GHANA: Police gear up to prevent election violence
ACCRA, 21 November 2008 (IRIN) - As Ghana counts down to its presidential and parliamentary elections on 7 December, the national police service says it has identified 1,399 violence-prone areas which could see unrest.
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GHANA: Meningitis outbreak kills 10
ACCRA, 14 November 2008 (IRIN) - Ten people have been confirmed dead and two are hospitalised following an outbreak of meningitis in north-central Ghana. Local authorities have closed down schools and banned all public gatherings.
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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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GHANA: Locals hail EU pact to end illegal logging
ACCRA, 7 November 2008 (IRIN) - A long queue of trucks loaded with timber, freshly sawed from Ghana's fast-depleting forests, lines up at Accra’s Tema Harbour to offload to ships bound for Europe.
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GHANA: Government expands cash handouts
ACCRA, 29 October 2008 (IRIN) - The Ghanaian government, backed by the World Bank, is expanding a cash handout programme to help families hit hardest by global food price hikes. But some local development experts question whether the approach has lasting benefits.
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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: Train the soldiers, protect the children
DAKAR, 17 October 2008 (IRIN) - An international NGO is using cartoons to spell out to African soldiers the rights and wrongs of how to treat a child.
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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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SAHEL: Voices from clandestinity
AGADEZ, 9 October 2008 (IRIN) - The International Organization for Migration estimates that up to 35,000 sub-Saharan clandestine migrants leave for North Africa and Europe every year. But researchers concede the near impossibility to track what is carried out in secrecy, facilitated by family connections and favours, bribes and beatings. Despite increased security crackdowns and forced mass expulsions by North African security forces, thousands of West African migrants still attempt the desert crossing from northern Niger through the gateway town of Agadez. The following migrants IRIN met asked to remain anonymous.
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WEST AFRICA: Migrants risk all to cross desert
AGADEZ, 9 October 2008 (IRIN) - Sub-Saharan migrants continue attempting dangerous and illegal crossings into Libya and Algeria. They pick their way through Niger’s Air mountains, circumventing a mountain rebellion, increased mountain banditry, and North African border crackdowns, according to migrants and smugglers in Niger’s mountain gateway town of Agadez.
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