Minister of Health and Disease Control Issa Lamine of Niger

The WHO warned of a serious outbreak of meningitis in neighbouring states including Burkina Faso and Mali.

Nigers Health minister Issa Lamine has rejected appeals by the medical aid group to resume a nutritional programme for malnourished children, saying they refused to cooperate with public services and misled officials by providing false statistics about children suffering from malnutrition as a measure to source more funding from donors.

Let MSF leave, and let state deploy the means needed to take charge of the peoples health, Minister Lamine said on a national radio.

In comments broadcast by state radio, Lamine described the situation at Maradi as not dramatic and said Niger's health authorities could handle it.

HIV/AIDS advocates should submit concrete and effective proposals toreduce mother-to-child HIV transmission in Africa, Nigerian HealthMinister Issa Lamine said ahead of the African Synergies Conference, Xinhua News Agency reports.

Lamine said he would give jobs to the 350 local staff that MSF was preparing to lay off.

Lamine said the situation was "not dramatic," but MSF President Marie Pierre Allie has disputed those claims, the BBC reported Wednesday.