DAKAR, 17 August 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

NIGERIA: Uneasy calm restored in Port Harcourt GUINEA: Military warns of more protests if demands not met NIGERIA: Tens of thousands languishing in prison awaiting trial SIERRA LEONE: Judiciary prepares for post-election disputes NIGER-NIGERIA: Polio down 80 percent with remaining cases blamed on borders BURKINA FASO: Govt responds to nutrition critics with money, promises LIBERIA: Sea destroys homes in coastal communities SENEGAL: Rains come late, cause widespread flooding CHAD: People flee villages as Lake Lere overflows MAURITANIA: Health and sanitation next obstacle after flooding WEST AFRICA: Region making headway on food fortification COTE D'IVOIRE: Floods wipe out water source for hundreds of people NIGER: Despite security assurances, mines keep aid agencies out of north BURKINA FASO: Communities wiped out by countrywide flooding COTE D'IVOIRE: Authorities work to stamp out uncontrolled sale of medicines

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NIGERIA: Uneasy calm restored in Port Harcourt

The army appeared to be in charge again in Nigeria's southern city of Port Harcourt a day after gun fights had erupted across the city causing many residents to flee their homes. "The soldiers are everywhere in the city and they are very serious," said a local driver George Aneh in Port Harcourt who IRIN reached by telephone on 17 August. "On every corner you see civilians getting out of the cars with their hands up as soldiers check for weapons," he said. "The soldiers don't look at you in the face or even have an interest in taking bribes." Traffic was lighter than normal in Port Harcourt, he said, but banks and shops were all open again for business. Despite the heavy military presence, the government has reportedly said the city was not under a state of emergency. According to various press reports the government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on 17 August and Aneh said in the evening the city had grown eerily quiet. Fighting broke out in the early hours of 16 August after the military launched an attack in the Makoba district of the city on what was believed to have been a hideout of militia leader Soboma George. At least 32 people died in the fighting, most of them militia fighters, including George, according to various reports attributed to the government.

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GUINEA: Military warns of more protests if demands not met

Guinean soldiers warn they could stage fresh protests within weeks if the government fails to meet demands that were at the centre of military-led riots in May that left two people dead and several injured. Soldiers say they are giving the government until 8 September to pay long-overdue salaries. "After that deadline, we'll make ourselves heard as we did in May," said one sergeant major who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid problems with superiors. Many soldiers IRIN spoke to echoed this position. Demanding back salary and the dismissal of top military officials, soldiers rioted in the capital, Conakry, and in two other towns, shooting into the air and strafing a residential area with machine guns, killing at least two people. The bulk of the soldiers' demands have yet to be met, military sources told IRIN. "What we want is to obtain, at the end of this month, what is our due, as promised by the government under [President] Lansana Conte." He said soldiers will refuse their salary for this month. "We have decided not to touch our money at the end of this month to protest the failure to meet the commitments made by our leaders." The military has long demanded back salaries, the reintegration of soldiers sacked after a rebellion in 1996 and promotions. Troops want the government to give them 300 billion CFA francs (US$77 million) Conte allegedly promised them to end the 1996 mutiny.

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NIGERIA: Tens of thousands languishing in prison awaiting trial

About 60 percent of inmates in Nigerian prisons await trial, often for years, in unsanitary, overcrowded conditions, human rights groups and UN officials say. Of Nigeria's 40,000 or so prisoners, 25,000 have never been convicted of a crime, and remain in prison up to 14 years without going to court. "In some prisons, the conditions of inmates awaiting trial are worse than the inmates on death row," said Aster van Kregten, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International and part of a delegation who visited 10 prisons in the states of Enugu, Kano and Lagos, and in the Federal Capital Territory at the end of July. "We were quite shocked." Amnesty International found cells of 200 inmates with only two toilets, often overflowing by the end of each day; boys as young as 11 held in cells with adult men; and rampant disease, including tuberculosis, malaria and rabies. "In almost every cell people were sleeping on the floor," van Kregten told IRIN. "Many inmates do have a bed, but don't have a mattress." She added that in many cases those awaiting trial were allowed outside for fresh air only once a week.

