WEST AFRICA: IRIN weekly humanitarian round-up 640 29 June 2012

	humanitarian news and analysis a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Table of contents 1. CHAD: Tackling malnutrition amid increased food insecurity* 2. MALI: Locusts could spread in rebel-held north 3. COTE D'IVOIRE: Stuck between refuge and risk 4. NIGERIA: Owning up to food insecurity in the north 5. Analysis: Tracking down Liberia's mercenaries 6. COTE D'IVOIRE: Will DDR work this time? CHAD: Tackling malnutrition amid increased food insecurity* MOUSSORO/BAHR-EL-GHAZAL, 26 June 2012 (IRIN) - In the outskirts of Moussoro, the main town in the western Chad region of Bahr-el-Ghazal, mothers line up with their babies in the sweltering heat waiting to be screened for malnutrition. In another area in the region, women load their donkeys with millet and groundnut seeds - provided by aid agencies in anticipation of better rains this season. Read report online MALI: Locusts could spread in rebel-held north BAMAKO, 26 June 2012 (IRIN) - Clouds of desert locusts have arrived in rebel-held northern Mali, where insecurity has hampered pest control, bringing fears that the insects may devastate a country already struck by drought, conflict, and the displacement of more than 360,000 people. Read report online COTE D'IVOIRE: Stuck between refuge and risk TAI/PARA, 27 June 2012 (IRIN) - Intermittent violence and widespread insecurity have left thousands of villagers in western Côte d'Ivoire stuck between fleeing their villages for the greater safety of refuge with host families in bigger towns, and the risk of being attacked if they return to the farms where they earn their livelihood. Read report online NIGERIA: Owning up to food insecurity in the north KATSINA, 28 June 2012 (IRIN) - It is the start of the rains in northern Nigeria, and farmers are out sowing their fields. They know that the next three months will be the belt-tightening lean season, when households need to be prudent to get by, but hardship will give way to the harvest in September. Read report online Analysis: Tracking down Liberia's mercenaries MONROVIA, 27 June 2012 (IRIN) - More than a year after the end of the conflict in neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire, the Liberian government has pledged to deal once and for all with longstanding complaints of its nationals being party to military operations and serious human rights violations on the other side of its western border. Read report online COTE D'IVOIRE: Will DDR work this time? ABIDJAN, 29 June 2012 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of combatants who fought in the 2010-2011 post-election conflict in Côte d'Ivoire remain armed and potentially dangerous, says the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), and is calling for a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programme to be urgently set up. Read report online

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

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