El Malick Seck, jailed editor-in-chief of 24 Heures Chrono, a privately-owned newspaper, will on October 28, 2008 appear before a court in Dakar to answer defamation charges brought against him by the country’s Minister of Interior, Sheikh Tidiane Sy.
 
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the suit followed an article in  24 Heures Chrono published on July14  that  said although  Sy has denied having links with Diané brothers who were reported to have murdered a  French judge in Djibouti, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s document confirmed that Sy had worked for assassins  in Washington.

Seck is serving a three-year prison sentence for linking President Abdoulaye Wade and his son to a Côte d’Ivoire money laundering case. The 24 Heures Chrono has also been banned for three months for the same offence. The ban expires on December 12.

The Media Foundation for West Africa 

Poor rains and rising rice prices have contributed to increasing malnutrition to alarming levels in at least three regions of Senegal. Following a rapid assessment in July 2008 by the UN and the Ministry of Health, the government has confirmed a malnutrition crisis in three of the five surveyed regions, with the most critical being Matam, where 17 percent of the children surveyed under five years old are malnourished.

Researchers surveyed Matam, Gossas, Guinguineo, Sedhiou and Goudomp, and concluded Matam, Guinguineo and Goudomp require immediate food assistance, while the other two regions require continued monitoring.

Youssouf Gaye, the head of the Food, Nutrition and Children division at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN Matam’s numbers are the most alarming of the five regions. Of the 670 children surveyed, 117 are malnourished.

Gaye said, similar to other parts of the country, Matam residents have had poor harvests and steep food price increases. The local purchase price of rice has increased 74 percent in the past two years, according to the Senegalese government. There is also less rice available; rice-exporting countries like Mali, Vietnam and Thailand have stopped exporting in order to feed their own people.

Poor rains have increased hunger levels across Senegal where agriculture is the main money maker for 85 percent of rural communities.

Gaye told IRIN Matam has high levels of malnutrition because of its higher number of immigrants, and how they choose to spend their money. “These immigrants do not take care of themselves. [Rather], they build homes, buy huge satellite dishes, and buy household appliances.”

But there are others among the region’s estimated 256,000 residents for whom malnutrition is not a choice.

Matam's rural villages bordering Mauritania have some of the country’s highest levels of poverty. The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development reports annual rainfall amounts in Matam falling by half within the past three decades, drying up rivers and cutting irrigation to water and cash-strapped farmers.

The nutrition director Gaye says the resulting malnutrition is stunting growth in children under five, which leaves them more vulnerable to illnesses. Gaye says long term, these children will have problems in schools. “Malnourished children cannot follow the curriculum like those who are well-fed.”

In the other surveyed regions, 10 percent were malnourished in Guinguineo, 13 percent in Goudomp, nine percent in Shediou and eight percent in Gossas.

Researchers are expected to assess four additional regions considered to be at high risk for malnutrition: Louga, Kebemer, Bakel, and Rufisque.

In 2001, UN member countries agreed to halve extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015 in their adoption of Millennium Development Goals (MDG). In 2001, 23 percent of Senegal’s population suffered from malnutrition.

To meet its goal, Senegal would need to improve nutrition for one and a half million people, based on a Columbia University population estimate for Senegal in 2015.

IRIN 

Children should not be seen as victims of sexual exploitation, but rather the front-line fighters against it, said non-profit Save the Children Sweden at a preparatory meeting in Dakar in advance of the World Congress against sexual exploitation of children and adolescents to be held in Rio, Brazil in November 2008.

The summit will be co-organised by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and NGO End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT).

Save the Children’s West Africa adviser Elkane Mooh told IRIN it is children who are best placed to help address the situation. “They are the primary actors in this because they know the situation best. Abuse is something which is hidden, but kids can share this information by talking to each other – together they can help find the solutions.”

Up to 22 children from 15 African countries joined human rights groups, child specialists and non-profit organisations to debate how children can take on a bigger role in the fight against exploitation.

“Children need a voice in society,” 14-year-old Tenicia from South Africa told IRIN. “Adults tend to forget about children. Most children don’t know about the dangers of sexual exploitation. They don’t know their rights.”

Although accurate statistics are hard to come by, child rights advocates at the conference say it is possible sexual exploitation of children is on the rise.

