UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 148, 98.2.18

IRIN-West Africa Update 148, 98.2.18


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 148 of Events in West Africa, (Wednesday) 18 February 1998

SIERRA LEONE: AFRC and Kamajors fight for Bo

Kamajor militia loyal to Sierra Leone's civilian president, Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, had to defend the second city, Bo, on Tuesday against troops from the deposed Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), media reports said. AFP reported aid agency offices were also looted during the attack. A Sierra Leone analyst in the capital, Freetown, told IRIN Bo's capture by the AFRC would be seen as a set-back for the Nigerian-led West African intervention force, ECOMOG, which supports Kabbah. Last week, ECOMOG vowed to completely defeat the AFRC after it wrested control of Freetown, Bo and other major cities from the military government with the help of Kabbah's militias. According to the source, Sierra Leone could now be dangerously close to more widespread civil war.

UN humanitarian assessment team in Freetown

The Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Sierra Leone, Francis Okelo, led a humanitarian assessment team into Freetown on Wednesday, the UN relief co-ordination office in Guinea told IRIN. A UN spokesman in New York earlier said Okelo's team would first stop at ECOMOG's main base at Lungi, outside Freetown. The team would carry emergency supplies and conduct an assessment of humanitarian needs, he said. According to the spokesman, UNHCR estimated some 4,500 refugees had now crossed into Guinea from Sierra Leone since the upsurge in fighting in Freetown on 6 February.

West African foreign ministers expected in Freetown

Ministers from Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea, who make up the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Committee of Five on Sierra Leone, were expected in Freetown on Wednesday, media reports said. According to a Nigerian military spokesman in Lagos quoted by Reuters, they would advise Kabbah when to return to Sierra Leone from neighbouring Guinea. State radio in Freetown said the Sierra Leonean government had set up a supervisory task force in the city to act on its behalf until Kabbah's return. Civil servants reportedly went back to work in large numbers on Tuesday in response to a government order to resume their posts. Some businesses also reopened, Reuters said.

Wounded Nigerian troops return home

Some 150 Nigerian troops wounded in the battle for Freetown were taken back to Lagos at the weekend for urgent medical treatment, Nigerian opposition radio said on Monday. According to the report, the Nigerian government had not given any casualty figures for the recent fighting in Sierra Leone. However, unofficial sources quoted by Radio Kudirat said some 300 troops had been killed and 500 wounded. According to Radio Kudirat's sources, another 300 soldiers were missing in action, while 450 had deserted the army. The Nigerian government denied the reports.

Aid workers abducted

Two staff members from the NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Sierra Leone were reported abducted on Tuesday, bringing to seven the number of Western aid workers kidnapped by retreating AFRC soldiers, media reports said. AFP quoted MSF's office in Paris as reporting, Jean Bernard, a French logistician, and Milton Tectonidis, a Canadian doctor, were on an assessment mission north of Freetown when they disappeared on Saturday afternoon. Church workers earlier told Reuters three Spaniards, an Italian, an Austrian, a Cameroonian and a Sierra Leonean, who were all working as missionaries, were also being held at Lunsar, 60 km northeast of Freetown.

NIGERIA: Seven Nigerian officers still being questioned over coup

A Nigerian defence ministry spokesman said authorities were still questioning seven military officers over an alleged plot to overthrow Nigerian Head of State General Sani Abacha last December, AFP reported on Wednesday. According to the news agency, some 25 people, including Abacha's deputy General Oladipo Diya, had already appeared before the special tribunal set up in Jos to hear the case, which opened on Saturday.

A source close to the tribunal told IRIN that news agency reports that the trial had resumed after the weekend were incorrect. The trial would in fact only start on Thursday. According to the source, the case would continue into March, but was "straightforward".

Press freedom group protests trial of journalist

The Paris-based press freedom group, Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), protested against the inclusion of Nigerian journalist Niran Malaolu in the coup plot trial, Reuters reported. RSF said the editor of the independent newspaper 'The Diet' had been given no reason for his arrest. "Nigeria is one of the African countries where freedom of expression is most systematically violated," RSF was quoted as saying.

Students will disrupt trial

Nigerian opposition radio reported that students from the University of Jos have threatened to disrupt the trial. According to Radio Kudirat, some 1,000 riot police have been deployed in Jos in the event "troublemakers" invaded the city.

SENEGAL: Massive human rights violations in Senegal

The London-based human rights group, Amnesty International (AI), said the government of Senegal and separatist rebels had seriously violated human rights in the southern province of Casamance, the BBC reported on Tuesday. AI said security forces routinely used torture on people accused of collaborating with the rebels, at times electrocuting or savagely beating suspects. Many arrested people had simply disappeared.

Amnesty also said the main rebel group, the Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), had continued to kill villagers who refuse to give them food or money, or those they suspected of collaborating with the government.

Separatists kill seven

Armed men believed to belong to the MFDC killed seven people in a fishing village in northern Casamance on Tuesday, AFP reported. According to the news agency, 20 attackers also looted shops in Saloulou village, stealing food items and a considerable sum of money. The same night, another person was killed and one injured in a separate attack on another nearby village, AFP said.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Amnesty International on Tuesday said it was concerned at the treatment of suspects rounded up by the Equatorial Guinea authorities following separatist attacks in Bioko island last month. The human rights group said at least four people had died in detention after being tortured.

Amnesty said one of the victims, Carmelo Yeck Bohopo, 60, had been arrested after a church service and had died in custody on 9 February three days after a "severe beating". "Scores of other people have been arrested following attacks on the military barracks on 21 January and AI has received reports that many of them have been tortured," it said. "At least three other people are also reported to have died as a result."

Most of those held were members of the minority Bubi ethnic group native to Bioko. The authorities have blamed the attacks on the separatist Movimiento para la Autodeterminacion de la Isla de Bioko (MAIB).

CAMEROON: Government inquiry into fuel train disaster

The Cameroonian government has set up a commission of inquiry into last week's fuel train disaster, which killed 150 people, news agencies reported on Wednesday. Some 100 others were left with severe burns when local people rushed to collect fuel spilling from a derailed tanker train, Cameroonian authorities said. According to PANA, the death toll is expected to rise as more people succumb to their injuries.

WEST AFRICA: Nigerian finance minister says monetary union on course

Nigeria's Finance Minister, Anthony Ani, announced on Tuesday West African monetary union was still on course despite the cancellation of a summit on Monday to discuss a single currency, Reuters reported. According to Ani, West African finance ministers had reached consensus on a single monetary zone. He did not elaborate further.

A West African economist told IRIN on Wednesday most observers remained sceptical differences between English and French-speaking states in particular had been resolved. "The Francophone countries will want to keep their existing common currency because it is backed by France not Nigeria," the source said.

Abidjan, 18 February, 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]

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Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 10:42:59 +0300 (GMT+0300) Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 148, 98.2.18 Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.980219104017.5117C-100000@dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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