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CONTENTS:
TOGO: UEMOA summit appeals for resumed aid to Lome GUINEA: Secret police frees journalist GUINEA: Tanker attacked by machine guns, rockets off Guinea COTE D'IVOIRE: Arrest warrant issued for opposition politician COTE D'IVOIRE: Ivorian power grid to connect Burkina Faso
TOGO: UEMOA summit appeals for resumed aid to Lome
Leaders of the seven-nation Union economique et monetaire ouest-africaine (UEMOA) ended their day-long summit on Wednesday with an appeal to the European Union to resume aid to Togo, Reuters reported. The EU cut off aid after the disputed 1993 elections, won by incumbent President Gnassingbe Eyadema.
The main opposition parties boycotted a parliamentary election in March because they said that the main opposition politician, Gilchrist Olympio, had been robbed of victory in the presidential polls.
UEMOA comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
GUINEA: Secret police frees journalist
Police have released Guinean journalist Aboubacar Sylla
after 48 hours of detention for unspecified reasons,
AFP reported family members as saying on Tuesday. Sylla,
a newspaper reporter for `l'Independant', was arrested
at his home early Saturday by about 10 state security
police agents, AFP said quoting family sources. Police
closed down the weekly newspaper on Wednesday. The
paper had reported on a corruption investigation that
made serious accusations against an influential member
of government, AFP said. Until March, Sylla had worked
as a communications adviser to former prime minister
Sidya Toure.
GUINEA: Tanker attacked by machine guns, rockets off
Guinea
A Liberian-registered tanker came under heavy machine
gun and rocket fire off the coast of Guinea after unidentified
attackers failed to board the ship, Lloyds Shipping
Intelligence Service said on Tuesday.
Reuters reported that the 29,998 dwt vessel Louise - identified as an ``oil/molasses tanker'' - was idling about 18 nautical miles off Guinea on Monday, when approached by a grey craft firing its machine guns containing around 15 people wearing brown uniforms, Lloyds said. Nobody was injured in the 30 minute assault in which rockets were used.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Arrest warrant issued for opposition politician
Ivorian authorities have issued an arrest warrant for opposition politician Alassane Ouattara who is insisting on his right to run against Henri Konan Bedie in presidential elections next year.The warrant issued on 29 November by an examining magistrate has been issued on the grounds of Ouattara's alleged fraud and the use of forged documents to support his eligibility to run in the elections in October 2000.
A defiant Ouattara has announced his intention to return home before the end of December and a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry (le Quai d'Orsay), Anne Gazeau-Secret, has criticised the arrest order.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Ivorian power grid to connect Burkina Faso
Cote d'Ivoire's electricity grid will be linked to neighbouring Burkina Faso from January and studies are under way to extend the link to Guinea and Mali, Reuters reported Ivorian Energy Minister Safiatou Ba N'Daw as saying on Wednesday at a seminar on private investment in energy in Abidjan.
Cote d'Ivoire already exports electricity to Benin, Ghana and Togo. This year, Cote d'Ivoire plans to increase the generation capacity of its Azito power station near Abidjan from 150 to 300 megawatts. The plant's full capacity is 420 megawatts.
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-2126
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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