BéninReference

In Sierra Leone, New Hope for Children and Pregnant Women

Clinics like this one in Tumbu have been jammed since Sierra Leone ended some fees in 2010. More Photos »

WATERLOO, Sierra Leone — The paramedic’s eyes were bloodshot, his features drawn. Pregnant women jammed into the darkened concrete bunker, just as they had yesterday and would tomorrow. The increase in patients had been fivefold, or tenfold. The exhausted paramedic had lost count in a blur of uninterrupted examinations and deliveries.

he word was out: it was no longer necessary to give birth at home and risk losing a baby or dying in childbirth. Hadiatou Kamara, 18, waited in the crowd. She had already lost a baby boy and girl. “They both died,” she said quietly.

Now, for her third pregnancy, she was at this rural health clinic outside Freetown, the capital. The Sierra Leone government has eliminated fees for pregnant women and children, and Ms. Kamara, like thousands of women in a country where surgery has been performed by the light of cellphones and flashlights, could afford trained medical staff to oversee her pregnancy for the first time. …

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Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

Toute republication de cet article doit en mentionner et l’origine et l’auteur sous peine d’infraction

Nigeria : Boko Haram Harasse Beaucoup

Boko Haram: Ekiti, Edo, Akwa Ibom indigenes arrive home from Borno

On July 17, 2011 · In News

Some of the 43 Ekiti State students evacuated from Maiduguri, departing the Government House, Ado Ekiti, to their respective homes, Friday.

AS non-indigenes continue to leave Borno State following the spate of attacks unleashed on the state by the Boko Haram fundamentalist sect, many indigenes of Ekiti, Edo and Akwa Ibom states who fled the embattled state have arrived home.

43 arrived Ekiti on Friday.  Over 150 were also received in Edo and 65 in Akwa Ibom.

The Ekiti evacuees, who are students of tertiary institutions in Borno State, arrived the Government House, Ado-Ekiti at about 3.30 a.m. in three buses.

The students, who narrated their ordeal to reporters, hailed Governor Kayode Fayemi for coming to their rescue by sending  buses  to convey them from Maiduguri.

Officials of the Government House were on hand to attend to the needs of the evacuees.

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Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

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Ghana : Government to ban used electronics

 

Government is in the final stages of enacting a law that will control the importation of used electronic gadgets into the country in an effort to stem the menace of e-waste that has engulfed the country recently, the Environment Minister has said.
Official data released by the Ghana Shippers Authority indicates that the country imported 31,400 metric tonnes of used electrical appliances last year, 75 percent more than what was imported into the country in 2009.
According to the data, the United Kingdom is by far the largest exporter of used electronics to Ghana accounting for more than half the quantum of imports to Ghana last year.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Sherry Ayittey, said the ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Communication and the Attorney General’s Department to finalise the draft legislation on how the country will halt the dumping of electronics into the country at a time of increasing concerns over the effects of climate change on the survival of nations.
“Those of us in Ghana are witnesses to the rising sea levels that threaten to displace rural dwellers along our coasts from Aflao to Axim .... We know electronic waste contributes to climate change and we will soon put before cabinet a draft bill that will control the importation of used electronics into Ghana,” she said.
The announcement of the imminent ban of used electronics coincided with Ghana’s hosting of the 6th ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change in Accra last week.
The Minister of Communication, Haruna Iddrisu, who has given full support to the law to ban used electronic imports wants other Africa countries to emulate Ghana’s step and fight e-waste.
“Africa has become a dumping ground for used electronics. It is about time we sent a strong message to the rest of the world that Africa cannot continue to be used for the dumping of used and redundant technologies.
“I am happy the Ministry of Environment, the Communication Ministry and Attorney General’s Department are finalising a draft bill on the regulation of electronic waste in Ghana,” he said.

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Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

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29 die in Nigerian floods, authorities say

LAGOS, NIGERIA—Nigerian emergency authorities say at least 29 people have died in weekend floods in two cities of Africa’s most populous nation.

A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday that at least 20 people died in the commercial capital of Lagos during unusually heavy rains Sunday.

Yushau Shuaib said nine more people died in Katsina, which saw heavy rains Friday evening.

He said the floods displaced more than 100 people in Katsina. Lagos shut down its public schools Monday.

The agency has warned that rains will be heavier this year than last year. Last year’s rains displaced about 500,000 people nationwide

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Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

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Ghana to receive 95 million dollar agric equipment from Brazil

gona Abodom, (C/R), July 8, GNA - Ghana is to receive a 95 million dollar Agricultural equipment, including tractors and combine harvester’s from Brazil, to boost rice production and other Agricultural sectors.

The items would come under a soft loan from the Brazilian government to the Ghana.

Mr Louis Fernando Sierra, Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana, made this known, when the Chiefs and People of Agona Abodom in the Central Region conferred on him honorary Citizenship and Development Chief of the town at Abodom.

Ambassador Sierra said the first consignment of the equipment would arrive in the country in September, 2011, while the rest is expected in the country in January 2012.

He hoped that the equipment would help in increasing food production in the country.

The Ambassador said through his instrumentality, a 40 million dollar sickle cell and blood centre has been constructed in Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region, to facilitate quality health delivery services for the people in the region.

Mr Sierra said the Kumasi centre would be linked up with the Agona Abodom clinic to provide health service delivery to the people in the area.

The Ambassador expressed appreciation to the chiefs and people of Abodom for the honour done him and declared that he “would never forget it in his life”.

He said he was not surprised, because Brazil has a long standing relationship with Ghana and expressed the hope that it would grow from strength to strength, to promote bilateral and economic cooperation between the two countries.

Nana Kojo Asomaning, Tufuhene of Abodom performed the necessary traditional rites and conferred the title on the Ambassador, who was given a stool name of Nana Kweku Sierra I and later made him a member of the Asona family.

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Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

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8 die in another Lagos building collapse

On July 6, 2011 · In News

…35 persons rescued, several others trapped

By Evelyn Usman, Olasunkanmi Akoni & Monsur Olowoopejo

LAGOS – A four-storey building collapsed at the early hours of Wednesday  at Idumota/Ebute Ero area of Lagos, killing at least eight persons.

Report said over 35 persons were rescued from the debris while an unspecified number  were, at press time, still trapped under the debris.

Among  the casualties were persons from two different families, including children and women. The building, located at  4, Mogaji Lane, comprising several apartments and shops was reportedly constructed 10 years ago.

The collapsed building

Trouble started at about midnight, following a deafening sound which left the occupants in the dark. Some of them, particularly those on the ground floor, managed to escape. Among them were a man, his wife and their two-month-old baby.

Youths in the area were said to have started rescue work where some of the trapped persons were rescued.

The building...

Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Agency, LASEMA, State Mobile Ambulance personnel who later arrived the scene  reportedly rescued about 30 persons including Secretary of Community Development Association (CDA), Mr. Tajudeen Adeyemi and his wife.

National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and policemen also joined in the rescue work.

Another view of the building.

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Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

Toute republication de cet article doit en mentionner et l’origine et l’auteur sous peine d’infraction