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IRIN-WA Update 186 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday-Tuesday) 11-14 April 1998
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG final push
The Nigerian-led West African intervention force in Sierra Leone, ECOMOG, launched a final push at the weekend against troops from the deposed Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) holding out in the east of the country, ECOMOG's commander told IRIN on Tuesday. According to Major General Timothy Shelpidi, the assault would clear Kono and Kailahun districts of all major resistance. "We are working very hard to push the AFRC from the towns," he said. However, Shelpidi said ECOMOG could not guarantee AFRC remnants would not use guerrilla tactics to destabilise rural areas.
Earlier on Monday, Reuters quoted ECOMOG's commander in Sierra Leone, Colonel Maxwell Khobe, as saying ECOMOG forces were already at the outskirts of the AFRC's stronghold at Koidu, some 260 km east of the capital, Freetown. AFRC forces were "divided into pockets" and fighting in different directions, Khobe said.
ECOMOG searches for AFRC
ECOMOG troops in east Sierra Leone searching for AFRC members have started to check refugees crossing the border with neighbouring Liberia, Shelpidi told IRIN on Tuesday. According to Shelpidi, AFRC members mixing with genuine refugees might attempt to cross into Liberia. "We have requested refugees pass through ECOMOG so we can arrest members of the junta," he said. Shelpidi told IRIN he did not know the whereabouts of AFRC chairman, Major Johnny Paul Koroma.
Plans for donor conference
Sierra Leone plans another international donors' conference to fund war repairs and rehabilitation, a senior official told PANA news agency on Saturday. Kanja Sesay, Deputy Commissioner of the National Commission for Reconstruction, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (NCRRR), said donors had pledged US$ 232 million at a donors' conference in Geneva prior to last May's coup. The next conference was planned to take place in Sierra Leone, so that participants could appreciate the "magnitude" of the problem. The NCRRR was discussing the planned conference with the World Bank, the African Development Bank (ADB), UNDP and other UN agencies.
Sesay said the government could not access the funds pledged at the last conference and the estimated US$ 2.5 million grant received from the British government and the UN was used to provide institutional, logistic and administrative support. He warned lack of funds posed a major constraint and could scuttle the entire three-year programme to demobilise and rehabilitate 50,000 former combatants. This has serious repercussions on security and could aggravate poverty. "We expect donors to back their pledges with prompt and concrete action because this is the only way to arrest the potentially dangerous situation," PANA quoted Sesay as saying.
Meanwhile, the finance and development minister-designate, James Jonah, warned Sierra Leone needed prudent management of its vast resources and better accountability, PANA reported. The agency quoted Jonah, the country's former ambassador to the UN, as saying: "The major problem has always been mismanagement, and it is time the people were told that no country develops through handouts." He added he hoped to use his contacts to help attract foreign assistance to his country. Jonah is awaiting Parliament's ratification of his ministerial appointment.
LIBERIA: Taylor, Shelpidi look to ECOWAS
President Charles Taylor and ECOMOG Commander Major General Timothy Shelpidi said Sunday they were looking to West African leaders to determine the mandate and the role of the peacekeeping force, independent Star Radio reported. Taylor reportedly told visiting former US President Jimmy Carter he wanted ECOMOG to stay in Liberia until member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) made a decision on its future. Carter also met the ECOMOG High Command as part of a three-day assessment mission in Liberia.
Meanwhile, Shelpidi said the issue of restructuring Liberia's security forces was clear under the Abuja accord, Star Radio reported Saturday. It was therefore for ECOWAS authorities to comment on the matter, he added. The Abuja accord put an end to the country's seven-year civil war. Over recent weeks, ECOMOG has criticised Liberia's "over-armed" security forces while Taylor and the Liberian national assembly have called for the force's status to be clarified. ECOMOG's formal mandate in Liberia expired in late February.
Aid depends on governance, says Carter
The way the Liberian government manages the funds pledged at the 7 April donor conference in Paris will determine future international assistance, news agencies reported former US President Jimmy Carter as saying in Monrovia. Carter met Taylor during a three-day assessment mission from 9-11 April by the Atlanta-based Carter Centre, which monitored last July's presidential poll. Carter and Taylor also discussed human rights, security and good governance.
Carter also met Liberian opposition leaders, human rights groups and heads of media institutions, including the Press Union. Carter said the Liberian government assured him of its commitment to human rights, Star added.
Mandingo discrimination claims investigated
Security forces are investigating complaints of discrimination against Mandingos, Star Radio reported a Justice Ministry official as saying on Sunday. The government was concerned about Friday's allegation by the Mandingo community that they were being rejected and molested in Lofa and Nimba counties, the unnamed official said. The community accused government security forces of being behind "the wave of violence" against Mandingos by members of the Lorma tribe in Lofa County. The official cautioned the Mandingo community against using the media to seek redress, Star Radio added.
The Inter-Faith Council of Liberia will meet this week to discuss the ethnic feud, the radio also reported Sunday. Meanwhile, the Council appealed to all ethnic groups in Lofa and Nimba counties to exercise restraint and tolerance while efforts were being made to resolve the matter. The Council said it was consulting other organisations and the Internal Affairs Ministry to create a forum for resolving the matter.
