WEST AFRICA: Remittances set to fall in 2009
DAKAR, 11 November 2008 (IRIN) - For the first time in over a decade remittances to sub-Saharan Africa are set to fall in 2009, increasing people’s vulnerability to poverty, officials at the World Bank say. Remittance income in developing countries is expected to decline by about 1 percent from 2008 to 2009.
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CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Bakassi’s displaced in flux, peninsula vulnerable
ABUJA, 24 October 2008 (IRIN) - A 18 October rebel attack on the Bakassi peninsula exposes the region’s continued vulnerability to “insurgency, piracy and unruliness,” according to a UN senior officer who coordinates the Cameroon Nigeria Mixed Commission that oversaw the handover of the peninsula from Nigerian to Cameroonian authorities on 14 August.
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WEST AFRICA: Taking on climate change as a region
COTONOU, 23 October 2008 (IRIN) - Climate experts and ministers in West Africa have committed to coordinating national efforts to fight climate change, at the conclusion of an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting in Benin’s economic capital, Cotonou, on 22 October.
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WEST AFRICA: Region among the world’s hungriest
DAKAR, 14 October 2008 (IRIN) - The 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI) says sub-Saharan African countries have the highest level of hunger in the world, with Niger, Sierra Leone and Liberia experiencing “extremely alarming levels of hunger,” however, this is still an improvement over 1990 levels.
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WEST AFRICA: Voices from exile
DAKAR, 13 October 2008 (IRIN) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has appealed to international donors not to cut back on aid to humanitarian programmes amid a global financial crisis that has shuttered financial institutions in rich countries. At the conclusion of UNHCR’s annual meeting in Geneva from 6-10 October, Guterres said refugees remain the most vulnerable victims of the global economic fallout.
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CAMEROON-CHAD: Heaviest-ever rain season predicted
DOUALA, 3 October 2008 (IRIN) - Up to 70,000 people have been affected by flooding in northwestern Cameroon and southern Chad; based on meteorological data, disaster workers with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) predict a longer and wetter rain season than normal.
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CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Bakassi returnees overwhelm authorities
ABUJA, 11 September 2008 (IRIN) - Up to 100,000 Nigerians displaced from Bakassi in southern Nigeria are sheltering in makeshift camps 10 kilometres away in the state of Akwa Ibom. More keep arriving according to the Nigerian Red Cross, leading local authorities to fear an impending humanitarian crisis.
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WEST AFRICA: Forced mass deportations, violence against migrants on rise
DAKAR, 5 September 2008 (IRIN) - Participants wrapping up the two-day "Stakeholders in Migration" conference on migration in West Africa organised by non-profit Open Society Institute (OSI) said clandestine migration from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and Europe has prompted increased border crackdowns, abuses and killings of migrants.
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CAMEROON: Rapid intervention military unit strays from its mission
DOUALA, 29 August 2008 (IRIN) - In 2001 the Cameroonian government created a special rapid intervention battalion (BIR) to quell hostage-taking and looting by criminal gangs operating on its eastern and northern borders, but this force is now straying from its original mission, causing anger among human rights groups.
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WEST AFRICA: Coastline to be submerged by 2099
ACCRA, 25 August 2008 (IRIN) - Swathes of West Africa’s coastline extending from the orange dunes in Mauritania to the dense tropical forests in Cameroon will be underwater by the end of the century as a direct consequence of climate change, environmental experts warn.
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