Niamey—In the Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (EmONC) simulation room at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey, future specialists train to manage complications before facing real-life situations. Among them, Dr Amina Garba Amadou, a fourth-year obstetrics and gynecology resident, spends several hours each week practicing on a neonatal mannequin. This tool reproduces critical situations and concretely transforms her learning.

Niamey—In a small camp set up on the outskirts of Gueskérrou, a locality in the Diffa region in Niger near the Nigerian border, Amina, 34, describes the conditions in which she has lived since fleeing insecurity in her home village. Now a refugee at this site, she was no longer certain her children could access essential health services. She recalls the unexpected visit of the vaccination team as an important moment for her family: “Health workers arrived with coolers of vaccines and registers.

Niamey – In Niger, West Africa’s largest country by land surface, access to health care services is a major challenge. Just one in two people has access to health services. One of the ways to bridge the gap is through mobile clinics in remote areas and deploying medical teams from health districts to villages. 

Niamey – When 19-year-old Aichatou, from Birni in the Dosso region, found out she was pregnant with her first child in 2023, her hope was for a smooth pregnancy and safe delivery. But she was reluctant to visit a health centre. “My sisters told me the staff don’t pay enough attention to women during antenatal checkups, and that the care is often slow,” she says. 

Niamey ‒ In Niger, efforts are underway to mainstream screening for gynaecological cancers into primary health care services thanks to the WHO PEN approach, a WHO programme that aims to integrate the management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) into basic health care. This initiative, in its pilot phase, is being carried out in Mayahi District, Maradi Region, in the centre south of the country.

Located in the African meningitis belt, Niger is one of the 26 ‘hyperendemic’ African countries for meningitis. The country is currently facing a rapid increase in the number of cases, with a 50% rise on the previous year.

 In week 16 of 2024, Niger reported a total of 2012 cases of meningitis with 123 deaths, representing a case-fatality rate of 6.1%. This is a worrying increase compared with the same period last year, when 1,389 cases were recorded, with 72 deaths (case-fatality rate: 5.2%).

Niamey – “Six months ago I went for check-up …  I thought it was something simple like flu, but my illness was much more serious,” says Ali, 47, from Talladje district of Niger’s capital Niamey. “I was diagnosed with tuberculosis and HIV.”

Niamey – Mariam, a mother of five living in Kantché, a rural community in Niger's southern Zinder region, remembers the difficult time she went through earlier this year when two of her five children were hospitalized at the same time. “First, it was my nine-year-old son who came home with a strong cough, complaining of a sore throat. He coughed all night and it only got worse. He was finally hospitalized at the Kantché health centre, where his 11-year-old sister also fell ill and, in the end, both were lying there fighting the deadly disease.