Niger : News

News : Niger : News

NIAMEY Wednesday, December 19, 2007 (IRIN) - Fifteen-year-old Hadjo Garbo’s child-like features belie a history more tragic and life-altering than many adults four times her age will have experienced. (irinnews.org)

DAKAR Monday, December 17, 2007 (IRIN) - Critics say donors at a recent high-level meeting failed to make firm funding commitments for improving education, particularly in impoverished, fragile and war-torn countries, making it highly unlikely the world will meet ambitious education goals by the 2015 deadline. (irinnews.org)

About 105 young men from Diffa region, about 1,300 kms to the east of the Nigerian capital Niamey, surrendered weapons and munitions Wednesday in the presence of the public health minister Issa Lamine. via People's Daily Online

As the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day, tomorrow, May 3, 2008, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is once again drawing attention to the deteriorating press freedom situation in The Gambia and Niger, where serious freedom of expression and press freedom violations continue unabated. (AllAfrica)

The National Director of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, Cllr. Augustine Toe leaves Monrovia today for Abuja, Nigeria. (AllAfrica)

NEW YORK Friday, December 14, 2007 (IRIN) - Some 70 donors, ranging from wealthy industrialised countries to poor states to corporations, today pledged US$420 million for 2008 to the UN emergency fund that seeks to save the lives of millions of people by providing immediate aid in the case of sudden or neglected crises, be they natural disasters or man-made conflicts. (irinnews.org)

NIAMEY Friday, December 14, 2007 (IRIN) - Every two hours in Niger a woman will die during her pregnancy or while delivering a baby - a symptom of under-resourced health services, neglected transport and education infrastructure, and a lack of awareness among women of their rights, health officials and experts say. (irinnews.org)

NEW YORK Wednesday, December 12, 2007 (IRIN) - The world has the technical ability but lacks the political will to eliminate global hunger, a scourge afflicting one in eight people that is as much a violation of human rights as torture, according to a report by the NGO, Action Against Hunger. (irinnews.org)

The Niger State Judicial Commission of Inquiry has ordered the arrest of former Permanent Secretary in the state's Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Abdulkadir Katuka Marafa, for failing to appear before it despite many summons served on him. (AllAfrica)

Sahara FM, a privately-owned radio station based in Agadez, the largest city in the northern part of Niger, was on April 22, 2008, shut down indefinitely by the media regulator, the High Communications Council (CSC) for allegedly “inciting ethnic hatred and undermining the morale of the Army�. (AllAfrica)

The following is an abridged translation of a 22 April 2008 RSF press release: (AllAfrica)

Today's decision by the Higher Council for Communication (CSC) to close privately-owned radio Sahara FM, the main radio station in the northern city of Agadez, is an authoritarian blunder that will just aggravate the situation in Niger's strife-ridden northern region, Reporters Without Borders said. (AllAfrica)

The text of the Judgment delivered on the 29th of February 2008, in the petition by Senator Dangana Ndayako who contested the Senatorial seat for the Niger South Senatorial District will leave not a few questions unanswered. (AllAfrica)

NIAMEY Tuesday, December 11, 2007 (IRIN) - If the people of Niger (Nigeriens) remain uninformed about family planning and keep reproducing at the current rate the country’s population will more than quadruple by 2050, imposing unmanageable demands on the economy, social services and the environment, according to research by Niger’s national statistics agency. (irinnews.org)

BALI Tuesday, December 11, 2007 (IRIN) - The fund to help developing countries adapt to global warming has been approved at the United Nations climate change conference in Bali and will become operational in early 2008, a senior UN official announced on 11 December. (irinnews.org)

On Monday, October 22, five men, one of whom was armed, attacked a team of Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) workers travelling in two vehicles by road from Agadez to Dabaga, in central Niger, where MSF has been providing medical care at the local health post since the start of October. The assailants seized the vehicles and their contents. The team of six-one doctor, one nurse, one logistics specialist, one pharmacist and two drivers-made their way to the nearest village on foot and were able to return to Agadez. (AllAfrica)

Nigerien authorities have ordered the French aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières to stop working in northern Niger after three of its vehicles were hijacked in the last week. (AllAfrica)

A mayor in northern Niger has warned that civilians are increasingly being caught up in insecurity caused by fighting between the Nigerien army and armed militias, and has called for an end to hostilities. (AllAfrica)

Two years ago, several West African states found themselves in the grip of severe food shortages -- with some three million people affected in Niger alone. Children died, aid officials wrung their hands, people marched in Niger's capital, Niamey, to demand food But were lessons learned -- really learned -- to ensure that the crisis does not recur? (AllAfrica)

Child labor activist Aichatou Bety was deeply disturbed some years ago when she came across a 10-year-old boy down a 90-meter hole in Niger, wearing a headlamp and looking for gold. (AllAfrica)

People are still enslaved in Niger, but an announcement that the government has agreed to sponsor an independent investigation into the issue has raised hopes for change among some human rights experts. (AllAfrica)

At least one international relief organisation has suspended its work in the north of Niger because armed groups are commandeering vehicles and laying anti-personnel mines in the area. (AllAfrica)

Rioting students in the Nigerien capital Niamey on Wednesday burned a vehicle belonging to a national development agency during a violent protest, part of an emerging trend of demonstrators attacking vehicles belonging to aid agencies. (AllAfrica)

Former President Charles Taylor has landed in Liberia from Abuja, Nigeria. Mr. Taylor touched down on the RIA tarmac under rainy skies. The helocopter was surrounded by Irish and Jordanian troops. Who are waiting to whisk Mr. Taylor off to Freetown, Sierra Leone from RIA. It is speculated that he will go on to The Hague. He will not enter the capitol city Monrovia. (AllAfrica)

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is being held by the United Nations-backed War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone after his failed attempt to escape from exile in Nigeria. (AllAfrica)

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has called on Liberian refugees residing in Niger to return home and participate in the nation's rebuilding process, assuring them that her administration will strive to provide opportunities for all. (AllAfrica)

Calling the democratic presidential election in Liberia a renewed opportunity to ensure that Charles Taylor faces justice, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA-40) sent a letter today to President-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. (AllAfrica)

Katsina State Government is considering sending some selected students, versed in the Arabic Language to Sudan, to pursue courses in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Medicine and other science related courses. (AllAfrica)

Jigawa State and Dosso Region in Niger Republic, are to jointly fight the growing danger posed by desert encroachment and communicable diseases such as poliomyelitis and meningitis. (AllAfrica)

Jigawa State Government has said it would collaborate with Niger Republic to fight Fulani/Farmers clash in their common borders. (AllAfrica)

The Niger Association of Independent Press Editors (ANEPI) and the Network of Journalists for Human Rights (RJDH) - two Niamey-based organisations - have joined Reporters Without Borders in signing an appeal for the release of Moussa Kaka, the Niger correspondent of Radio France Internationale (RFI), who was arrested in Niamey on 20 September, exactly six months ago. (AllAfrica)