ARIWO !

UNICEF And Partners Respond To Flood Devastation In Benin

Article Date: 27 Oct 2010

Heavy and persistent rainfall has deeply affected the daily lives of more than 680,000 people in Benin, approximately 122,000 of whom are children under-five. The number of displaced is 180,000.
UNICEF, in collaboration with its partners, is working with urgency on the ground to respond to the crisis. "The scourge is so heavy that it is urgent to work hand in hand and respond to basic needs such as potable water, food, shelters and essential commodities", said Dr. Diallo, UNICEF Representative in Benin.
UN agencies including UNICEF, the Red Cross, as well as NGOs namely CRS, Plan Benin, Caritas and Care have joined with Government representatives and formed the National Crisis Management Team.
"The floods have destroyed my entire life" says Afoussa aged 36, a mother of 6 children who lives in Avotrou, a suburb of Cotonou. "I have lost all my crops and have nothing to eat. Wells have been flooded and are contaminated. I have a baby to breastfeed. We have not had potable water for many days" she added.
UNICEF, with the support of the fire brigade, is ensuring the distribution of potable water in most affected areas nationwide. To date, 198,000 litres have been distributed to cover the needs of 20,000 people. In addition, purification tablets, water containers, water tanks, buckets have been distributed, to prevent waterborne diseases. Ground teams are also involved in chlorinating contaminated wells and promoting hand washing. Emergency nutrition supplies, pumply nuts and therapeutic milk already been distributed in three Northern areas affected by the flood…

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Nigeria fraud blacklist issued by police

The alleged frauds involve billions of naira

Senior politicians and businessmen are among more than 100 people listed by Nigerian anti-fraud police as being unsuitable to run for political office.

The EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) said those on the list were all being prosecuted for corruption.

The commission urged political parties not to endorse them as candidates in next year's elections.

One of those named, Orji Kalu, is running for president but has been arraigned on 107 counts of fraud.

He is accused of involvement in a fraud worth 5bn naira (£21m; $33m).

Politicians make up at least 40 people on the list, which the EFCC has published on its website.

Thirteen are former state governors, five are former ministers, three are serving MPs, and two are serving senators.

The BBC's Caroline Duffield, in Abuja, says fraud charges are no barrier to standing in elections, and some of those named are already campaigning.

But EFCC officials say that they believe those facing prosecution should not be endorsed as candidates.

The commission is appealing to political parties to select only "credible candidates" and not those on the list….

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Nigerian airline ticket fraudster gets 8 years

By John Leyden

Posted in Crime, 25th October 2010 14:33 GMT

A West African fraudster has been jailed for more than eight years over his role in an airline ticket scam following his extradition to the US back in June.

Ademola Ismaila Adegoke, 43, a Nigerian-born resident of Accra, Ghana, was jailed for 102 months on Friday after he was convicted of using stolen credit card numbers to steal more than $400,000 from US citizens. Adegoke, who agreed to pay $696,026 in restitution, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in July.

US District Court Judge Liam O’Grady further ordered Adegoke to serve two years on probation following his release.

According to court documents, Adegoke used faxed copies of counterfeit passports and drivers licences as well as Photoshopped images of stolen credit card numbers transposed over a blank card to fool North american travel agents and airlines into supplying him with tickets. The fraudster used VoIP services to pretend he was calling from the US when, in reality, he was working from a cyber cafes in Ghana….

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When will election riggers ever be punished?

FOR the fourth time in three years, electoral  tribunals have ousted governors after lengthy judicial processes that have exposed the ineffectiveness of electoral tribunals in granting justice timely.

When Peter Obi won in Anambra State after more than 30 months in court, Nigerians hailed the judiciary. They repeated the celebrations for Adams Oshiomhole in Edo State, Dr. Segun Mimiko in Ondo State, and now Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State. The average duration of these cases was more than two years.

Each time the courts make decisions on electoral cases, they leave out a vital aspect of the matters — the punishment of those who caused the infringements, including providers of false information that resulted in deliberate prolongation of matters.

We have often wondered why there would be offences but no offenders. If the cases of the four governors are reviewed, whether individually or collectively, was it possible that they were rigged out of their victories without anybody committing the offence?…

Lire la suite

Beninois Fighting Cholera and Malaria

By Vickie Frantz, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

Oct 23, 2010; 3:02 PM ET

Residents of Benin (a country in northwestern Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean) have been dealing with torrential rain and massive flooding since late September. This flood disaster is the worst to strike the country since 1963, according to CARE.org.

Fifty-one of the 77 communes in the country have been affected. Areas are being assessed by helicopter, and reports estimate that close to 700,000 people have been affected by the flooding.

Flood waters surrounding local huts in Cotonou, Benin. Photo taken by Loetitia Raymond of CARE.org. Oct.21, 2010

Thousands of people are living in fragile huts that have been submerged in water 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) deep for weeks. Latrines have been flooded, and human waste has contaminated water used for drinking, cooking and bathing.

