Cholera has broken out in northern Niger, in an area now inhabited by large numbers of Malian refugees who fled conflict in their homeland.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has treated all of the nearly 250 people affected by the cholera outbreak in northern Niger that was declared by the country’s health authorities on May 11. MSF has also opened two cholera treatment centers in the regions of Mangaïzé and Ayorou, north of the capital, Niamey. Six people have died in the outbreak thus far, however.

05/23/2013 22:33 GMT

Par Boureima HAMA

NIAMEY, 23 mai 2013 (AFP) - Deux attentats-suicides quasiment simultanés contre l'armée nigérienne et le groupe nucléaire français Areva, revendiqués par les islamistes du Mujao, ont fait jeudi une vingtaine de morts, essentiellement des militaires, dans le nord du Niger.

Une prise d'otages de plusieurs élèves officiers à Agadez, qui avait suivi l'attaque perpétrée à l'aube contre un camp militaire de cette grande ville du Nord désertique, a pris fin dans la soirée.

Les travaux de la 66e session de l'Assemblée mondiale de la santé se poursuivent à Genève, avec notamment les allocutions des délégations ministérielles. Ce mercredi matin, le Niger s'est inquiété de la situation épidémiologique et nutritionnelle dans ce pays sahélien. Et pour réduire cette prévalence, Niamey a adopté de nouvelles politiques nutritionnelles et un plan pour lutter contre la malnutrition infantile.

World Vision Niger reported zero child deaths in three of the last five months from its 20 area development programmes that serve 45,552 children. This new trend contrasts with the average 10 deaths per month in 2011 and five deaths per month in 2012.

Many children were regularly dying from preventable causes because they were not being taken to the hospital early enough or did not receive treatment for underlying conditions such as malnutrition, which made them vulnerable to malaria and typhoid.

There's a received wisdom that tree stumps, shoots and bushes should be cleared from a field before planting crops. It seems logical, but the experience of farmers in southern Niger suggests otherwise. There, the practice of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) has been found to significantly improve soil quality and crop yields, along with additional resources and income from tree products.

Read the full report

Genève / Niamey (CICR) – Pour soutenir des communautés rendues vulnérables par les effets conjugués de facteurs climatiques et des conséquences de conflits armés dans la région (Mali et Libye), une opération de rachat d'environ 8 000 têtes de bétail aux éleveurs des régions de Tillabery et d'Agadez – respectivement dans l'ouest et dans le nord du pays – vient d'être lancée par le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR).

Geneva/Niamey (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is purchasing approximately 8,000 head of cattle from herdsmen in the Tillabery and Agadez areas (in the west and north of the country, respectively) to support communities made vulnerable by the combined effects of climate and of conflict in Mali and Libya..

NIAMEY — Niger is offering cash rewards to anyone reporting a case of Guinea worm as part of efforts to permanently eradicate the parasitic disease in the impoverished West African nation, the health ministry said.

Though it once afflicted around 3.5 million people annually across Asia and Africa, according to the U.S.-based Carter Center, Guinea worm disease is now on the verge of being eradicated worldwide.

Record rise in cereal prices undermines household food security

KEY MESSAGES

• Increasing millet and maize prices, already well aboveaverage in April, will overshoot seasonal norms between now and the height of the lean season and the end of Ramadan in late August due to market disruptions triggered by last year’s floods in Nigeria. Central and Eastern Niger will be most affected.