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IRIN-WA Update 164 of Events in West Africa, (Thursday) 12 March 1998
WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS divided over joint force
Two days after it had formally restored democracy in Sierra Leone, the Nigerian-led West African intervention force ECOMOG became a focus for controversy between Nigeria and the rest of the region, AFP reported on Thursday. Foreign, defence and interior ministers of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, met on Wednesday night in the Ivorian political capital, Yamoussoukro, to set up a regional mechanism for the prevention and management of future conflicts. The two-day ministerial meeting started a day late as the Nigerian foreign minister Tom Ikimi was attending President Kabbah's re-instatement ceremonies in Freetown, Sierra Leone on Wednesday.
In Yamoussoukro ECOWAS ministers focused on what should be the nature, the funding and the operational features of a regional intervention force. Ikimi told the meeting that ECOMOG was "not perfect" and required "strengthening." He added: "We must counter any initiative that would seek to weaken and divide us." AFP said this was an apparent reference to recent French-led joint manoeuvres involving Mali, Mauritania and Senegal along the border between the latter two. The ten-day exercise also involved troops from Britain and the United States and finished on 1 March. Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry and Guinea-Bissau sent observers.
Senegal's Moustapha Niasse, speaking as doyen of ECOWAS foreign ministers, retorted that "no-one" would ever prevent his "or any other country" from staging manoeuvres "as they like". He stressed that defence policies were a matter of state sovereignty and claimed the recent manoeuvres did not involve any split between French- and English-speaking countries. Cote d'Ivoire Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan was quoted as saying that "innovative initiatives" with regard to peace-keeping forces must be taken into account.
Ghana's Rawlings urges France to boost regional ties
Ghana's President, Jerry Rawlings, called on France on Thursday to refrain from "encouraging the emergence of parallel groups" and instead to "strengthen regional co-operation," AFP reported . Rawlings made the call as he met Antoine Pouillieute, director-general of French development aid fund Caisse francaise de developpement (CFD). The Ghanaian president's comments coincided with the ECOWAS ministerial meeting in Yamoussoukro. Rawlings stressed to the French official that the emergence of "parallel" groups, such as the West African economic and monetary union (Union economique et monetaire ouest-africaine, UEMOA), could undermine larger regional groupings such as ECOWAS. UEMOA was set up in 1995 and apart from Guinea-Bissau groups only French-speaking countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo). The same countries are also members of the 23 year-old CEDEAO, along with Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Rawlings accepted that through its new African policy France had boosted its assistance to the region. On this basis, France should promote co-operation between Africans and assist them in conflict management as the United States is currently doing, Rawlings added. Pouillieute said France's new policy focused on assistance to poverty relief, and that his agency wished to increase operations in Ghana beyond the $20 million it invested there in 1997.
SIERRA LEONE: Re-instated government faces "huge problems"
Two days after President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was formally re-instated, government officials said they were confronted by "huge problems", AFP reported on Thursday. Seven years of civil war have left the country devastated, and media reports said that the military junta which toppled Kabbah in May 1997 had left government coffers practically empty after spending an estimated $70 million of public monies. AFP added that a British cargo plane flew into Freetown carrying some 600 MTs of hardware, vehicles and office equipment for the government. It quoted operation chief Keith Martin of the British Department of International Development, as saying that the consignment was "part of a package from London to help re-establish the machinery of the Sierra Leone government. Another consignment worth $656,000 is due on Sunday, he said.
Meanwhile the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) called for all newspapers registered with the toppled junta to "cease publication immediately."
NIGERIA: Churches slam Abacha
A Christian church body said it was "morally and democratically wrong" for General Sani Abacha, the Nigerian ruler, to stand as a civilian candidate for the presidency, local newspapers reported on Thursday. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said it "deplored the campaign for General Abacha's transformation into a civilian president." CAN issued a statement after officials from across the country met in the town of Kaduna on Wednesday. Abacha ousted an unelected civilian government in 1993 and pledged to restore democracy in October 1998. A presidential election is scheduled in August.
Ministry denies fuel scarcity reports
The ministry of petroleum resources denied newspaper reports quoting the minister, Chief Dan Etete, as saying that the current fuel scarcity in some parts of the country would continue until September. Instead the government hopes that repairs can return refineries to full capacity before the end of its current tenure.
NIGER: "Nowhere near the end of crises," premier says
Niger is "nowhere near the end of its crises," the country's prime minister, Ibrahim Hassan Mayaki, said on Thursday, a day after the capital's university was closed for "security" reasons, AFP reported. Talking to the press in Paris after speaking to local businessmen, Mayaki said the government must "adopt a crisis-control strategy based on open dialogue, whether it be with students or with the military, whose demands are mostly of a material nature." Mutinies stopped earlier this month when the government paid two months' salary arrears.
BURKINA FASO: All-party pre-election talks
The government and political parties met in Ouagadougou on Wednesday to discuss various practical aspects of the mid-November presidential election, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported. An administrative census is currently under way and voters' registers will be established beginning next month, the interior minister said. However the government and opposition parties were at odds over the need for a new, independent electoral commission. The government is happy with the existing body while the opposition wants a new commission to monitor the entire electoral process.
GAMBIA: President in Morocco for talks on Western Sahara
Gambia's President and Chairman of the UN Security Council Yahya Jammeh arrived in Morocco on Thursday for a three-day working visit, AFP reported. Jammeh, who took the Security Council chair earlier this month, will meet King Hassan to discuss Africa's political situation and Western Sahara. He will fly on to Tunisia and Libya.
Abidjan, 12 March 1998, 18:40 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: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 18:39:18 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 164, 98.3.12 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980312182336.10880A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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