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IRIN-WA Update 216 of Events in West Africa, (Wednesday) 27 May 1998
SIERRA LEONE: Rebels raze towns in extreme north, eyewitnesses claim
Rebel fighters in Sierra Leone have "partially or completely razed" 36 towns and surrounding villages in the northern district of Koinadugu, AFP reported on Wednesday. In a dispatch, quoting eyewitnesses, it said the latest attack occurred at the town of Fadugu on Friday. Details of the attacks were given in the capital Freetown, it said, at a meeting of the Koinadugu Relief and Rehabilitation Task Force.
The report of the attacks came as the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, which in March restored the country's democratically elected government, stepped up efforts to gain control of rebel-held areas.
A local humanitarian source told IRIN that between 20
April to 10 May in the Koinadugu district an estimated
227 people had died, and that between 300 to 800 houses
had been burnt down following rebel attacks. WFP in
a report noted that travel was unsafe in large tracts
of northern Sierra Leone.
The ousted junta rebel forces have been accused by local
and international human rights bodies of conducting
a campaign of maiming, amputating limbs, rapes and
other atrocities. AFP on Wednesday cited reports of
amputees arriving "in a terrible state" for
treatment in the Connaught Hospital in Freetown. Medecins
Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Freetown, had told IRIN earlier
that they continued to receive seriously wounded patients
almost "a daily basis".
Disease hits Sierra Leone refugees in Guinea
Meanwhile, UNHCR in Abidjan told IRIN on Wednesday that infant mortality rates among Sierra Leone refugees in Guinea were increasing every week. They were dying mainly as a result of malnutrition and diarrhoea.. Although figures for the number of deaths were not provided, AFP reported that at least twenty people have died in refugee camps in southeastern Guinea since the beginning of May. MSF said it had set up feeding centres in Nyaedou, Koni and Fangamadou, in southeastern Guinea. It has also started to screen new arrivals.
Meanwhile, UNHCR announced that the US government had pledged respectively US$ 10 million and US $ 1 million for its activities in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
SENEGAL: New election doubts
On Wednesday, a coalition of six Senegalese opposition political parties contested Sunday's parliamentarian elections and called for its annulment for fraud and the use of the state-machinery in favour of the ruling party, AFP reported. In a joint statement, the coalition said it would seek the invalidation of the elections through the Constitutional Court. The leader of the Parti Democratique Senegalais (PDS), Abdoulaye Wade, on Monday called on other opposition parties to contest the polls.
The coalition includes the Renouveau Democratique (RD), a breakawy of the Parti Socialiste (PS) for early projections had forecast a strong showing. The others are And Jef, the Parti de l'Independence et du Travail (PIT), le Mouvement pour le Socialisme et l'Unite (MSU), the Convention Demcratique et Sociale (CDS) and the Parti Democratique Senegalais (PDS).
Ruling party rejects fraud charges
The PS which has ruled the country since independence, has rejected the fraud allegations, news reports said. Minister of State Ousmane Tanor Dieng in a statement, quoted by AFP, dismissed the charges saying that the "elections took place in great transparency and the results are genuine and credible". The statement described Wade as "a worn-out politician" who has played his last hand.
According to unofficial preliminary results, AFP said
the PS had taken 27 of the 30 departments in Senegal.
While, the PDS seemed to have taken the lead in the
capital, Dakar. The Constitutional Court has yet to
announce the poll results.
CAMEROON: Acute food shortage in the north
WFP said on Wednesday it would provide 6,000 mt of relief food over the next three months to 210,000 people facing an acute food shortage in northern Cameroon. The extreme northern province, one of the poorest in the country, has been badly affected by insufficient rainfall and attacks by locusts, birds and elephants which have destroyed more than 55,000 hectares of cultivated land.
WFP also said the harvest had dropped by 50 per cent from 450,000 mt in 1997 to 250,000 mt in 1998. "The food shortage is so acute in some districts that people are resorting to eating grains buried in termite nests," said Daly Belgasmi, WFP representative in Cameroon.
