ABATETE, 3 November 2009 (IRIN) - Severe erosion over many years in Anambra, southeastern Nigeria, has cut off or destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses, farms and schools, prompting the governor to call for a state of emergency in the area where he says thousands of people now risk being displaced.
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NOUAKCHOTT, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - At the health centre in Dar Naim, a working class neighbourhood of Nouakchott, the building for malnourished children is always full: in rural areas the seasons and crops affect malnutrition levels whereas in the capital this phenomenon remains constant throughout the year.
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NOUAKCHOTT, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Adama Ndiaye, 20, is originally from the Kaédi region in the south of Mauritania – one of the regions worst affected by malnutrition. After losing her first two children she decided to go to the capital Nouakchott to care for her twins and her youngest child.
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DAKAR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam.
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DAKAR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Dengue fever continues to spread in Cape Verde, with 748 new suspected cases announced by the government on 4 November bringing the total to 6,707. Health officials say at least three people have died in the country’s first-ever epidemic of the mosquito-borne illness.
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ZIGUINCHOR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Landmines and armed attacks in Senegal’s Casamance region are preventing farmers from maximizing production from the region’s fertile soil, but there is another problem, too: not enough young people are taking up farming, residents and experts say.
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NOUAKCHOTT, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - People living with HIV in Mauritania are voicing their concerns about the suspension of HIV/AIDS funding by the World Bank and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. They feel powerless in the face of the decisions, of which they are suffering the consequences.
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DAKAR, 6 November 2009 (IRIN) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.
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