Save the Children’s Mooh says the global economic slump is partly to blame. “The food price crisis and the difficult economic conditions we’re going through can mean that parents are more likely to turn a blind eye to these activities. Children have more and more economic responsibility within the family – and this puts pressure on them.”

In Kenya, 80 percent of surveyed child sex-workers said a family member or friend introduced them to sex work according to the International Labour Organization.

Young people at the Dakar meeting discussed different forms of exploitation, from sex tourism and sexual violence at school, to forced and early marriages, and sexual violence during and after conflicts.

Breaking the silence with a text message

One suggestion children put forward is to tap into youth-friendly communication tools. Mamadou, 16, from Senegal said “When a child has gone through this [exploitation] it can be too difficult for them to talk to their family about it – or even to a helpline. So, texting a help service could be a better way of making children talk.”

But opening a dialogue is just part of the equation. “When a child is the victim of sexual exploitation by a tourist, they must first get medical help”, says 17-year-old Chamir from Togo, “but the hospital should give that information to the Ministry of Health and also to the Ministry of Tourism that controls the hotels. It’s important that the different departments communicate with each other.”

UNICEF West Africa adviser Joaquim Theis says the heart of any strategy for change should involve children. “The vast majority of children don’t have a choice in life. They aren’t given information…they are not involved in decisions made about them. We need to move beyond these very limited forms of children’s participation and move towards a freedom of expression, of information and decision making – their basic civil rights.”

Yassin (15) from Gambia is among the youths expected to present at the Rio Congress. “We have to come together. This is really affecting us young children. Sugar-daddies give short term benefits but long-term problems. We can make a difference – the future lies in our hands.”

IRIN 

On 26 September, it will have been six years since 1,865 people died on the Joola ferry, which carried more than three times the number of passengers it was licensed to, when it sank off the coast of Senegal.

No one has been prosecuted in this continent’s largest maritime disaster. On 12 September 2008, French judge Jean-Wilfrid Noel issued nine international arrest warrants against Senegalese officials who were in power at the time of the sinking, holding them responsible, based on maritime agreements between the two countries. Included are Senegal’s former prime minister, minister of transportation, head of armed forces, as well as army and marine officers.

Twenty-two French nationals died in the accident.

On 19 September, ten lawyers for the Senegalese government fought back, announcing plans to counter-prosecute the French government for “abuse of authority and bringing our institutions into disrepute,” said lead lawyer Moussa Felix Sow. At a press conference in Dakar, his colleague El Hadj Diouf accused the French judge of “pure and simple racism, judicial imperialism.”

As the governments trade legal jabs and threats to arrest each other’s former high-ranking officials, families of the victims continue to wait for someone to face charges in court for the accident.

Immediately following the accident, Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade said the state assumed responsibility for the sinking, but that the only person who had to answer to a court of law was the captain of the ferry, Issa Diarra— who had died at sea.

High-ranking army officials were transferred to other positions and reprimanded for not reacting quickly enough to calls for help.

The Senegalese government offered US$21,000 in damages for each victim in the drowning. Upon accepting the money, family members agreed not to pursue a legal case against the government.

Not all the money has been disbursed; families must provide adequate paperwork to prove their ties to the victims, and not all required documents have been submitted, according to government officials.

Families of French nationals who died on the ferry refused the compensation, and instead launched an investigation in France on 1 April 2003 against Senegalese authorities for manslaughter and failure to rescue people in danger.

Reached in Paris, Alain Verschave, the vice president of an association of French victims, told IRIN the arrest warrants vindicate not only the deaths of French citizens, but also of all those who drowned, “Yes, we initiated the legal proceedings, but it was on behalf of all the families.”

Idrissa Diallo, a coordinator of an association in Dakar of victims’ family members, says he welcomes the warrants. “The fact the judge Jean-Wilfrid Noel is bringing to trial these Senegalese authorities comforts us a bit. At least, we have the impression our children, our family did not die in vain.”

He says the state paid him about US$60,000 for his three children who drowned. But for him, this amount does not come close to covering his or other victims’ losses, “I worked in the United States [at the time of the accident] and left everything [six years ago] to follow my children’s case. Among us [in the association], we have lost everything, [our] wives and children.”

Diallo says about 65 percent of the victims in the drowning were younger than 26 years old, based on a survey his association conducted with some of the 64 ferry boat survivors and family members of the deceased.

