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IRIN-WA Update 223 of Events in West Africa, (Friday) 5 June 1998
NIGERIA: Demonstrations to continue
Student leaders in Nigeria have vowed to continue protests against the military government of General Sani Abacha, despite a police crackdown this week, media reports said on Friday.
Police cordoned off the site of a protest planned in Lagos on Thursday to mark the second anniversary of the unsolved murder of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of Moshood Abiola, who was widely believed to have won presidential elections annulled by the military government in 1993. AFP said security forces also arrested four students carrying protest leaflets. On Friday, local press reports said a leading member of the opposition, Arthur Nwankwo, was arrested in eastern Nigeria with some members of his staff.
Chairman of the West African Students Union, Ogunlana Oludare, was quoted by the BBC as saying no amount of brutality, arrests or intimidation would stop the "war against the military dictatorship".
It noted increased tension in Nigeria since the five legal political parties chose Abacha as their sole candidate to stand in new presidential elections scheduled for August.
Nigeria will stick to OPEC decision
The Nigerian government announced on Friday it would abide by any OPEC measure taken to stabilise international crude oil prices, AFP reported. But a petroleum official said Nigeria would still decide whether to follow Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela in reducing its OPEC production quota.
Nigeria is OPEC's fifth biggest producer and earns 90 percent of its foreign exchange from crude oil.
Lagos floods
Hundreds of homes in Lagos were flooded on Thursday by exceptionally heavy overnight rains, AFP reported. According to the news agency, poor city drainage has lead to similar flooding in the past.
SIERRA LEONE: Rebels set village ablaze
Rebel fighters loyal to the ousted military junta this week killed several people and sent hundreds more fleeing into the bush when they attacked a village just 50 km northeast of the capital Freetown, AFP reported.
It said that in the attack on Wednesday the village of Masimra had been burned to the ground, and that many of those trying to escape had drowned in a nearby river. In what Amnesty International has described as some of the worst atrocities of their kind in Africa, the rebels have systematically amputated limbs and mutilated many of their victims.
ECOMOG task difficult
The Nigerian-led West African intervention force, ECOMOG, which restored the elected civilian government to power in February, in the meantime, has stepped up efforts to regain control of areas beyond Freetown.
But the PANA news agency on Friday said its efforts were being slowed down by heavy rains. It quoted the ECOMOG commander, Major General Timothy Shelpidi as saying his forces had "liberated" 80 percent of the country and were pushing "relentlessly" to control the remainder. Shelpidi, however, appealed to the international community for vehicles, helicopters, fuel and spare parts to help complete the task.
Bribe-takers to be flogged
Meanwhile, Internal Affairs Minister Charles Margai has warned that any officials caught extorting money for their services will be flogged, AFP reported on Thursday.
Saying that civil servants had to refrain from collecting bribes because the practice tarnished the image of the government, Margai added: "Any administrator caught in such a dishonest act will not only be prosecuted, but will be publicly flogged."
SENEGAL: Fresh call to end female genital mutilation
The Senegalese government has made a renewed call to women elders in villages and towns of the southeast Kolda district "to lay down their knives" and put an end once and for all to the practice of female genital mutilation, AFP reported on Thursday. The appeal came as part of nationwide campaign to end the tradition, which has already affected 700,000 women and girls in Senegal.
According to UNICEF figures quoted by AFP, an estimated 130 million girls and women in Africa have been subjected to genital mutilation at the rate of 2 million operations a year usually carried out in unhygienic conditions.
The report said the UNICEF campaign, backed by the government and a media blitz, had served well to convince people of the dangers of genital mutilation.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Graves ready
Amnesty International said on Friday it had learned that the graves for 15 people sentenced to death for treason had already been dug. In a clemency appeal to the president of Equatorial Guinea, Obiang Nguema Mbagoso, Amnesty secretary general, Pierre Sane said:
"Other detainees were asked to dig the graves for those present in court on the same day of the sentence and a firing squad had already prepared to shoot them on the beach, near the prison where they are detained." Although President Nguema had suspended the executions at the "very last minute", no one knew how long the suspension would last.
The treason charges arose from separatist attacks on the island of Bioko in January, in which several members of the security forces were killed.
Abacha joins Nguema in condemning attacks
Meanwhile, AFP reported on Friday that Nguema and General Abacha, had released a joint statement condemning the Bioko attacks. It said observers were of the view that the statement, following a day of talks between the two leaders, might make it easier for Nguema to follow Abacha's Nigerian example and refuse clemency despite the international outcry.
NIGER: Last rebels hand in weapons
Former Tuareg nomad rebels in Niger have surrendered the last of their weapons to military authorities, AFP reported on Friday. In a brief dispatch, it said fighters of Union of Forces of Armed Resistance (UFRA) handed their guns over at a ceremony near Agadez, 800 km northeast of the capital Niamey. The ceremony was attended by representatives of both sides with officials of the three countries which helped mediate an end to conflict, France, Algeria and Burkina Faso.
Former Toubou rebels encamped in the northern Bilma district, are the last fighters still to disarm under last year's Algiers accord.
WEST AFRICA: Gearing up for the OAU summit
Officials were gearing up on Friday for the 34th annual summit of the Organisation of African Unity in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Pana news agency reported during the week that nations whose OAU dues were in arrears for three years or longer would not have the right to address the summit unless specifically invited to put their views.
Of the 54 nations in the OAU, it said only 20 were paid up. Officials told IRIN the leaders would discuss issues ranging from the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to Sierra Leone, Sudan, land mines and small arms. A South African spokesman told IRIN on Friday that President Nelson Mandela would be pressing for binding restrictions to curtail the spread of small arms in Africa. Pretoria, he added also planned to open diplomatic relations with Sierra Leone and provide it with an "immediate" aid package.
World Court ruling on West African dispute
The International Court of Justice in The Hague will decide on 11 June whether it is competent to rule in the dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon over the contested Bakassi Peninsula, AFP reported.
Ever since Cameroon sought a world court hearing in 1994, Nigeria has argued that the court is not competent to consider the issue. After bloody clashes that year, the court ordered both side to halt all military activity until the issue can be resolved.
Abidjan, 5 June, 1998 17:45 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]
FDate: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 18:13:58 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 223, 98.06.05 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980605181004.8100A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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