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Refugees from N’djamena still fearful of returning

Photo: Elizabeth Dickinson/IRIN

Only a river separates N’djamena from Kousseri, Cameroon, where thousands fled last week’s violence

KOUSSERI, 14 February 2008 (IRIN) - Fighting ended in Chad’s capital N'djamena almost a week ago but many of the tens of thousands of Chadians who sought refuge across the River Chari in northern Cameroon say they are not planning to return for now.

“We are afraid to go back,” 20-year-old N'djamena resident Patrice Djerane who is camping out near the dusty border town of Kousseri, told IRIN. He went there with his mother while his father remains in N'djamena keeping the family abreast of conditions there. “We’ll go back when peace comes. Until then, we’ll wait.”

Former child soldiers still at risk

Photo: Gabriel Galwak/IRIN

DAKAR, 13 February 2008 (IRIN) - Militias in Cote d'Ivoire have stopped recruiting children into their ranks and all the groups were taken off the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s global list of child recruiters, according to the 2007 annual UN report on children and armed conflict issued in 2008.

"The absence of evidence of recruitment and use of children for military purposes in Cote d’Ivoire, and the revival of the peace process... have justified this measure," Boubacar Dieng, head of the child protection section of the UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI) told IRIN.

Motorcycle pollution causing health risks in Kano city

Photo: Aminu Abubakar/IRIN

Motorbikes in Kano cloud the streets with exhaust fumes

KANO, 12 February 2008 (IRIN) - Motorcycle emissions in northern Nigeria’s Kano city pose serious environmental health risks to residents, according to health and environmental experts, yet the government has refused to pass laws to control the pollution.

The government insists awareness campaigns are enough to right the problem.

At two million mopeds or ‘achabas’ for five million people, the number per capita in Kano exceeds that of any other Nigerian city, according to Ahmed Ibrahim, head of the Kano office of the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC).

Thirty percent less maize by 2030

Photo: Obinna Anyadike/IRIN

Maize is the region's staple food

JOHANNESBURG, 8 February 2008 (IRIN) - As global warming pushes temperatures up and droughts become more intense, the production of maize, southern Africa's staple food, could drop by as much as 30 percent in another two decades, according to a new study.

The study by a group of Stanford University researchers calls on countries to opt for long-term measures like the development of new crop varieties and investment in irrigation, which could help lessen the impact on food production more substantially than shifting planting dates.

Crisis ripple effects felt across the region

Photo: WFP

Aid deliveries to the region are under threat from insecurity in Kenya

NAIROBI, 7 February 2008 (IRIN) - Unrest in Kenya threatens humanitarian and commercial operations throughout the Great Lakes region, potentially affecting more than 100 million lives, according to analysts.

Southern Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have experienced shortages of fuel and other essential supplies because of insecurity along the Kenyan section of the Northern Corridor, one of the most important transport routes in Africa. It runs from the Kenyan port of Mombasa westwards through Uganda and the Great Lakes.

Among aid agencies, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) faces the greatest challenge, feeding seven million vulnerable people in East Africa and the Great Lakes.

Commercial overfishing threatens coastal livilihoods

Photo: Tomas de Mul/IRIN

Fishermen in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, bring in their catch

MAPUTO, 6 February 2008 (IRIN) - Artisanal fishing provides a critical source of food and income to thousands of Mozambicans, but the ever-increasing local and international demand for fish, combined with rapidly depleting stocks, is putting increasing strain on this way of life.

The UN Food and Agriculture Programme (FAO) has estimated that small-scale fishermen, who caught 84,065 tonnes of fish for the domestic market in 2000, will need to catch 171,040 tonnes to help meet local demand by 2025.

The pressure is mounting: Mozambique's shallow coastal waters have been over-fished, its population - 40 percent of whom live on less than one US dollar a day - is growing at 2.4 percent annually, and traditional fishing techniques can no longer compete in a globalised fishing world.