NIGERIA: Court backs Abacha
A Nigerian court dismissed on Monday a bid to block the presidential nomination of Nigerian leader, General Sani Abacha, the BBC reported. It said the Federal High court ruled there was no reason to dismiss Abacha's nomination since he had not officially accepted the nomination. The court did not rule on whether Abacha's candidacy was legal. It also said there was no evidence of government involvement in the nomination process. Opponents and critics of the military government have claimed that Abacha's aides instructed all five parties when and where to hold national conventions, and then told them to nominate Abacha during the conventions, according to the BBC.
The lawsuit was filed by a prominent pro-democracy Lagos lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, who argued that Abacha should not be allowed to stand for president because he is a military officer and not a member of any political party.
EU expresses "deep concern" over human rights
The European Union (EU) in a statement said on Wednesday it was deeply concerned about the "marked increase" in recent weeks in arbitrary arrest and harassment of pro-democracy and human rights activists in Nigeria, AFP reported.
The statement by the British government, currently chairing the EU presidency, also welcomed the release of 142 people but reiterated its demands that Nigerian opposition leader Moshood Abiola and other well-known detainees be released. It also called on the government not to carry out the six death sentences imposed by a Special military court in April on alleged coup plotters.
200 Nigerian academics call on Abacha not to stand
In growing pressure against his candidacy, some 200 academics from major universities in northern Nigeria have called on Abacha not to run in the August presidential elections, news organisations reported. A statement issued by the lecturers urged Abacha to hand over power in October to a democratically-elected government. If Abacha were to contest the election, it would amount to a "scandalous breach of promise" to Nigerians, the university teachers said.
Senior Nigerians appointed to judiciary in Zanzibar
The Zanzibar authorities have appointed nine Nigerians in various legal positions on the grounds that there are no suitable local candidates, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Two of the Nigerians have been made legal advisors to the president, three appointed high court judges and four others members of the law reform commission.
The BBC said the Zanzibar constitution allows for Commonwealth citizens to work in the country in various capacities. The announcement came as the trial of several opposition members on treason charges is due to begin. Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania.
NIGER: Newspaper director released on bail
Mamane Abou, director of the daily 'Le Republicain', was released on bail on Tuesday, AFP reported. Quoting close associates, it said he had been detained for alleged arson when his publishing house almost went up in flames. Abou claimed that the government wanted to destroy his property because he publishes most of Niger's opposition newspapers.
The Nigerien court will rule on the matter on 2 June.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Separatist trial opens
A group of 116 people accused of separatist attacks in the island of Bioko appeared before a military court on Monday to face charges of terrorism and threatening state security, news organisations reported. The case arises out of alleged attacks in Bioko in January which claimed nine lives. At the time, the government blamed the attacks on the separatist Movimento para la Autodeterminacion de la Isla de Bioko (MAIB). AFP quoted Celestino Obiang, a lawyer defending four Spanish citizens of Equatorial Guinea origin, as saying he had not been able to meet his clients or study the case against them until they appeared in court.
He called the court proceedings a "masquerade". However, Miguel Oyono, the foreign minister, said everything necessary was being done to ensure a "transparent process" with "respect for the rights of defence". He stressed that the hearing was also open to the press and that it was not a trial aimed at judging ethnic Bubis of Bioko island. The case was expected to last several days.
WEST AFRICA: Tuberculosis threat to women
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that new research showed tuberculosis to be the biggest killer of women in the world, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Figures show that 200 million women world-wide are infected with the disease and that in 1998, more than one million of them would die from the disease. Women of childbearing age between the ages of 15 and 44 are more likely than men of the same age to fall sick with the disease. Experts on the disease are meeting in Stockholm, Sweden to look at the biological, social and cultural differences in the occurrence of TB.
African bankers meet
The Abidjan-based African Development Bank (ADB) opened its annual two-day summit on Wednesday. Documents before the meeting showed profits of US$ 158 million in 1997, a 13-percent increase over the US$ 150 million dollars made in 1996, news media reported.
Abidjan, 27 May, 19:45 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: Wed, 27 May 1998 18:45:34 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 216, 98.5.27 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980527183457.11062A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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