DAKAR, 24 August 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

BURKINA FASO: Census shows population growth rising CHAD: Revised plan for peacekeeping raises concern COTE D'IVOIRE: Health care fees up for discussion GUINEA: Cholera epidemic multiplying despite intense efforts

LIBERIA: Government hunger strategy signifies shift to development MALI: Thousands of flood victims could be stranded when schools reopen NIGER: Floods wreak havoc across the country NIGER: Migration benefits still seen to outweigh risks NIGERIA: Lull in Port Harcourt fighting is likely to be temporary NIGERIA: Construction of hundreds of local health centres suspended

BURKINA FASO: Census shows population growth rising

Burkina Faso's population is growing increasingly rapidly largely because every woman in the country bears on average seven children, according to national census results published in August. Burkina Faso has a population of 13.31 million which is expanding by 2.95 percent every year, the census showed. If the current growth rate continues, the country, which is among the very poorest in the world, will be more than 20 million strong by 2020. "The census indicates that between 1996 and 2006 the population grew by 341,000 every year, which is considerable", says Bamory Ouattara, director of the National Institute for Demographics and Statistics (INSD). http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73851

CHAD: Revised plan for peacekeeping raises concern

For humanitarian officials in Chad a revised UN plan for a peacekeeping mission in the east of the country raises more questions than it answers regarding its mandate, rules of engagement and, most importantly, whether it will help or hinder ongoing relief operations in the area. The plan was proposed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 10 August. "Certainly I am pleased that there is a new [international] commitment to have a force as the government's capacity to provide security is almost non-existent," the UN humanitarian coordinator for Chad, Kingsley Amaning, told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73893

COTE D'IVOIRE: Health care fees up for discussion

The Ivorian health ministry is reviewing its policy of charging fees for health services, hearing recommendations from UN agencies, aid groups and other experts on potential changes to the 10-year-old system. The effort comes as aid organisations are lobbying the government to provide free health care, at least to some at-risk groups. The government is "evaluating the health cost recovery system, in place since 1996, to see what has worked and what has not," N'da K. Simeon, head of communications at the Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene, told IRIN. But he said the evaluation is not linked to a debate swirling in Côte d'Ivoire over the merits of free access, saying it is simply time to take stock of a policy that has existed for more than a decade.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73918

GUINEA: Cholera epidemic multiplying despite intense efforts

Almost 1,800 people have been affected by a cholera outbreak in Guinea which has caused 67 deaths, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Conakry. In the same period last year, just 30 cases of cholera were reported, resulting in zero deaths, according to OCHA. "The epidemic is quite serious this year, but the government and humanitarian partners are doing everything they can to treat cases and prevent the spread of the disease in Guinea," Madeleine Maka Kaba, OCHA spokesperson told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73823

LIBERIA: Government hunger strategy signifies shift to development

Liberia is finalising a strategy aimed at boosting the government's capacity to tackle hunger and malnutrition - one pillar of an overall turn towards development after years of stop-gap measures aimed at picking up the pieces from war, observers say. "This is the Liberian government reorienting itself towards development," said researcher Todd Benson of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), who assisted agencies working on the strategy. The national "Food Security and Nutrition Strategy", developed by the government in collaboration with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), identifies how the government will coordinate itself to tackle chronic hunger - a challenge across the region but particularly in Liberia where 14 years of war gutted infrastructure and left massive poverty and malnutrition.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73831

MALI: Thousands of flood victims could be stranded when schools reopen

Malian authorities are scrambling to find alternative shelter for thousands of people who lost their homes in recent floods, more than half of whom are currently living in school buildings. "It's an aspect [of the crisis] that does not attract people's attention but it's a problem all the same," said Idrissa Traoré, chief of operations for the Malian Red Cross. Since the beginning of July, flooding has swept right across Mali – from the western region of Kayes along the border with Senegal to the central regions of Ségou and Mopti, destroying hundreds of homes and killing up to 15 people according to the Malian government.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73808

NIGER: Floods wreak havoc across the country

Large-scale flooding has hit seven of Niger's eight regions, affecting close to 13,000 people across the country – some of whom may be inaccessible to aid organisations, according to the Nigerien government. "The situation is serious," said Hamani Harouna, coordinator of Niger's National Early Warning System for food crises and floods. Since mid-July, rains have flooded at least 36 villages, destroyed close to 1,300 homes and killed three people, Harouna said, adding that 12,979 people are known to have lost their homes, farmlands, or both. Of those, the Nigerien Red Cross estimates that 10,000 people are now homeless and living in schools, although the government does not have an official tally.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73902

NIGER: Migration benefits still seen to outweigh risks

Migration has been an essential mechanism for survival in the harsh climate and erratic agricultural conditions of the Sahara and Sahel regions for as long as people have lived there. Perhaps a third of the 2 million people who live there are considered nomads, according to various statistics. Millions of others travel far and wide to find work during the dry season, sending back money to help their families survive, and then returning home themselves during the rainy season to work, plant and harvest from June to November. But sitting outside the office of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Niger, a group of former migrants recently arrived back in Niger from Libya said migration gave them a life of misery in the Libyan capital Tripoli, battling abusive employers, malaria, and low wages.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73822

NIGERIA: Lull in Port Harcourt fighting is likely to be temporary

Despite heavily armed government troops manning roadblocks and patrolling the streets of Nigeria's main southern oil city Port Harcourt, many locals say the militias which the troops have been fighting, are still located in and around the city and that the current peace is temporary. "What we have here is a war over who controls the various rackets that are going on in this city," Abel Wogu, a Port Harcourt resident and businessman, told IRIN. "Every evening you have people representing the most powerful gang leaders going round the filling stations to collect payments," said Wogu, alleging that the owners of a large petrol station destroyed in August had either failed to pay one of the armed groups or had come under the control of a rival group.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73820

NIGERIA: Construction of hundreds of local health centres suspended

Recently-elected Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua has suspended the construction of 774 healthcare centres throughout his country, drawing questions on how his administration plans to tackle the increasingly dire health care situation in Africa's most populous nation. "Whatever the rights or wrongs of the suspension of the contract… the fact remains that Nigeria has in recent years spent less of its budget per capita on healthcare than any other African government," Ben Foot, programme director for Save the Children in Nigeria said. According to the Nigerian Ministry of Health, the contracts for the building of one health centre in each of the 774 local council districts, which was drawn up during former President Olusegun Obasanjo's tenure, was to be funded by direct monthly deductions from local council accounts.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73917

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