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SIERRA LEONE: Judiciary prepares for post-election disputes

As results trickle in from Sierra Leone's presidential and parliamentary elections on 11 August, losing parties are likely to challenge the results in court. The problem is that the country is still emerging from a civil war and its institutions - particularly the judiciary - remain weak. "The perception of the judiciary as unjust and subservient to the executive is still very strong," said a report issued in July by the International Crisis Group. The UK-based Chatham House issued its own report earlier in the year describing the judiciary as "easily corrupted". The country's 2004 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report concluded that the country's weak judiciary had been one of the root causes of the war which ravaged the country from 1991-2002. The Commission recommended that the government focus resources on improving the overall performance of the judiciary, but observers contacted by IRIN all agreed that the recommendations had gone largely unheeded. Against this background, electoral officials are concerned that even though local and international observers generally deemed the elections free and fair, the credibility of the results could still be in jeopardy. "Election matters have to be dealt with with sufficient dispatch," Reginald Fynn, legal expert at the National Electoral Commission (NEC) told IRIN. Josehine Koroma, deputy executive director of the Network Movement For Justice And Development, told IRIN: "The [judicial] system here is very slow and if you have to wait for a long time it could lead to something disastrous in this country."

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NIGER-NIGERIA: Polio down 80 percent with remaining cases blamed on borders

The chances that polio could be eradicated from the world seem to be rising with dramatically fewer cases reported in Nigeria, the country where the disease has been most endemic in the world, yet coordination with bordering countries remains a weak link in the chain, polio experts say. "A lot of people move from one side of the border [between Nigeria and Niger] to the other and so [when there is a vaccination campaign] many children may be missed," UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s communications chief in Nigeria Christine Jaulmes, told IRIN. UNICEF in Nigeria facilitated meetings in August between government and aid officials from Niger, which shares a 1,000 kilometre border with northern Nigeria, where most of the world's cases of polio have been reported in recent years. Of the 2,000 cases reported around the world in 2006, 1,125 were from Nigeria , according to figures provided by the Polio Eradication Initiative. Yet as of 10 August only 156 cases had been reported in Nigeria in 2007, compared with 753 cases on the same date in 2006, Jaulmes said.

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BURKINA FASO: Govt responds to nutrition critics with money, promises

Burkina Faso's health ministry has responded to criticism by international aid organisations of its malnutrition policies, which have led to a 10-year downward slide of malnutrition rates among children, by calling on them to join it in a new coordinated effort. "For the first time, a budget is going to be allocated to combat malnutrition [and this money will be used by all departments]," Sylvestre Tapsoba, the health ministry official in charge of nutrition, announced to IRIN in an exclusive interview last week, following a cabinet-level meeting attended by the President and Prime Minister on malnutrition in July. The health ministry will form a National Committee of Consultation on Nutrition, Tapsoba said, which will include the agriculture, hydraulics and fisheries, women's promotion, education and defence ministries, as well as non-governmental organisations and international organisations. Nutritionists will be placed in the 13 health zones around the country, and surveillance among pregnant women and young children will be improved. The health ministry will also conduct health surveys every two years, and set up early warning posts in high-risk areas during the five-month lean season which happens every summer, Tapsoba said. "We hope to use the decentralised services of government ministries and NGOs to reach communities and sensitize them and to gather acute cases before it is too late," he said. "All partners are asked to help the government finance this fight, because whatever the government does, it cannot do it alone."

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LIBERIA: Sea destroys homes in coastal communities

More than 700 people are homeless in Liberia after ocean waves slammed coastline communities, destroying more than 100 homes and other structures. "We have been confronted with increasing high tides…wiping away most human settlements along the beaches," Daniel Clarke, head of the Liberian Red Cross Society, told IRIN. He called the situation "a disaster". Between 30 July and 2 August, rising sea levels damaged homes and property in fishing villages in Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount and Montsserado counties, according to a recent report by the UN mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Since then, on 14 August, a wave wiped out eight houses in a shanty town in the capital, Monrovia, leaving 86 people without shelter. Clarke said the Red Cross has so far registered more than 700 people displaced by the coastal destruction and the count continues.

