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IRIN-WA Update 217 of Events in West Africa, (Thursday) 28 May 1998
NIGERIA: Twelve killed in clashes between rival Muslim sects
Twelve people, including four policemen, were killed on Wednesday following a shoot-out between the police and suspected members of rival Muslim groups in Lagos, news organisations reported. According to AFP, the head of the Lagos police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, said 17 people, including nine children had been arrested after the clashes.
Among those arrested, he said, were nationals of Chad and Niger. According to the Lagos-based private African Independent Television (AIT), which carried live coverage, the clashes started early in the morning and lasted several hours. The cause of the clashes was not immediately known. AFP, described the area in Lagos where fighting broke out as a stronghold of religious extremists.
US urges release of political prisoners
The US State Department expressed its "deep concern" on Wednesday at the continued practice of detaining politicians, pro-democracy activists, journalists and other critics of the Nigerian government without charge.
It called on the government to release all political prisoners and to allow Nigerians the right to express their views "freely and peacefully".
"The Nigerian government continues to detain pro-democracy leaders and political figures who have been critical of the government," it said in a statement. "Nigeria has not yet made public the reasons for the arrests of these prominent figures, nor has it charged them in court."
It said those detained without charge since the beginning of May include former Oyo State governor Bola Ige, Segun Maiyegun of the Campaign for Democracy, Ayo Opadokun of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), and pro-democracy activist Olisa Aghakoba, head of the United Action for Democracy (UAD).
Ogoni activists still held
Fifteen ethnic Ogoni activists charged with murder in southern Nigeria were still in jail on Thursday, in spite of a court order that they be released on bail, AFP reported. An official of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) told AFP that the 15 detainees were being held at Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, where a magistrates' court granted them bail last Friday.
The accused are among the "Ogoni 20", arrested in 1994 and 1995 and charged with murder in the same case for which the late MOSOP president, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight colleagues were executed in November 1995. The executions led to an international outcry against the government of General Sani Abacha and the suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth.
SENEGAL: Government satisfied with elections
Senegal's interior minister, Lamine Cisse, said on Wednesday his ministry had met its objectives in organising "transparent" parliamentary elections on 24 May and maintaining law and order during the polls, AFP said.
As far as he was concerned, demands by a coalition of six opposition parties that the election be annuled because of fraud were a matter for the judiciary.
LIBERIA: Economy "picking up"
Liberian Finance Minister Elias Saleeby has said the economy in Liberia devastated by seven years of civil conflict was gradually "picking up", AFP reported on Thursday. Saleeby said, however, that the traditional structural adjustment programmes designed by international lending institutions were not adequate in addressing post-conflict reconstruction such as in Liberia. He said Liberia needed an aid package similar to the Marshall Plan in Europe after the Second World War.
WEST AFRICA: Polisario not welcome at OAU says Morocco
Morocco has called on the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to exclude representatives from Western Sahara's Polisario Front from its June summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, AFP reported on Thursday.
In remarks at a news conference in Cairo, it quoted Abdel Latif Filali, Morocco's foreign minister, as saying: "We belive it necessary to exclude these people from the OAU summit because circumstances have changed and it is the United Nations which is handling the problem."
Last week, UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, AFP recalled, appealed to both sides to cooperate ahead of a referendum in December. Aimed bringing an end to 25 years of conflict, the referendum is to decide whether the territory will opt for independence or form part of Morocco.
Abidjan, 28 May 1998 1750 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, 28 May 1998 17:46:54 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 217, 98.05.28 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980528173738.18236A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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