UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 141, 98.02.09

IRIN-West Africa Update 141, 98.02.09


U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

Tel: +225 21-73-54 Fax: +225 21-63-35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 141 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday to Monday) 6-9 February 1998

SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG and AFRC fight for control of Freetown

Troops of the Nigerian-led West African intervention force ECOMOG sought to wrest control of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown at the weekend from the ruling Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), media reports and IRIN sources. The AFRC, 12 civilians had been killed in three days of artillery and mortar fire, which saw the front line approach to within 10 km of the city. Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) also told IRIN some 91 people had been treated at Freetown's hospital, most suffering from shrapnel wounds.

On Sunday, ECOMOG troops reportedly captured the strategically important village of Regent, which partially overlooks Freetown and controls one of only three access routes into the city. Local sources in Freetown told IRIN fierce fighting had also reached the Wellington and Waterloo townships on the other two remaining roads. "Freetown may now be effectively cut off," one Western military analyst told IRIN.

The BBC reported that if ECOMOG succeeded in cutting off the Freetown peninsula, it would effectively trap the AFRC and half a million people in the Freetown area. Freetown itself was reportedly quiet on Monday, however, following an extension by five hours of a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed at the weekiend.

UN to set up liaison office

In his latest report to the Security Council released on Friday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he favoured re-establishing a United Nations liaison office in Sierra Leone. According to UN Central News, Annan also recommended sending as many as ten military staff to Sierra Leone. However, he stopped short of requesting the set up of a full UN peacekeeping mission. He said such a force would be "premature".

Meanwhile, the office of UN Special Envoy for Sierra Leone Francis Okelo told IRIN a UN security assessment team, which had planned to visit Freetown this week, would be delayed. "We are monitoring the situation," the mission security advisor said.

LIBERIA: New Special Representative to start mission

The new Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Liberia, Felix Downes-Thomas, left New York for the Liberian capital Monrovia at the weekend, UN Central News reported. Downes-Thomas told reporters on Friday he would focus on facilitating the reconciliation process taking place in Liberia after the end of the seven-year civil war. Other priorities included ensuring the resettlement of those affected by war and the mobilisation of resources for reconstruction in Liberia.

CHAD: Frenchmen freed by kidnappers

Four French citizens kidnapped last week in Chad have been freed unharmed by their abductors, news reports said on Monday. The four, who were seized in a game park in the southern Sahr region last Tuesday said they had been held in a cave and had been well treated by their captors.

They said the kidnappers, members of a small political party called the Union of Democratic Forces told them they had been taken hostage as part of their fight against the authorities. The four were quoted as telling a news conference in the capital Ndjamena that their captors fled without putting up a fight as government troops approached the cave in which they were hiding.

MAURITANIA: Anti-slavery activists on trial

Three anti-slavery activists have gone on trial in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on charges of spreading false allegations of slavery, news reports said Monday. The three, Sheikh Saad Bouh, president of the Mauritanian Human Rights Association, Boubacar Messaoud, head of SOS Slavery, and a lawyer, Brahim Ould Ebetti, were arrested last month after taking part in a French television documentary on slavery in Mauritania.

Slavery was officially outlawed in the early 1980s, but the human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has claimed it is still practised. The three activists were being defended by French and Senegalese lawyers hired by the International Human Rights Federation.

GAMBIA: Private radio station forced to close

The Gambian government has ordered a private radio station in the capital Banjul to stop broadcasting, two days after the owner of the station and a journalist were arrested, AFP reported on Saturday. No official reason was given for the closure order or the two arrests. However, informed sources speculated to AFP that the clampdown was linked to information broadcast by Radio New Citizen concerning Gambia's National Intelligence Agency.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Army launches anti-mine campaign

The Guinea-Bissau army launched an anti-mine campaign on Saturday by blowing up 2,300 mines from its own stockpiles, AFP reported. The mine clearance operation, which took place some 20 km from the capital Bissau, was attended by several members of the Guinea-Bissau government and foreign diplomats. Guinea-Bissau defence minister Samba Lamine Mane told AFP, the exercise was in the spirit of last December's Ottawa convention forbidding the manufacture and use of anti-personnel mines.

However mines from Guinea-Bissau have also been trafficked into neighbouring Senegal and used by seperatist fighters in the Casamance region, AFP said. Several Guinea-Bissau officers were arrested last week on suspicion of selling weapons to Cassamance seperatists, AFP reported.

Abidjan, 9 February 1998 18:00 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]

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 18:10:59 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 141, 98.02.09 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980209180628.27527A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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