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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 408 for 22 - 28 December 2007
Source: IRIN
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DAKAR, 28 December 2007 (IRIN) - ContentsNIGERIA: Laptops-in-schools debate turns messy
SENEGAL: Neither
war nor peace in Casamance after 25 years
CHAD: Child soldiers forcibly mobilised not demobilised
NIGERIA: At least three killed in clashes between farmers, nomads
MAURITANIA: Fistula - a medical
and cultural problem
NIGERIA: Local and international rights groups at odds over 'secret executions'
COTE D'IVOIRE: River blindness is back
CHAD: Should the new international force be 'neutral' or
'impartial'? NIGERIA: Laptops-in-schools debate turns messyA scheme to give one million low-cost laptops to Nigerian schoolchildren has stalled because some policymakers say the money would be
better spent on other educational projects, while government officials and private computer companies have actively worked to undermine the project, its manager told IRIN full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76023SENEGAL: Neither war nor peace in Casamance after 25 years The assassination of the presidential peace envoy to Senegal's troubled Casamance
region in December will not derail the peace process, government officials say, yet according to observers the peace process is dragging and 25 years after the start of the secessionist rebellion the
region remains in a state of neither war no peace. full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76015 CHAD: Child soldiers forcibly mobilised not demobilised hild soldiers forcibly
mobilised not demobilised A UN programme to demobilise hundreds of child soldiers in Chad has been on hold since November following the resurgence of fighting between the army and rebel groups in
the east. full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76001 NIGERIA: At least three killed in clashes between farmers, nomads At least three people have been killed and nine
seriously injured in a clash between farmers and nomads over grazing land in Borno state, northern Nigeria, police and eyewitnesses said. full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76000 MAURITANIA: Fistula – a medical and cultural problem Efforts to reduce cases of obstetric fistula in Mauritania have been slowed by local
customs and beliefs. "Fistula is seen as a punishment," said Jacques Milliez, a gynaecologist who travels to Mauritania twice a year as part of a treatment programme. full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75999 NIGERIA : Local and international rights groups at odds over 'secret executions'
Local human rights groups in Nigeria have disputed
claims by Amnesty International that seven prisoners executed for armed robbery and murder did not receive proper trials. full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75998 COTE
D'IVOIRE: River blindness is back
The parasitic disease river blindness, once thought to have been eradicated from Côte d'Ivoire, has re-emerged in some regions following years of armed conflict
that wiped out mechanisms for surveillance and control, health officials say. full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75991 CHAD: Should the international force be 'neutral' or
'impartial'? A new European Union force and UN mission set to deploy in Chad are mandated to protect aid groups assisting hundreds of thousands of people, amid violence by armed bandits, militias,
rebels, soldiers and some foreign fighters. But humanitarian officials in Chad are concerned that if the mission does not remain distinct and separate from relief efforts it risks undermining them. full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75987© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org