Diallo told IRIN he thinks Senegalese officials have not finished paying off their moral debt for the ferry accident. “It is a terrible shock to lose at once three of your children. For so many nights, I could not sleep. But I was forced to accept it. You cannot dispute death.”

IRIN 

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today demanded the release of journalist Moussa Kaka who has been jailed for a year over his alleged links with Tuareg rebels in the northern part of the country despite decisions by two judges that the reporter should be released.

“Moussa has paid too much for an offense that there is no evidence he has committed,” said Gabriel Baglo. “His contact with the Tuareg rebels was only in his professional capacity as a journalist and posed no danger to anyone. We demand his unconditional release and all the charges against him to be dropped.” 
Kaka, Niger correspondent of Radio France International (RFI) and director of privately-owned Radio Saraouniya, was arrested on September 20, 2007 and held on charges of endangering the safety of the state for suspected links with Tuareg rebels. He has been held ever since.

On Tuesday the prosecutors asked an appeal court in the capital city Niamey to change the original charge against Kaka to "actions liable to harm national defence at war time" from "complicity to undermine the authority of the state." 

If found guilty under this new charge, instead of facing a life sentence as he does with the current charge, he faces up to five years in jail and a fine ranging from 1 to five million Francs CFA (1,500 to 7,500 Euros). The court is due to give its verdict on October 7.

“It is a grave miscarriage of justice that our colleague has spent one year in jail despite the fact that twice the justice system has ordered him released,” Baglo said. “With the change in the charges, it is clear that the prosecutors do not have a real case against him.”

On July 23 a judge dismissed the case against Kaka but the General Prosecutor appealed the decision and the journalist was kept in detention. It was the second time a judge ordered the release of the journalist.

On November 16, 2007, a magistrate decided not to accept as evidence the tapes of Kaka’s conversations with the rebels as they were not obtained legally. The tapes were the only evidence the prosecution had.

Lawyers of El Malick Seck, jailed editor-in-chief of 24 Heures Chrono, a Dakar-based daily newspaper on September 12, 2008 appealed the three-year prison sentence given their client by a court for  publishing “false news”, “inciting the public’ and “public insult”.
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that Demba Ciré Bathily, lead counsel, who announced the editor’s intention, said the sentence was outrageous and violates his (Seck) human rights.

The court exonerated the journalist of two other offences of “insulting the head of state”, and “possessing illegal documents”. 

“El Malick Seck is a political prisoner… There is a disproportionate punishment in relation to the content of the article that is not even up to three thousand characters … ( this verdict exposed) the unacknowledged purpose of eliminating El Malick Seck and his newspaper", Ciré Bathily told journalists.

Seck was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and his newspaper was banned from publishing for the next three months.  This followed an article in the late August edition of 24 Heures Chrono, that linked President Abdoulaye Wade and his son to a case of money laundering from Cote’d’Ivoire.

Meanwhile, police personnel of the Criminal Investigation Department on September 13 seized the day’s publication, claiming that they were enforcing the court’s order. The defence counsel has condemned the police action saying it acted ultra vires, since the matter is still pending in court. 

Media Foundation for West Africa 

New York, September 12, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed byaSenegalese judge’s decision today to sentence a newspaper editor to three years in prison on criminal charges in connection with an editorial about President Abdoulaye Wade and his son. Today's ruling came on the heels of Thursday's sentencing of 12 individuals to several years in prison for ransacking two private newspapers last month.

A criminal court judge in the capital, Dakar, convicted El Malick Seck, managing editor of the private daily 24 Heures Chrono, under several penal code statutes including offending the head of state, publishing false news, andthreatening public order, according to news reports. Seck has been jailed since he first faced police questioning in late August.

Defense lawyer Demba Ciré Bathily told CPJ that he has appealed the ruling, which also banned24 Heures Chrono from circulation for a period of three months. The paper has been in circulation since July, according to Editor-in-Chief Sambou Biagui.

“Despite repeated claims by President Abdoulaye Wade to end the use of criminal libel laws, El MalickSeck faces a severe prison sentence. Troubling as well is the censorship that has been imposed on24 Heures Chrono,” CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes said. “Senegal’s press freedom credentials are deteriorating. CPJ urges the president to adhere to his pronouncements and ensure cases such as24 Heures Chrono are a thing of the past.”

