UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 146, 98.2.16

IRIN-West Africa Update 146, 98.2.16


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 146 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday-Monday) 14-16 February 1998

SIERRA LEONE: AFRC vows to fight on

As the Nigerian-led West African intervention force ECOMOG consolidated its hold of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, Major Johnny Paul Koroma, chairman of the toppled Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), vowed at the weekend his forces would fight on, the BBC reported. Speaking on a satellite telephone from a location he said was in the hills above Freetown, Koroma denied ECOMOG had arrested senior AFRC officials. "We are going to fight back," Koroma said.

However, a BBC correspondent in Freetown reported AFRC soldiers were now rushing to surrender to ECOMOG. By Sunday as many as 250 senior AFRC officials had given themselves up, AFP said. Nevertheless, some Freetown residents took the opportunity to settle old scores by turning on AFRC members. According to an eyewitness quoted by AFP, rampaging youth had killed at least 10 AFRC soldiers. ECOMOG's commander in Sierra Leone, Colonel Max Khobe, warned against reprisal killings on Sunday. He also said anyone caught looting would be shot on sight. "There should be no resentment killing," he said.

Meanwhile, retreating AFRC soldiers abducted six monks and an aid worker from Lunsar, 80 km northeast of Freetown on Saturday , AFP reported. Quoting an Italian missionary agency, AFP said soldiers from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) wing of the AFRC carried out the kidnappings.

Commodities in scarce supply

Meanwhile, concern grew at the weekend over a shortage of supplies in Freetown, media reports said. According to AFP, looting of remaining supplies had worsened the food crisis. A bag of rice now cost the equivalent of two months' salary, the news agency reported. However, WFP announced on Thursday that it would ship some 580 mt of food to Freetown in an urgent effort to feed some 500,000 people trapped by the fighting in Sierra Leone. According to WFP, the ship would reach Freetown by Wednesday morning. WFP's food stocks in Sierra Leone ran out last month. On Friday, the UN Security Council also called for immediate humanitarian assistance to Sierra Leone.

Bo and Kenema fall to Kamajors

Media reports also said Sierra Leone's second city, Bo, and the eastern provincial capital, Kenema, fell at the weekend to Kamajor militia loyal to Sierra Leone's ousted civilian president Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The two cities had been under increasing pressure throughout last week from Kamajors, who were reinforced by ECOMOG troops from bases in Liberia, media reports said. According to the Monrovia-based independent Star Radio, eight AFRC soldiers in Bo were burned alive by angry youths after the city fell. Correspondents in both cities said local people welcomed the Kamajors.

LIBERIA: AFRC arrests violated Liberian sovereignty

Meanwhile in Liberia, President Charles Taylor demanded ECOMOG hand over AFRC officials arrested on Friday, when two helicopters they were using to escape Freetown were forced to land in the capital, Monrovia, by an ECOMOG jet. In a radio broadcast reported by AFP, Taylor said Liberia was a sovereign state and should take charge of the AFRC detainees. Taylor said that a low-level flight by an ECOMOG jet over the presidential Executive Mansion on Friday was "an act of provocation". Taylor also demanded ECOMOG remove its tanks from parts of Monrovia and Robertsfield international airport.

ECOMOG force commander, Major General Timothy Shelpidi, however, told AFP he had arrested the AFRC officials for breaking the UN ban on travel by AFRC members. "We do not need permission from the government to enforce a UN embargo," he said.

AFP reported a further 15 members of the AFRC had also been arrested crossing Sierra Leone's border with Guinea. On Friday, Guinean security forces surrounded the Lebanese embassy in the capital, Conakry, on rumours Koroma would ask for asylum at the mission. The BBC announced on Sunday that Koroma was now reported to be heading for Liberia by way of Kailahun, in the northeast of the country.

NIGERIA: Detained leaders at military tribunal on coup charges

Twenty-six people have gone on trial in Nigeria accused of plotting to overthrow General Sani Abacha's military government, news organisations reported. If found guilty the suspects could face execution by firing squad. The main defendant, General Oladipo Diya, Abacha's former deputy, said he had been "set up" by people "high up" in the government. Diya said that he was "surprised that the chief of army staff, who is the mastermind (General Ishaya Bamayi), is not here". His remarks were made when the trial opened before a military tribunal on Saturday. Only the opening session was public.

The tribunal's chairman, Major General Victor Malu, said that the trial would be "fair", adding that the suspects would have unrestricted access to documents and information they needed to defend themselves. Some of the defendants had complained earlier that they had not been allowed their reading glassses or adequate lighting to prepare a defense. The defendants would be allowed military lawyers of their choice approved by the tribunal.

The trial was scheduled to continue on Monday behind closed doors. Among the 15 army officers and 10 civilians on trial were former government ministers, security officers, policemen, Diya's political advisor, a newspaper editor and a secretary.

Western countries and local human rights groups have demanded a fair and transparent hearing for the alleged plotters.

West African finance ministers meet in Abuja

West African finance ministers and central bank directors on Monday met in Abuja, Nigeria's federal capital, to discuss the adoption of a single currency for Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) countries, AFP reported. The meeting was to be followed by a mini-summit on Tuesday of heads of state of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria to discuss the situation in Sierra Leone following the ousting of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) by West African ECOMOG peacekeepers.

CAMEROON: Fuel explosion claims up to 120 lives

As many as 120 people were killed on Saturday, when a fuel cargo train crashed and exploded into flames on the outskirts of Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital, news organisations reported. The tanker train crashed off the rails after colliding with an oncoming train. Many of the victims were taxi drivers who had joined crowds who had rushed to scoop fuel gushing from the ruptured tanks shortly before the explosion, rescue workers told the BBC. A few bodies, which were burned beyond recognition, lay in heaps of ash at the scene. The blast was apparently sparked by a lighted cigarette.

On Monday, a team of specialist French doctors and nurses arrived in Yaounde to assist the Cameroonian health authorties treat those suffering from extensive burns. Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge, meanwhile, promised assistance to help the victims after visiting the scene of the disaster.

GUINEA: Opposition demands president's resignation

Opposition leaders in Guinea have called for the resignation of President Lansana Conte, AFP reported at the weekend. Mamadou Ba, president of the Coordination de l'Opposition Democratique (CODEM), said a 1996 army mutiny, which turned into an attempted coup, was a rejection of Conte. "He should take the wise decision to resign, even just out of pride," Ba said.

The trial of 96 soldiers charged in connection with the failed coup opened last Thursday in the capital Conakry. Some 50 people were killed and 300 injured during the mutiny.

Abidjan, 16 February 1998, 18:50 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]

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Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 19:06:23 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 146, 98.2.16 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980216190452.14611A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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