| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Tel: +225 21-73-54 Fax: +225 21-63-35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci
IRIN-WA Update 214 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday-Monday) 23-25 May 1998
SENEGAL: Three major parties in early lead
With the official results of Senegal's parliamentary election expected later in the week, early trends on Monday indicated that the ruling Parti Socialiste (PS), the newly formed Renouveau Democratique (RD), and the opposition Parti Democratique Senegalais (PDS) were in the lead, news organisations reported.
The BBC reported that the RD, formed six months ago and led by Djibo Ka, a former foreign minister and associate of President Abdou Diouf, was about level with the ruling PS in a traditional PS stronghold in the capital, Dakar. After the closure of polling stations on Sunday, the PS announced it was confident of a "comfortable majority" in the national assembly, according to AFP. Diouf said on Sunday it was too early to anticipate the possibility of a coalition government, PANA reported.
Low turnout feared
Five thousand candidates from 18 political parties are vying for the 140 seats, up from the 120 seats in the previous National Assembly. The Socialists have held power since independence from France in 1960. Although news organisations cited fears of a low turnout, these figures too were not expected until later in the week.
However, the Senegalese-based NGO coalition, the Rencontre Africaine pour la Defense des Droits de l'Homme, quoted by the pro-government daily 'Le Soleil', qualified the voting as "credible and transparent" despite some irregularities at a number of polling booths. The election was monitored by foreign observers.
Killings in Casamance
Voting was calm in most parts of the country, except for a number of incidents in the troubled southern province of Casamance, where the BBC said two soldiers were killed and three wounded on Sunday as they transported ballot papers from polling booths.
In other incidents during an army offensive over the last three days, news organisations reported the deaths of 30 separatists, five civilians and a soldier. Officials said three rebel bases of the separatist Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) had been destroyed in the operation, the BBC said. On Saturday, in a separate attack on a funeral party blamed on the MFDC, at least four people were killed. AFP said mortar exchanges could be heard in the Casamance capital, Ziguinchor, but that voting had not been disrupted.
Casamance refugees flee to The Gambia
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC)
in Abidjan told IRIN that 2,289 Senegalese refugees
had fled Casamance between 20-23 May to the northern
Fone Bintan Karanai district in The Gambia. The IFRC
called on the international community for funds to
handle the new influx of refugees who joined 1,500
already in the country.
SIERRA LEONE: Refugees at risk
UNHCR and WFP warned in a joint statement warned on Friday that more than 42,000 Sierra Leoneans out of the 200,000 in southwest Guinea could face serious shortages of emergency supplies within six weeks. Appealing to donors for more vehicles, Paul Ares, WFP regional manager said: "If we are not able to move more food during the next two to three weeks, thousands of refugees will go hungry."
UNHCR and WFP were seeking at least 40 additional lorries to transfer refugees to camps with adequate facilities.
Sierra Leoneans thank Nigeria
Hundreds of Sierra Leoneans took to the streets of the capital Freetown on Saturday in a show of support for the role played by Nigeria and its leader, General Sani Abacha, in restoring democracy to the country, news reports said. The Nigerian-led West African intervention force, ECOMOG, overthrew the military junta, which seized power a year ago on 25 May by toppling the democratically-elected government.
LIBERIA: UNHCR says refugee operation well underway
A UNHCR statement at the weekend said that at least 26,000 Liberians had returned home neighbouring West African countries since last December, AFP reported. It said UNHCR called for funding to for reintegration programmes, health and education needs. The agency had received US$ 4.35 million out of the required US $39 million for its repatriation programme.
Disabled combatants tackle presidential bodyguards
Disabled combatants resorted to violence and held several top officials hostage in the capital Monrovia on Saturday night demanding payment of their retirement packages, news reports said. The former fighters attacked aides of President Charles Taylor and bodyguards with crutches and sticks outside the office of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) and briefly held some officials hostage.
The Liberian daily 'The Inquirer' on Monday said: "Security personnel moved into the area to release the hostages but met with strong resistance from the veterans," The report added that among the hostages was Taylor's daughter. A spokesman for the men complained to the newspaper that the government had failed to reintegrate them into society despite their previous commitment to Taylor's now defunct faction, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
NIGERIA: Court to decide on Abacha candidacy
The Lagos Federal Court of Appeal said on Monday that it would rule on 2 June on the legitimacy of the country's leader, General Sani Abacha, as sole presidential candidate, AFP reported on Monday.
The court decision arises from a legal challenge brought by an aspiring candidate, Mohamed Dikko Yusufu, whose Grassroots Democratic Party (GDP) chose Abacha as its candidate for the presidency. The four other registered political parties in Nigeria also named Abacha as their candidate for the presidential election. Abacha has scheduled the 1 August election as part of his pledged transition civilian rule.
Last week, Yusufu, the former chief of police, pledged to oppose Abacha using non-violent methods.
Churches warned
Meanwhile, the government warned Christian churches on Sunday not to meddle in politics, the Associated Press reported. The rebuke followed a decision by most Christian churches to boycott a five-day prayer session called by the authorities last week to back Abacha's candidacy. The dispatch quoted Abacha's special adviser, Wada Nas as saying that politics should not be mixed with religion.
"By meddling in deeply political affairs, religious leaders could lose their respectability," he said. The country's main interdenominational group, the Christian Association of Nigeria, said on Sunday that while it supported anyone who prayed for the country's future, prayers should not be controlled by the government.
TOGO: Presidential election postponed
The presidential election in Togo has been postponed by a week until 21 June because of organisational problems, according to news reports on Monday. News agencies quoting a government broadcast on state radio said the poll, in which President Gnassingbe Eyadema is running for re-election, had already been postponed once before from 7 June to comply with constitutional provisions. Eyadema, Africa's longest serving head of state, faces five rivals in his bid for another five-year term.
The broadcast said that in the event that there is no clear winner on 21 June, a second round will be held on 5 July.
Abidjan, 25 May 1998, 18:30 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]
Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 18:38:14 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN West Africa Update 214, 98.5 25 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980525182456.28802A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
| Previous Menu | Home Page | What's New | Search | Country Specific |