UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 160, 98.3.6

IRIN-West Africa Update 160, 98.3.6


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 160 of Events in West Africa, (Friday) 6 March 1998

SIERRA LEONE: Preparations under way for Kabbah's return

Sierra Leone's Ambassador to the United States John Leigh said elected President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah would return to Freetown on Tuesday, 10 March, with a large entourage, Sierra Leone News reported. The chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Robert Mugabe, Nigerian leader General Sani Abacha in his capacity as ECOWAS chairman, Ivorian President Henri Konan Bedie, Guinean President Lansana Conte and Gambian leader Yayah Jammeh are all expected to attend the ceremony. Leigh said President Nelson Mandela of South Africa may also attend.

A UN source told IRIN that the mood was festive in Freetown as preparations were under way for Kabbah's return. Meanwhile, Sierra Leone News said various cultural groups had been contacted to participate in the ceremony. Local press reports said a citywide clean-up campaign had commenced. Calendars displaying Kabbah's picture captioned "father of the Sierra Leone democracy" were widely circulated in Freetown. Independent Star Radio reported on Friday that Sierra Leonean refugees residing in Conakry, capital of neighbouring Guinea, were beginning to return home in time for the ceremony.

ECOWAS briefs UN Security Council

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Committee of Five on Sierra Leone briefed the UN Security Council on its future role in the country mid-week, according to a Sierra Leone News report on Thursday. Nigerian Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi, head of the committee, said Kabbah had asked the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, to provide security throughout the country. Ikimi said the duration of EC0MOG's mission would depend on how fast it was able to re-establish security, disarm combatants and reorganise the army. He added that ECOMOG would need logistical support to disarm the fighters. ECOWAS also called on the UN to deploy military observers in Sierra Leone to work alongside ECOMOG in the disarmament exercise. Guinea, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger and Mali had indicated a willingness to contribute troops to ECOMOG but needed financial assistance, he added.

Humanitarian situation remains "serious"

A UN source told IRIN that the humanitarian situation was serious. Medicine was urgently needed in many Freetown hospitals as they had been stripped of drugs and equipment. Many patients had died for lack of treatment. Drugs, shelter and food were a priority in the northern city of Makeni, 150 kms north of Freetown. One-third of the population had been displaced by the recent fighting. An initial airlift of 3 mt of therapeutic food and one hospital kit had been flown to Makeni earlier in the week.

LIBERIA: High-level US delegation in Monrovia

US special envoy to Liberia, Ambassador Howard Jeter, arrived in Monrovia on a three-day mission with a 10-member strong delegation, media organisations reported on Thursday. The US delegation is expected to hold talks with Liberian President Charles Taylor. The Liberian government has set up five cabinet committees to facilitate consultations with the US officials from the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Treasury. The mission coincides with Taylor's growing desire for warmer US-Liberian ties, according to AFP.

UN envoy calls for funding

Felix Downes-Thomas, the UN Special Representative for Liberia, said withholding assistance to war-ravaged Liberia could engender the insecurity the international community was trying to avoid, independent Star Radio reported on Friday. Downes-Thomas said Liberians should be given a chance, but he admitted the international community might be apprehensive about the security situation and respect of human rights. The Liberian government was aware of this, he said.

GUINEA: Treason trial hears of ethnicity, conditions

The fourth day of the trial of 96 Guinean soldiers charged with treason following a 1996 mutiny which turned into a coup attempt, heard accusations of ethnic bias by the authorities, AFP reported on Friday. Lieutenant Mohamed Alpha Makane told the court he had been arrested simply because he was a member of the majority Mandingo ethnic group. Guinean President Lansana Conte is from the smaller southern Soussous ethnic group. A local media source discounted the charges of ethic bias, saying those arrested came from various ethnic groups and many top officers arrested belonged to Conte's Soussous group.

According to AFP, Makane also said the ECOMOG Guinean contingent in Liberia had lived in "miserable conditions". Many soldiers were killed in the line of duty and no compensation had been paid to the families of the deceased, he said. He added that the soldiers had asked to meet President Lansana Conte to air their grievances, but an audience had never been granted. He denied the mutineers had ever planned a coup d'etat, but said he had no regrets.

The AFP dispatch said another defendant, Lieutenant Mory Laye Kebe, who led the operation, earlier in the week disclosed some details of a secret accord reached between Conte and the mutineers which enabled Conte to take back power. The accord included providing adequate food supplies to the barracks, retiring "old colonels", pensions for ECOMOG soldiers wounded in active service, and the right of soldiers to participate in the territorial administration. No mention was made of an amnesty Conte was said to have promised to the mutineers.

The 1996 mutiny was over payment of salaries for all soldiers and the living conditions of Guinean soldiers serving with ECOMOG.

NIGERIA: Major oil refinery resumes production

Nigeria's biggest oil refinery based in Port Harcourt, 400 kms east of Lagos, is expected to start functioning next week, Reuters reported. The managing director of the refinery, Mansur Ahmed, told the Lagos-based daily, 'The Vanguard', that it would process 110,000 barrels of oil per day. He said the stoppage was due to power supply failure and lack of regular turnaround maintenance. Ahmed was confident rehabilitation of various units would be completed before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the French-based oil company, Total, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) signed a two-year agreement on Friday to rehabilitate the Kaduna oil refinery, 700 kms northeast of Lagos, AFP reported. Total would supervise and coordinate all work pertaining to the rehabilitation of the refinery which has the capacity to process 110,000 barrels a day.

WEST AFRICA: Cameroon says Nigeria using delaying tactics

Cameroon on Thursday accused Nigeria at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of delaying court proceedings so it could solidify occupation of the swamp-ridden Bakassi peninsula and block development of its natural resources, Reuters reported on Thursday. A leading member of Cameroon's delegation, Douala Moutoume, said during the four years the case was filed, Nigeria had brought electricity and water services, and built police stations in the impoverished fishing villages. The longer Nigeria could prolong the court proceedings, the more the inhabitants would become dependent on Nigeria, Moutoune added.

Cameroon said it filed the case with the UN court in 1994 only as a last resort after exhausting "persuasion, patience and legal argument" to resolve the border dispute. Moutoume said Nigeria did not understand this kind of approach.

On the first day of the proceedings, Nigerian Justice Minister Abdullahi Ibrahim said Cameroon's application to the court had come as a "complete surprise", AFP reported. Ibrahim said Cameroon had acted prematurely in view of the countries' close bilateral relations.

The preliminary hearings are due to conclude next week Wednesday and a judgement will come in several weeks. The Bakassi peninsula is thought to hold significant oil reserves.

Abidjan, 6 March 1998, 19:00 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: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 19:10:33 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 160, 98.3.6 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980306190451.18541A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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