WEST AFRICA: Another stab at the "resource curse"
DAKAR, 2 July 2009 (IRIN) - In Africa billions of dollars from oil, gas and mining revenues go missing, leaving populations dependent on international assistance, according to a new report on natural resource use on the continent.
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WEST AFRICA: A watchdog for children
DAKAR, 24 June 2009 (IRIN) - In the 20 years since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted, all West African countries have ratified it. But ratification has not translated into better living conditions for some of the region’s children, according to the UN. Education, food, employment, shelter and freedom from war conscription and trafficking are not guaranteed; where laws to protect children against hate and violence exist, they are only sporadically enforced, according to child rights NGOs.
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WEST AFRICA: West Africa faces yellow fever vaccine shortage
DAKAR, 27 May 2009 (IRIN) - Up to 150 million people in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria could be at risk of contracting yellow fever says the World Health Organization, as the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Yellow Fever Vaccine says it has just a quarter of the US$186 million it needs to vaccinate people in 12 at-risk countries.
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In Brief: Polio campaign to target ‘at-risk’ Liberia
MONROVIA, 26 May 2009 (IRIN) - Liberia – declared polio-free since 2006– will be among 11 West African countries covered in a vaccination campaign to be launched 29 May by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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NIGERIA: More children than ever immunised against polio
DAKAR, 20 May 2009 (IRIN) - In polio-prone states in northern Nigeria more children than ever have received the polio vaccine and fewer children are being missed than in previous campaigns, according to the World Health Organization.
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WEST AFRICA: “Pleasure hospital” under construction for FGM/C victims
BOBO-DIOULASSO, 6 May 2009 (IRIN) - Construction has begun of West Africa’s first clinic for reconstructing clitorises for victims of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Amid high demand, the US non-profit Clitoraid is funding the clinic, dubbed “Pleasure Hospital”, in Bobo-Dioulasso, western Burkina Faso.
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TOGO: Alleged coup attempt tests country’s stability
LOME, 6 May 2009 (IRIN) - Tensions surrounding the recent arrest of the Togolese president’s brother on coup-plotting charges and the detention of other civilians will test reconciliation efforts in the country, still recovering from 2005 election violence, civil society leaders say.
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TOGO: Flood preparations underway as first storms hit
LOME, 5 May 2009 (IRIN) - Battered by rainstorms in the north in 2007 and the south in 2008, Togo is bracing for even more severe flood damage in 2009, disaster relief officials in the country told IRIN.
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WEST AFRICA: Regional bodies, governments gear up H1N1 influenza response
DAKAR, 1 May 2009 (IRIN) - The World Health Organization’s Africa regional office has created a crisis management team to monitor the spread of influenza A/H1N1 virus, as WHO in Geneva raised the global influenza pandemic alert level to phase 5 – just short of a full pandemic. In West Africa regional organisations and governments are diffusing flu prevention information and gearing up to cope in case of an outbreak. No case of the influenza A/H1N1 virus has been detected in the region to date.
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WEST AFRICA: Health workers inch toward eliminating polio
DAKAR, 29 April 2009 (IRIN) - Nigeria has confirmed 193 polio cases in 2009 but as the latest round of vaccinations comes to a close international polio experts say they are gaining ground in the fight to eliminate polio in Nigeria.
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