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IRIN-WA Update 125 of Events in West Africa, (Friday) 16 January 1998
[As a supplement to its weekly round-ups of main events in West Africa, IRIN-WA will produce a daily synopsis of reports on the region. IRIN issues these reports for the benefit of the humanitarian community but accepts no responsibility as to the accuracy of the original source.]
SIERRA LEONE: UN Special Envoy meets AFRC
United Nations Special Envoy for Sierra Leone Francis Okelo met the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) leadership in Freetown this week. Okelo told IRIN on Friday he had a "vigorous and frank" exchange of views. "I was not there to negotiate," he said, "but to see what the state of the peace process was." The AFRC told Okelo they were committed to handing over power to ousted civilian president Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in April 1998, as stipulated by the Conakry accords signed by the parties to the conflict last October.
Nevertheless, he said, the AFRC saw problems with the peace process. The AFRC maintained the Sierra Leone army should not be included in any disarmament programme as its duty was to defend the country. Foday Sankoh, leader of the former rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), now allied to the AFRC, must be released. The AFRC also criticised the leading role of Nigeria in the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, based in Sierra Leone, he said.
Okelo told IRIN he would report the AFRC position to the UN Secretary-General. "ECOWAS and the AFRC need to meet and take stock of the situation," Okelo said.
ECOWAS concerns
Meanwhile, Lansana Kouyate, Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has said "there are obstacles" in the application of the Conakry peace plan, AFP reported. It said Kouyate had made the remarks following a meeting with Guinean President Lansana Conte on Thursday.
Police arrest AFRC soldiers
Police in Freetown claimed on Friday they had arrested two AFRC soldiers, AFP reported. According to the news agency, the soldiers were arrested for the murder of a businessman on Wednesday. A third suspect was reportedly still at large.
A humanitarian source in Freetown told IRIN the killing caused angry scenes in the west of the capital. AFP also reported youths had chanted slogans against the AFRC and stopped security forces removing the body so Okelo's UN delegation would see the murdered man. AFRC spokesman Lieutenant Colonel John Milton said the killing was being investigated.
Travellers attacked
Unconfirmed reports claimed Kamajor militias have recently attacked and killed travellers on the main road between Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, and the second city of Bo in the east of the country, AFP reported on Friday. According to the news agency, travellers reaching Freetown said they had counted over 25 bodies "littering" the road. Traffic between the two cities was reportedly now at a trickle.
LIBERIA: Defence gets 82 percent of budget
The Liberian government announced on Thursday it would spend 82 percent of its 1998 budget on defence. According to an official statement quoted by media sources, 7.6 percent of the US$ 41 million total budget will go to education. Health was allocated 6.4 percent. In a statement, President Charles Taylor urged his cabinet to "think about the people first and not ourselves". He added: "We must be sure everything we do is done in good faith."
Local sources in Monrovia told IRIN on Friday the declaration amazed them. "I cannot believe all this money is going to be spent on the army when Liberia has just finished a war," one source said.
NIGER: Opposition demands plot charges be dropped
Niger's opposition Mouvement National pour la Societe de Developpement (MNSD) on Thursday called for the release of four detained supporters and for all charges to be dropped against some seven others implicated in a plot earlier this month to assassinate the president, AFP reported. Among the accused is former prime minister and MNSD leader Hama Amadou, who was released on bail a week ago. The MNSD said its supporters were themselves victims of a plot. Meeting their demands, a party statement said, would "prove" President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara was "sincere in his desire to improve [Niger's] political situation".
Cracks in opposition
Meanwhile, Mainassara this week held talks with Mahamane Ousmane, the former president he overthrew in a coup two years ago, AFP reported Thursday. Ousmane, leader of the eight-party opposition coalition Front pour la Restauration et la Defense de la Democratie (FRDD) had reportedly agonised for some days before going ahead with the meeting. The MNSD, a dissenting member of the coalition, however dismissed the talks as aimed at "cajoling" donors. It said the meeting added no new proposals towards resolving the political crisis which has persisted since the opposition boycott of the November 1996 legislative elections. The deputy leader of the Parti Nigerien pour la Democratie and le Socialisme, Mohammed Bazoum, also criticised the talks as "another wasted meeting".
Ousmane's Convention Democratique et Sociale (CDS), however, described Bazoum's reaction as "prejudiced". A CDS statement quoted by AFP said: "We should refrain from anticipating and speculating, because negotiations have yet to open."
NIGERIA: Amnesty International calls for activist's release
The human rights watchdog, Amnesty International (AI), in a statement on Thursday, called for the immediate and unconditional release of human rights activist Chima Ubani if he is not prompty charged and tried. Ubani, the secretary-general of the Democratic Alternative (DA), was arrested on Wednesday by Nigerian security agents.
Oil spill clean-up operation underway
Boats and helicopters have been mobilised to help clean up a 40,000-barrel oil spill off the southeastern coast of Nigeria, the BBC reported. Mobil Oil, which is responsible for spill, said rough conditions were hampering the clean-up operation. It said its main concern was to keep the slick away from the coast, where more than 30,000 people live.
According to the BBC, many of the region's inhabitants are fishermen whose livelihood is at stake. Environmentalists accused the foreign oil companies operating in Nigeria of "paying less attention to standards than they might in the Western world".
GHANA: Gold slump threat to economy, Rawlings says
President Jerry Rawlings said on Thursday the slump in the world gold price posed a threat to the Ghanaian economy, AFP reported. Opening parliament, Rawlings said the price of gold was at its lowest for almost 20 years. He said losses suffered by the mining industry would affect the economy "for some time to come" even if there was a rapid recovery. Gold is Ghana's top export earner.. An estimated US $ 621 million worth of gold was exported in 1997.
WEST AFRICA: New AIDS awareness campaign launched
Ivorian health minister Maurice Guikahue on Thursday launched an AIDS awareness campaign targetted mainly at lorry drivers on the road from Cote d'Ivoire to Burkina Faso, AFP reported. Condom-vending machines and promotion posters, will line roads from the capital, Abidjan, to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. Guikahue said drivers were particularly vulnerable because they travelled for long periods away from home in "tempting environments". The campaign also aims at young female vendors, who sell refreshments at various stops along the road. The new campaign is intended to reduce current infection rates which stand at 11 percent of the Ivorian population, and seven percent in Burkina Faso. In coming weeks the campaign will be extended to Mali.
Abidjan, 16 January 1998, 19:30 gmt
[ends]
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]
FDate: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 19:34:25 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 125, 98.1.16 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980116192709.15295A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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