CONTENTS:, 29 December (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

BURKINA FASO: Arsenic poisoning wells NIGERIA: Emergency response to pipeline blast mostly a national affair BURKINA FASO: Fragile democracy being tested GUINEA: EU aid back but social problems remain

BURKINA FASO: Arsenic poisoning wells

With signs that people are developing diseases linked to arsenic poisoning, the government said on Thursday that it had turned off pumps to 11 deep-water wells in areas in the north of Burkina Faso where water is particular scare, adding that it may still have to close down hundreds more wells. "People were coming to our health centres with skin diseases in abnormally high numbers," regional director for health in the north, Moussa Dadjouari, told IRIN on Friday. "So we conducted investigations and found that it was linked to drinking water."

Full report http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56880 and SelectRegion=West_Africa and SelectCountry=BURKINA_FASO

NIGERIA: Emergency response to pipeline blast mostly a national affair

The Nigerian Red Cross took the lead in responding to the latest pipeline blast in Lagos on Tuesday that killed at least 269 people and left scores of others severely burned. "We were the first to get first aid to survivors at the site," said Umoh Okon, a spokeswoman of the local humanitarian organisation, told IRIN in Lagos. With more than 2,000 Nigerians killed in pipeline fires in the past decade, the organization has had plenty of experience in dealing with such disasters. "We have volunteers on the ground trained in emergency aid," Okon said.

Full report http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56870 and SelectRegion=West_Africa and SelectCountry=NIGERIA

BURKINA FASO: Fragile democracy being tested

Clashes last week between the military and police in Burkina Faso's capital underlined the fragile state of democracy in that country, local analysts warn. In attacks initially written off as a tit-for-tat retaliation for the police killing a national army soldier, police headquarters in central Ouagadougou came under heavy machine gun and rocket fire for over 24 hours last week.

Full report http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56857 and SelectRegion=West_Africa and SelectCountry=BURKINA_FASO

GUINEA: EU aid back but social problems remain

The European Union and Guinea signed a deal on Friday to turn the spigot on EU aid for the first time in four years, but transparency and economic issues still dog the country's creaking post-socialist economy, and the aid will not dent the main concerns of powerful unions that called strikes twice this year

Full report

http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56840 and SelectRegion=West_Africa and SelectCountry=GUINEA

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