WEST AFRICA: Benin, Togo to take energy crisis to UN
The presidents of power-short Benin and Togo said Saturday they would appeal to the UN for help, AFP reported. The leaders will send a joint delegation to the UN to alert the international community to the magnitude of the energy crisis affecting the sub-region. Benin President Matthieu Kerekou met Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema in Lome, the Togolese capital, on Saturday. Eyadema held talks with his Burkinabe counterpart, Blaise Campaore, the day before, AFP added.
Supply to the two countries from Ghana's Akosombo dam is only five per cent of the normal daily supply. Depleted reservoirs similarly affect dams at Kpong (Ghana) and Nangbeto (Togo). Quoting Benin's power utility, AFP said Cote d'Ivoire had been supplying Togo and Benin 15 megawatts per day so far this month. By the end of the month, supply should increase to 30 megawatts, much closer to the 50 megawatts a day the Ivorian power company had promised last month, AFP added.
In Ghana, the situation is improving slightly, with power now supplied for 12 out of 24 hours instead of 36. But under a new rationing plan, power in Togo will be available for only six in every 30 hours, AFP said.
In Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, although there has been no official mention of power rationing, there were power cuts of up to 15 hours per day, AFP reported. Even hospitals were suffering from the cuts. Low water levels were hindering production at the Bagre and Kompienga dams, which provide half the capital's electricity requirements. Water is also being rationed and four other towns, Koudougou, Koupela, Zorgho and Tenkodogo are hit by cuts.
SENEGAL: Clashes between Mauritanian refugees and Senegalese
The authorities in Senegal say seven people have been killed in clashes between Mauritanian refugees and locals in the border area between Senegal and Mauritania, the BBC reported Tuesday. Officials said four refugees, accused of stealing and failing to leave the region by a deadline set by the local people, were killed on Sunday. The refugees were reported to have retaliated by attacking a bus on Monday, killing three villagers, the radio added.
The clashes took place in Kidira district, some 600 km east of Dakar, Reuters reported. Thousands of blacks from Mauritania fled during ethnic violence in 1989. Hundreds settled on the Senegalese side of the border, the report added.
One policeman killed in Casamance drugs operation
Meanwhile, in the southern province of Casamance, one gendarme was fatally shot and another seriously wounded during a sting operation against cannabis traffickers in Casamance, AFP reported on Sunday. Separatist rebels are widely reported to be funding their operations mainly through cannabis.
Cardinal's call over poll
The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Senegal said Sunday next month's general election must "be peaceful, democratic and transparent", AFP reported. Addressing thousands of believers at Easter Mass, Dakar's Cardinal Archbishop Hyacinthe Twandoum called on the citizenry, civil society and religious leaders "to act together to make the nation as a whole the winner in the polls". Gabon's Africa No 1 radio said that as Twandoum spoke, a row was brewing over the reliability of the voters' register. The opposition claims the register differs from the Interior Ministry's, which itself is incomplete.
NIGER: Six injured in clashes
Several people were injured in Tahoua, northern Niger, in clashes between opposition parties and security forces on Monday, news organisations reported. AFP quoted an opposition spokesman as telling a private Niamey radio station there were "several serious injuries and many arrests". The spokesman also said demonstrators took several security officers hostage demanding the arrest of their colleagues. According to the BBC, Interior Minister Soulai Andoulaye said six people were hurt.
Eight opposition parties organised the meeting calling for the resignation of head of state Ibrahim Bare Mainassara.
Civil servants strike
Niger's 40,000 civil servants again went on a two-day strike on Tuesday over five to seven months' unpaid wages, AFP reported. Students have given authorities a two-day ultimatum for payment of up to 20 months' grants.
AFP quoted a government source as saying renewed opposition demands were aimed at creating "permanent tension" ahead of a new review by international lending institutions.
TOGO: President to stand again
Prime Minister Kwassi Klutse said President Gnassingbe Eyadema would stand for a second five-year mandate in June's election, AFP reported Friday. Speaking at the closing of the convention of the ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT), Klutse pledged "We shall win the ballot in a legal, transparent and fair sort of way." Eyadema has ruled Togo for the past 31 years. He was first elected in 1993 and is allowed to stand for another mandate.
So far only one other candidate has come forward: Leopold Gnininvi, secretary-general of the opposition Convention Democratique des Peuples Africains (CDPA). Meanwhile, CDPA and seven other opposition parties have called for February's revision of the voters' register to resume. They claim their involvement was inadequate and the population's interest was "very poor".
CAMEROON: Editor's sentence reduced
An appeal court Tuesday reduced an editor's prison sentence from two to one year in prison for "disseminating false news,", AFP reported. In January, Pius Njawe, editor of 'Le Messager' newspaper, was sentenced and fined for having reported that President Paul Biya had suffered "a heart problem". His fine was also reduced.
Abidjan, 14 April 1998, 20:00 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: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 20:16:11 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 186, 98.4.14 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980414201321.6616A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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