
IRIN

26/09/2008
Local government officials say cholera outbreaks across Katsina, Zamfara, Bauchi and Kano states in northern Nigeria have killed 97 people in the past two weeks, making it the worst outbreak in the north for several years, according to an official from National Primary Healthcare Agency (NPHA) in Abuja.
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IRIN

26/09/2008
Alleged terrorist attacks on 14 September in Tourine in the northeast killed 11 soldiers and their civilian guide, confirmed Mauritania’s newly-installed defence ministry on 20 September. Analysts say the economy can ill-afford this additional blow in the face of donor sanction threats. The European Union (EU), US government and World [...]

IRIN

26/09/2008
With cervical cancer cases rising across Sub-Saharan Africa, and 80 percent of women diagnosed too late to stop the cancer’s deadly spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending screening and vaccination programmes throughout the region. “WHO is going to strongly advocate with donors and decision-makers to list cervical [...]

IRIN

26/09/2008
Nine West African countries shot up while nine others sank lower in the 2008 Transparency International (TI) ranking of perceptions of corruption in 180 countries. Of the 180 countries surveyed, eight West African countries placed in the bottom 20: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, [...]

IRIN

26/09/2008
Guinea fell five spots in the 2008 ranking of perceptions of corruption released by the watchdog non-profit Transparency International (TI). Officials say Guinea’s deteriorating reputation for corruption can threaten city services, choke economic growth and increase drug trafficking. Guinea’s TI representative, Mamadou Taran Diallo, told IRIN Guinea is paralysed [...]

IRIN

26/09/2008
Thousands of young girls annually prepare for their initiation into a women’s secret association, Sande Society, which operates mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. As part of their initiation, young women take a vow of secrecy after weeks of training in the forest, promising not to not tell uninitiated [...]

IRIN

26/09/2008
For 17 years, the Sweden-based non-profit Eden Foundation has been working with hundreds of farmers in one of Niger’s most arid zones to disprove the reigning logic that the desert is a tough place to nurture plant- and human- life through its research and free seed distribution. Coordinator Josef Garvi [...]

IRIN

26/09/2008
Poor rains and rising rice prices have contributed to increasing malnutrition to alarming levels in at least three regions of Senegal. Following a rapid assessment in July 2008 by the UN and the Ministry of Health, the government has confirmed a malnutrition crisis in three of the five surveyed regions, [...]

IRIN

26/09/2008
The Nigerian government has announced it is unprepared for the tens of thousands of returnees who have fled the southern Bakassi province over the past month, and is calling on the UN to help it handle the unexpected return. Up to 76,000 returnees have registered at 12 sites in Akwa [...]

IRIN

26/09/2008
Unless the Chad government includes rebels in reconciliation talks, the country will continue to face security threats and political crises, says the International Crisis Group (ICG) in its 25 September report. A permanent ceasefire has eluded the violence-wracked country even after numerous rounds of government-rebel peace negotiations since conflict [...]