With the water contaminated, the illness of cholera is on the rise. More than 800 cases have been reported, and more cases are reported daily, according to a CARE press release.

Malaria has also become an issue in the area. The relief …

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2011: Don’t Let Insecurity Jeopardise Elections, Nigerians Warned

Sunday, 24 October 2010 00:00 By Alabi Williams News - National

THE October 1, Abuja twin bomb blasts and threats of more bombs have heightened fears over the 2011 general elections, causing stakeholders to ask for precise and firm action by government to stem the tide and restore voter confidence.
Respondents,who spoke separately to the Guardian, expressed concern that should the lax security situation continue, voters’ registration, campaign activities and eventual voting would be threatened.
In Lagos, former Governor Lateef Jakande decried government’s seeming helplessness, querying that what is happening now did not happen 50 years ago, in spite of the wide political differences, as well as in the

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Archbishop Palmer-Buckle’s “Funeral Oration”

Written by Kofi Akosah-Sarpong in Around Africa on October 23, 2010 12:53

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle

The Ghanaian enlightenment campaign is evolving. Ghanaian elites, for some time asleep, are fast getting involved in the enlightenment movement from their diverse stations in life. As the movement gathers steam, backed by the Ghanaian mass media, one area of the Ghanaian traditional life that has come under the enlightenment flashlight is the implications of the dead and funeral on the living. It is a tough area that borders on the complicated traditional cosmology. The attempts aren’t to tinker with traditional cosmology. It isn’t because it is a frightening area; it is because the aim of the enlightenment thinkers is to debunk the misinterpretation of traditional cosmology, especially in the southern parts of Ghana, where millions of dollars are profligately spent on the dead and funerals while majority languish in wrenching poverty and stuck in backward social infrastructure. While traditional funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, consecrating, or remembering the life of a deceased person, in today’s Ghana the simplicity of the celebration has been turned upside down, it has become a big showbiz. The key sobering essence of traditional Ghanaian funerary as customs comprising the complex of beliefs and practices, as Ghanaian cosmology dictates, to remember the dead, from entombment itself to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in the dead’s honor, is giving way to bling, bling…

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Die In Ghana, Get a $600 Car Coffin

The Ga people of coastal Ghana have been making elaborate fantasy coffins since the 1950s. For your very last car ride, there really is no alternative.

The Ga are not the most populous tribe on Earth. Living on the Greater Accra Plains of Ghana, a country of 24 million sandwiched between Côte d’Ivoire and Togo on the west coast of Africa, they number around 2 million. The Ga believe that death is the beginning of a journey into another life and they also believe that this journey must reflect the traveler’s previous life. It also doesn’t hurt if the journey is done in style.

Coffin designs reflect the deceased’s life. If you were a fisherman, you get a big fish. If you sold cigarettes—or, presumably, you died of lung cancer—you get a big cigarette. If you did what rich people in West Africa tend to do, which is to drive a big Mercedes–Benz sedan, you get a big Mercedes–Benz sedan—with velvet lining instead of a V8. And if you drove a big Mercedes–Benz sedan and flew your own plane, you get this:

The flying limo, not the chicken.

The breathtakingly exhaustive Wikipedia page of Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop, one of the more famous Ga coffinmakers, lists an incredible variety of designs. A far from exhaustive list: onion, lobster, tank, Coke bottle, Daf truck. Daf truck!

The coffins can cost $600, which sounds like a bargain for a such an elaborate and wonderful object of craftmanship until you factor in Ghana’s per capita GDP of $1,500. These are seriously expensive coffins. Then again, it pays to be well-prepared for the afterlife. While the precise details of the trip are up for debate, one thing is for certain: there’s no coming back

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Benin floods: Toll hits 60

Cotonou - Weeks of flooding in the West African state of Benin have killed about 60 people and forced 120 000 to flee their homes, authorities said on Tuesday.
Food production was also badly hit by the floods, they said.
"With the most recent cases inland and with the cases of cholera, we have already reached around 60," Interior Ministry spokesperson Franck Kinninvo said of the rainy season flooding of Benin's main rivers that started last month.
Seven people have died out of a total 800 cases of cholera, while malaria, which thrives on water-logged conditions, has also claimed lives, he said.
Around 25 000 hectares of land accounting for 40% of production of rice, maize, millet and other staples has also been destroyed.
Kinninvo said the European Union had launched an 18-million-euro clean-up programme…

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Akosombo spillage : Residents asked to evacuate immediately

 

Communities along the banks of the Volta Lake are being asked to evacuate to higher grounds as mangers of the Akosombo Dam prepare to open the spillways of the dam to save it from collapse.
Officials of the Volta River Authority (VRA) say for the first time in 20 years, the dam has exceeded its maximum capacity.
Some communities along the lake in Northern, Ashanti, Volta and Greater Accra Regions are most likely to be affected.
Public Relations Officer of VRA Gertrude Koomson tells Joy News the water level is alarming and increasing day by day.
She says VRA would be forced to spill the water if the situation does not improve by Wednesday.
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