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SENEGAL: Rains come late, cause widespread flooding

Heavy rains are reportedly flooding towns in the centre and north of the country causing damage to homes and crops. "After a slow start to the [rainy] season in Senegal, rainfall has become torrential, especially in a narrow band across the northern portion of the country," according to the Weather Hazards Impacts Assessment issues for 9 to 15 August from Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) ."Localized flooding is possible during the next week as rivers are likely swollen and soils saturated." The town of Thies reportedly received 127 millimetres of rain on the night of 13 August. Several neighbourhoods in low areas were affected, according to local correspondent for the Senegalese newspaper Wal Fadjri. The local government announced that some 123 families have lost their homes. The government has reportedly started providing emergency assistance.

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CHAD: People flee villages as Lake Lere overflows

In southwest Chad heavy rains on 9 August caused Lake Lere to overflow, flooding homes in dozens of surrounding villages. People are now wading through water in search of dry land, witnesses told IRIN. "I have seen terrible things," a driver in Pala village in the Department Mayo Dallah, Galria Zoutene, told IRIN by telephone. "The worst has been at the village of Tikem where everything has been wiped away." People have been carried away by the floods, he added. "The body of a girl from the village of Goigoudoum was only found two days after she disappeared." The Secretary General of Mayo Dallah, Tchindebe Lama, is appealing for food, blankets, tents and other basic provisions. The central government said it will soon make a request for international assistance. "We cannot deal with the situation alone," the minister of social action, national solidarity and the family, Ngarmbatina Carmel Sou VI, told IRIN. "The situation is very widespread and serious," she said. Flooding is also occurring some 400 kilometres east of Lake Lere, around the town of Am Timan, where local authorities have issued a communiqué saying the Bhar Azoum River is set to burst its banks and flood the town.

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MAURITANIA: Health and sanitation next obstacle after flooding

A community in south-eastern Mauritania desperately needs latrines and potable water after a flash flood wiped out its water and health infrastructure, leaving the population vulnerable to disease, government and UN officials say. Up to two-thirds of Tintane's population of 16,000 lost their homes and are living in tents and makeshift shelters in five temporary sites – none of which have latrines. "They defecate on the street, right beside their tents even," said Niang Saidou Doro of the Mauritanian Ministry of Health. "It's a risk." Heavy rains beginning 7 August killed two people, left an unconfirmed number missing and displaced up to 2,500 families in Tintane, a Sahelian town in a valley at the foot of the El-Aguer mountain chain in Mauritania's Hodh El-Gharbi region. The flooding destroyed homes, knocked over trees, and wiped out crucial infrastructure, including a dam, the health centre and over three kilometres of water pipes. "The whole sanitary system has been destroyed," Didier Laye, interim UN resident coordinator for Mauritania, told IRIN. "Potable water and health are the top priorities." "The main problem now is not with food,"added Nicole Jacquet, deputy country director for the World Food Programme (WFP). "The main problem is with water, because the canal aqueduct has been destroyed... We are worried the water is not drinkable." The government and foreign donors have provided emergency food for the displaced people, and the WFP has food stocks to last at least one month.

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WEST AFRICA: Region making headway on food fortification

Basic nutrients people need to survive have been added to food around the world for almost a century, but West Africa is only now leading the way for the same life-saving technique to be rolled out in Africa, although experts warn it is just one small component in combating under-nutrition. "West Africa has made more progress in food fortification than anywhere else on the continent except possibly South Africa," said Shawn Baker, West Africa regional director of the non-governmental organisation Helen Keller International (HKI). However "it is important not to oversell it," he emphasised. "Large-scale food fortification is not going to solve all the region's problems, but the levels of deficiency in West Africa are huge and I think the large-scale programs like this do nonetheless help in making an overall reduction."

