TOGO: Disputed vote spawns fears
 LOMÉ, 7 March 2010 (IRIN) - An empty market, tightened security and a general wariness of possible violence have greeted the announcement of President Fauré Gnassingbé’s re-election, pending constitutional court approval, with 61 percent of the two million votes cast on 4 March. full report |
|
NIGERIA: More mass graves dug in Jos
 ABUJA, 8 March 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of people in the city of Jos, 350km northeast of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, have been buried in mass graves after machete-wielding intruders attacked residents at 3 a.m. (local time) on 7 March. full report |
|
HAITI: Women at risk in the camps
 PORT-AU-PRINCE, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - Many women at the Jean-Marie Vincent site for displaced people (IDPs) in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince wash themselves inside their makeshift tents because the only alternative is to do so out in the open. Given the overcrowding and meagre security, this exposes them to the risk of attack or rape. full report |
|
HAITI: Josephine, "I won't leave until I point out the rapists to the police"
 PORT-AU-PRINCE, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - Josephine*, 17, was living alone on the streets of Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit. She lost the few belongings she had - mostly clothes. She now stays at the Jean-Marie Vincent camp for displaced families. full report |
|
NIGERIA: Violence delays polio vaccinations
 DAKAR, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - A polio vaccination campaign in the violence-wracked central Nigerian city of Jos has been delayed until 13 March due to the violence and a recent health worker strike, aid workers said. full report |
|
CHAD: Hungry season sets in early
 DAKAR, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - The poorest households in Chad will find themselves with no food reserves in the coming weeks, according to the US famine early warning systems network, FEWSNET. full report |
|
CHAD: Wipe out corruption, wipe out polio
 DAKAR, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - It costs more to vaccinate a child in Chad against polio - almost 70 US cents per child - than in any other country in the world at risk of polio outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). full report |
|
NIGER: Southern villages emptying as drought bites
 TANOUT, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - "Empty" increasingly describes villages around the southern Niger town of Tanout in Zinder Region: Water wells and pastures, fields and food banks - and slowly - entire villages, are emptying. full report |
|
NIGER: More needed to avoid catastrophe
 NIAMEY/ZINDER, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - A severe food and malnutrition crisis is looming in Niger, according to aid agencies. More than 20,000 under-five children are being treated for malnutrition nationwide and at least another 200,000 are at risk of severe malnutrition, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). full report |
|
HAITI: Don't forget the elderly
 PORT-AU-PRINCE, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - Elderly people need more attention in the response to January's earthquake in Haiti and more appreciation of the role they can play in the relief effort, say aid workers. full report |
|
WEST AFRICA: Fewer meningitis cases but more deadly
 DAKAR, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - This year there are less than half the reported meningitis infections than in the same period in 2009, but more patients are dying - 13 percent in 2010 versus 8 percent in 2009 - according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Multi-Disease Surveillance Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, which tracks 14 countries prone to meningitis outbreaks between Senegal and Ethiopia. full report |
|