waste. "We're trying to prevent outbreaks of waterborne diseases before they happen... It's fairly clear that the Ministry of Health does not have the transport and logistical facilities to improve the country's provision for water sanitation," Kabuka Banba, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) project officer in Liberia, told IRIN. Less than 25 percent of Monrovia's 1.5 million people have access to safe drinking water, according to UNICEF. "So the thrust of [our] intervention is to build capacity through training and education," Banba said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74485

NIGERIA: What has Yar'Adua done for basic services?

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua recently declared the energy crisis a national emergency, but aid groups say he should also declare a state of emergency in the health service. "So far there is no evidence the government will act quickly to bring succour to the poor," said Osita Ezechukwu, a volunteer at the anti-poverty group Social Rights Initiative. In his inauguration speech on 29 May Yar'Adua included in his seven-point agenda a goal to alleviate widespread poverty. Yet four months on, details of how he will do this remain sketchy.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74503

WEST AFRICA: Flood damage pushes back school term for millions Some three million primary and secondary school students in West Africa will begin school several weeks late this year, while others hold their first days of classes in warehouses, because of unprecedented flooding in the region. After torrential rains, in many areas classrooms are still filled with displaced families and roads and bridges are washed out, prompting the governments of Togo and Mali to postpone the start of school. In Togo, where the northeast has been hit hard by floods, the government has postponed the date for the entire country, "to avoid an education schedule proceeding on two tracks", the minister of primary and secondary education said on state TV. Some 1.8 million students across the country will begin school on 17 October, one month later than the original start date.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74456

WEST AFRICA: Widespread flooding tests governments, aid community

When the residents of 680 households in the Burkinabé province of Kouritenga found their homes flooded in early June, they could not have known the significance the incident would hold for the rest of the region and in fact the continent. It was one of the first instances of flooding that would within three months affect 1.5 million people in Africa -- more than 680,000 of them in West Africa. And some governments and aid groups in the region say the relief effort has been slow off the mark. While the Burkina flooding might have been unexpected for residents, it likely was not surprising for meteorologists who had forecast heavier rains – in more unusual places – in the Sahel this season.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74461

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