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COTE D'IVOIRE: Floods wipe out water source for hundreds of people

Nearly 2,000 people in the Ivorian city of Agboville are struggling to find drinking water after sewage-filled flood waters poisoned wells that had been their sole source of water. "[Health workers] are telling us not to drink water from the wells, but we don't know where else we're going to find water," N'Guessan Pacone, 30, told IRIN by phone from Agboville, located about 90km from the commercial capital, Abidjan. N'Guessan's and hundreds of other residents' homes were severely damaged in the floods and their belongings destroyed. Residents say diarrhoea, malaria, and other illnesses are spreading in the area. Over 1,000 people are still displaced from floods that hit the riverside neighbourhoods on 27 July, local sources said. Most people in the area do not have running water and get their water from wells in their yards. Many of the families' wells might have to be destroyed, according to an official with the mayor's office. "The flood has contaminated these wells and hygiene experts say it's probably not possible to treat and rehabilitate them," said Ablo Gnamien Anatole, head of civil protection, public hygiene and environment. Most people in the area dump raw sewage into water channels, which overflowed in the recent flooding, Ablo said.

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NIGER: Despite security assurances, mines keep aid agencies out of north

The mayor of a remote city in lawless northern Niger last week appealed for help with severe hunger and flood-related damage, but humanitarians are struggling to respond because mines recently laid by anti-government fighters have made the city unreachable. "We got a request from the mayor who said they have a humanitarian crisis due to floods and the security situation which has cut the city off," said International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesperson Marcel Izard. "There are a number of people needing assistance and food," he said. But Iferouane, 1,000km northeast of the capital Niamey, is at the heart of a remote area where the Nigerien army and some foreign mining companies have been targeted by an armed group called the National Movement for Justice (MNJ) since February this year. The army and MNJ have given the ICRC security guarantees and offered to guide its staff around the mined areas, but Izard said aid still will not get through. "We are not concerned about either the rebels or the army, only the antipersonnel and antitank mines. We have already had security guarantees from both sides but the mines make it very unsafe to go because the floods mean the mines could have shifted, even if we are told exactly where they were laid," Izard explained.

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BURKINA FASO: Communities wiped out by countrywide flooding

A humanitarian crisis may be emerging in Burkina Faso with rains destroying people's homes and farmland in several areas across the country, the government's top crisis management expert said on 13 August. "We are making a cry from the heart for help," Amade Belem, the permanent secretary for the national council for emergency aid, told IRIN. "The situation is chaotic as in some areas we have never seen such heavy rains before," he said. "Many people have lost everything." "We are a long way from being able to meet their needs." The north He said one of the worst-affected areas is the north province of Loroum, where flooding has washed away houses, schools and other infrastructure in 14 villages. On 5 August two-thirds of all houses in the village of Banh were washed away after rain fell non-stop for 13 hours. Some 3,500 people were made homeless. Some 450 of them are now living in the local schools. Unless alternative housing is found, communities might not be able to start the school year a planned on September 15. The government has appealed for 1,500 tents but has so far only received four, Belem said. He added that there is also an urgent need for medicine, water purification chemicals and bed sheets. He said the situation is likely to deteriorate in the coming days as the forecast is for more rain. The national Red Cross told IRIN it is making its own assessment of the situation in the north on 14 August.

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COTE D'IVOIRE: Authorities work to stamp out uncontrolled sale of medicines

People in the Ivorian commercial capital, Abidjan, can be seen leaving the doctor's office, prescription in hand, heading not to the pharmacy but to Roxy market in the Adjame neighbourhood, where the same medicines can be had for a fraction of the price. That is a problem, according to health officials who recently launched a campaign to stem the uncontrolled sale of prescription drugs. "When people buy medicines in the streets it poses many problems, including inappropriate medicines for the condition, incorrect dosage, lack of knowledge of interactions with other medicines, and lack of surveillance by a medical professional," said World Health Organization spokesperson Daniela Bagozzi. She added, "It's part of an overall problem of the supply of quality medicines in the developing world." Risks Cote d'Ivoire, like other countries across the continent, is battling a flood of counterfeit drugs – products that range from mixtures of toxic substances to inactive, ineffective concoctions. But piled next to these on market tables are also medicines that belong in the pharmacies but make their way into street vendors' hands. Often through a lack of controls, prescription drugs end up in the market, where they are not stored properly and might be sold after their expiration date, health officials say. In Cote d'Ivoire, medicines are also making it to the black market through theft either by bandits or by workers who make off with drug stocks and sell them.

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