| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
CONTENTS:
SIERRA LEONE: WFP helicopter to run until February 2000 POPULATION: More mothers die in Sierra Leone than elsewhere LIBERIA: Border with Sierra Leone reopened LIBERIA: Telefood campaign launched LIBERIA: Government to review forestry regulations LIBERIA: Cabinet reshuffle LIBERIA: Raking in elusive tax dollars GHANA: Public food sales banned as cholera strikes Kumasi
SIERRA LEONE: WFP helicopter to run until February 2000
The World Food Programme (WFP) has received new funding to operate its emergency humanitarian aid helicopter until the end of February 2000.
"We have received US $702,000 from the United States and US $250,000 from the Netherlands," Wagdi Othman, regional information officer for WFP in Abidjan, told IRIN.
WFP leased the MIL-M18 helicopter at the end of February to airlift humanitarian personnel and emergency food and medical supplies to vulnerable populations in parts of Sierra Leone which were then inaccessible to aid agencies.
POPULATION: More mothers die in Sierra Leone than elsewhere
More women die in Sierra Leone from complications linked to childbirth than in any other country for which such figures are available, according to UN Population Fund (UNFPA) statistics.
The West African nation has a maternal mortality rate of 1,800 per 100,000 live births, UNFPA reports in its State of the World Population 1999 report, released on Tuesday.
The rates for other West African nations are: Nigeria (1,000); Burkina Faso (930); Guinea-Bissau (910); Chad (900); Guinea (880); Mauritania (800); Ghana (740); Togo (640); Cote d'Ivoire(600); Niger (593); Mali (580); Senegal (510) and Benin (500).
Cameroon's rate is 550 per 100,000 live births and Gabon's 500.
LIBERIA: Border with Sierra Leone reopened
Liberia's main border with Sierra Leone was officially reopened after a nine-month closure at a ceremony held on Monday at Bo Waterside, some 100 km northwest of Monrovia, news organisations reported.
According to Radio Liberia International, Defence Minister Daniel Chea said Liberia was reopening the border to help facilitate the peace process in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone's deputy defence minister, Hinga Norman, said the move would strengthen the ties between the two countries, Radio Liberia International reported.
Norman heads Sierra Leone's Civil Defence Force (CDF), which played a significant role in the eight-year war against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, whom Sierra Leone had accused Liberia's government of supporting.
LIBERIA: Telefood campaign launched
A Telefood campaign launched on Saturday in Liberia by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the independent Star radio has received contributions of about 12,000 to 15,000 Liberian dollars a day, an FAO source told IRIN on Tuesday.
"I am amazed by the generosity of the large number of Liberians who want to contribute to the fight against global hunger," FAO country representative in Liberia Kasa Kimoto said. "Although the overall amount is relatively modest, it is a big sacrifice for people who are so poor."
(One US dollar is equivalent to 43 Liberian dollars).
The campaign ends on 16 October.
The telefood programmes - which use television to increase public awareness and raise funds in the fight against global hunger - were started in 1997. That year's campaign raised US $2 million worldwide, while US $4 million was raised in 1998.
In Liberia, the campaign has been adapted somewhat. "As most people do not have televisions we thought that a reputable radio station such as Star would be a more effective medium in Liberia," Kimoto said. "Every day five hours of air time is dedicated to the telefood campaign."
The money raised goes into a global fund managed by FAO and used to support projects with a maximum value of US $10,000 that seek to help farming groups in developing countries sustain their production.
In Liberia, the telefood fund has been used to help
women grow vegetables and to finance a fruit tree nursery
and a cassava cultivation project.
LIBERIA: Government to review forestry regulations
President Charles Taylor said on Sunday that his government would review all of Liberia's forestry regulations to ensure that they conform with international legislation on forests, Star Radio reported on Monday.
Taylor said Liberian forests were being destroyed under the present regulations and that no new forestry agreements would be allowed until the new regulations are enacted.
LIBERIA: Cabinet reshuffle
Three ministries - finance, internal affairs, and posts and telecommunications - changed hands in a cabinet reshuffle announced on Monday.
Nathaniel Barnes replaces John Bestman as finance minister, while Bestman takes over as minister of posts and telecommunications from Maxwell Kaba, appointed vice president for mobilization of the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP). At the Internal Affairs Ministry, Deputy Minister Maxwell Poe takes over from Edward Sackor, appointed political adviser to Taylor.
AFP reported the government as saying in a statement
that the reshuffle, the second in less than six weeks,
was meant "to strengthen the function of government".
LIBERIA: Government collects elusive tax dollars
Liberia's Finance Ministry has collected more than U.S.$600,000 in tax arrears in four days from 132 businesses, bringing the total amount obtained this year to nearly US $48 million, Star Radio reports Deputy Minister Juanita Neal as saying. Neal said the tax collection drive would continue until the equivalent of this year's budget of US $64 million is collected.
GHANA: Public food sales banned as cholera strikes Kumasi
Ghana's second largest city, Kumasi, has banned the sale of cooked food and iced water by street vendors in a bid to halt the spread of cholera, media sources told IRIN on Tuesday.
"Food can only be sold after the Food and Drugs Board and the Ghana Standards Board have certified them," one source at the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said.
Ghana's health ministry, the local government authorities of Kumasi and those of the region of which it is the capital, Ashanti, imposed the ban on Monday after two people died of cholera and 41 were hospitalised at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, GNA said.
Ashanti Regional Minister Kojo Yanka said the situation had reached "an alarming proportion".
The outbreak is being blamed on poor public hygiene and contaminated food in the city of over 400,000 persons, whose director of health, Dr. Agatha Bonney, said the department recorded 21 cases cholera and seven deaths caused by contaminated water in July.
This time around, a shortage of garbage trucks has been identified as a contributing factor to the spread of the disease. Six trucks have now been sent to increase Kumasi's refuse collection fleet.
In a further move to improve sanitary conditions, Deputy Minister of Health Nana Acheampong said that by next year all bucket latrines will have been phased out and home owners will be required to install flush toilets.
Kumasi's Komfo Anokye hospital, the largest in northern Ghana, ran out of intravenous fluids because of the cholera caseload, GNA said quoting the Regional Director of Health Services, Ebeneza Appiah-Denkyirah. It also reported Acheampong as saying that the ministry was taking more infusions to the institution.
Abidjan, 12 October 1999; 17:36 GMT
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-1763
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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