The public prosecutor had requested a five-year prison term against Seck, who was arraigned on September 3 after five days of interrogation in the custody of the Criminal Investigations Division. Police impounded the offending edition of24 Heures Chrono, searched Seck’s residence, and temporarily sealed the newspaper over a front-page editorial saying that Wade and his son Karim, a special adviser, were implicated in a money-laundering case. Neither Wade nor his son have responded to the story, which was based on purported allegations made by an Ivorian politician in 2006, according to local journalists. No official allegation or charge has been made against Wade or his son.

The paper24 Heures Chrono was one of two vandalized last month, just three days after then-Transport Minister Farba Senghor threatened unspecified retaliation against the paper and three others over critical stories. Senghor denied any involvement, but he was sacked from the government, stripped of judicial immunity, and questioned by a judge over the incident.

On Thursday, a criminal court in Dakar sentenced 12 individuals, including a driver and two bodyguards of Senghor, to five to six years in prison and a total of 22 million CFA francs in damages, according to news reports. 

Senegal has been considered a haven for press freedom in Africa, but this year has been marked by hostile government rhetoric toward the media.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit www.cpj.org.

Thousands have been affected by flooding in more than 40 neighbourhoods across Senegal, including 21 Dakar suburbs according to the Senegalese fire rescue services. AFP has reported at least one drowning.

Dakar neighbourhoods affected include Pikine, Guédiawaye, Thiaroye and Diamaguène, according to Mayé Konate, spokesman the National Association of Firefighters.

Rainfall is up by 70 percent compared to the first week in September 2007, according to the Senegalese Meteorological Organization. Drainage canals across the capital are full, said Konate.

On 4 September the government launched a national emergency response strategy, directing US$650,000 to water pumping in submerged neighbourhoods. Up to 60 rescue teams are now pumping water from the streets into canals, ponds or directly into the sea, according to Prime Minister Shekih Hadjibou Soumaré.

During his tour of flooded areas, Soumaré told reporters "Following more heavy rains in recent days there remains much more to be done [to help flooded neighbourhoods]. I call on everyone, including the private sector to help the state in preparingfor further floods.”

Angry victims

In Pikine, one of the worst-affected areas, on 6 September citizens protested against what they saw as the government’s inadequate response by upturning two public transport buses, leading local authorities to position police in front of government buildings.

Many families here were forced to flee their homes and shelter in the local school. During past flooding, schools throughout the country have been turned into official temporary shelters receiving government help but this year, “this must be the last option,” Interior Minister Cheikh Tidiane Sy, announced on 6 September.

The prime minister has pledged help is on the way, but has not specified when. "I am aware of their demands…The government, with its partners inside and outside of the country, will bring relief to these people in flooded areas."

The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) is delivering emergency supplies to some 50 families displaced in these schools, while non-governmental organisations such as Islamic Relief are delivering food parcels to affected families.

But Youcef Ait Chellouche, disaster management coordinator at the IFRC, warns the problems are only beginning. “We need to be ready for potential epidemics – like cholera – to break out as the water starts to subside. We are closely monitoring this situation.”

Flooding worsened a cholera epidemic already underway in Dakar in 2005, which eventually infected more than 23,000 people.

IRIN 

El Malick Seck, editor-in-chief of 24 Heures Chrono, a Dakar-based daily newspaper who has been in detention, since his arrest on August 28, was on September 3, 2008 refused bail and moved to the country’s main prison.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that Seck has since been charged with five criminal offences.

The charges are: libelling President Abdoulaye Wade, disseminating wrong information, public slander, acts with intention to disrupt public order and to foment serious political troubles as well as concealment of administrative documents.

These charges are under the obnoxious Article 80 of the Criminal Code of Senegal that allows detentions, heavy fines and long prison terms of a minimum of three years and a maximum of five years. It also allows for a fine of FCFA 100,000 and FCFA 1.5 million (about US$233 and US$3489 dollars).
 
President Wade had in 2004 promised to repeal that law. 

These charges stemmed from an article on August 27, edition of the newspaper that linked President Wade and his son, Abdul Karim Wade to a case of money laundering.

The journalist is expected in court on September 5, and to be tried summarily.

Media Foundation for West Africa