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GUINEA-BISSAU: Conflict threatens region, Portugal warns
Portugal's secretary of state for foreign affairs, Luis Amado, has warned that the raging conflict between army rebels and government forces backed by Senegalese and Guinean troops in Guinea Bissau could engulf its neighbours, AFP reported on Tuesday. "If the confused situation degenerates into guerrilla warfare, that would provoke the destabilisation of (the entire) West African region," he warned. He said that none of the parties involved in the conflict were in control of the situation in Guinea Bissau, a former Portuguese colony. Amado said even the French were asking his government for information on the fluid situation. He called on Portugal and France to cooperate in Africa and not to be "rivals".
Heavy shelling erupts after lull
Meanwhile, heavy shelling erupted in the capital, Bissau, again on Wednesday after a lull of several days in the three-week conflict, news agencies reported. Portugal's ambassador to Guinea Bissau, Francisco Henriques da Silva, told Portuguese TSF radio that shells had fallen close to his compound in Bissau. Another Portuguese radio station, Antena 1, reported that government forces were shelling the Bra military complex and the airport which were both under rebel control.
Guerrilla war begins in Bissau, says Senegal
Senegal said on Tuesday rebels had started a guerrilla war in the suburbs of Bissau under the cover of a cashew nut plantation, according to the Senegalese daily 'Le Sud Quotidien'. The paper quoted a Senegalese army statement which said: "Unable to carry out any significant attack, they have since been trying to infiltrate Bissau in small groups to wage a guerrilla campaign." It added that the rebels had made futile efforts to recapture the main Bra barracks near the airport, while the Senegalese forces had re-organised around a new line of defence. The troops would first try to dislodge the rebels, who had infiltrated the area of the national assembly, north of Bra, before moving on to the rebel-held airport. The statement said that more than 250 mutineers and 16 Senegalese soldiers had been killed since the fighting which started on 7 June. Senegal is supporting Guinea Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira in his battle against the rebels.
Meanwhile, Lansana Kouyaute, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, said in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, that the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, could intervene in Guinea Bissau if it became "necessary", AFP said.
United Nations gears up for humanitarian assistance
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York said on Wednesday that a high-level mission led by OCHA's Martin Barber and comprising representative of the UN Department of Political Affairs and other UN agencies would visit the region this week to assess the situation in Guinea Bissau.
Refugees flow into Guinea
In Geneva, UNHCR said hundreds of people were leaving the country by land or by boat to Senegal and Guinea (Conakry). Guinean authorities at crossing entry points estimated that 12,000 people had arrived since 11 June, though officially the border between Guinea and Guinea Bissau is closed. UNHCR reported that tens of thousands of displaced persons had fled the border town of Gabu, 70 kms from the border with Guinea.
Meanwhile, some 8,000 refugees who had fled to the islands off the coast of Guinea Bissau have received their first food aid consignment in two weeks, the BBC reported.
The Red Cross has also begun taking aid to displaced people in and around Bissau, despite artillery exchanges, the BBC said. In a measure of the growing humanitarian crisis, the Roman Catholic Church, the Red Cross and media reports have estimated that up a quarter of a million people have fled the fighting in Bissau.
Senegalese prevented mediation effort
Another mediation attempt failed when an ecumenical goodwill committee led by the Bishop of Bissau, Settimio Ferrazzetta, was prevented from meeting a rebel delegation by Senegalese soldiers, the Portuguese daily 'Publico' reported on Wednesday. The committee included the Guinea Bissau Muslim leader as well as an evangelical pastor. According to AFP, Vieira had approved of the peace initiative and another meeting was set for Wednesday in Nhacra, 10 km northeast from Bissau. Last week, Lamine Sadat Jobe, foreign minister of The Gambia, had also attempted to mediate between the two sides.
NIGERIA: UK ends isolation
In what diplomats said was the first sign that Britain was ending Nigeria's isolation, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair has had his first contact with the new Nigerian leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, since he succeeded General Sani Abacha in early June, the BBC reported.
A spokesman for Blair said the prime minister telephoned the Nigerian leader on behalf of the European Union (EU) to establish contacts and urge him to introduce civilian rule. Blair also welcomed the release of some of Nigeria's political prisoners, but raised concerns over human rights and remaining political detainees, including Moshood Abiola. Abiola is the presumed winner of the 1993 elections annulled by the military regime. Blair's spokesman added that Abubakar would meet UK Foreign Officer Minister Tony Lloyd on Friday in Abuja. Lloyd is expected to visit Nigeria for the EU.
Opposition celebrates release of detainees
The opposition Joint Action Committee of Nigeria (JACON) celebrated on Tuesday the release of nine political prisoners, but said it would not be satisfied until the 1993 presidential elections annulled by the army were recognised, news agencies reported. JACON's national coordinator, Gani Fawehinmi, said Nigerians should not be deceived by the "cosmetic" release of a few prisoners until Abiola was "released and installed to head a new government of national unity".
Fuel imports to undergo shake-up
Fuel imports to Nigeria are expected to undergo a thorough shake-up, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Officials of the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), who met in Lagos to finalise a strategy, said the key would be to cut the cost of imports and "the middle man" who previously was awarded generous cuts in any oil transaction. Reuters said attacking Nigeria's chronic fuel shortages would win Abubakar quick popularity.
Meanwhile, Abubakar appealed on Tuesday to oil multinationals to help ease perennial shortages of petroleum products in Nigeria, Nigerian television reported.
TOGO: President claims victory
Togo's government announced on Wednesday that President Gnassingbe Eyadema had won another five-year term in office after two days of disputes over the results of Sunday's presidential election, media reports said.
The interior minister, General Seyi Memene, said provisional figures showed Eyadema had polled 52 percent of the votes, adding the results had been sent to the constitutional court for an official proclamation. According to Reuters, Eyadema's only close challenger was Gilchrist Olympio, the son of Togo's first president who was killed in a coup in which Eyadema had a part. He reportedly polled 34.6 percent, news agencies said.
The publication of the figures came after the electoral commission's head, Nana Awa, resigned late on Tuesday, saying it would not be possible to publish the results of Sunday's first round of voting, the BBC said. She said the commission's members had been intimidated at their homes and over the telephone. Polling equipment in the capital, Lome, had also been destroyed, she added.
However, opposition politicians dismissed her resignation as a ploy to leave the government a free hand to rig the outcome, news agencies reported. According to the BBC, the election was the first in which Eyadema had faced an opposition challenge since he seized power in the former French colony more than 30 years ago. More than 2 million people were eligible to vote, the BBC said.
LIBERIA: ECOMOG soldiers leave Monrovia checkpoints
Citing provocations by government security forces, West African peacekeeping troops in Liberia have been ordered to leave checkpoints in the capital, Monrovia, media reports said on Wednesday.
The ECOMOG commander, General Timothy Shelpidi, told a news conference that in the most recent incident, a scuffle developed after a member of President Charles Taylor's special security force refused to submit to a routine search at an ECOMOG checkpoint. About 30 other members of the security force had then arrived, acting in what he said was a hostile and provocative manner. General Shelpidi was quoted as telling a news conference that ECOMOG troops would not return to the checkpoints until the government guaranteed their safety and right to operate.
"ECOMOG is very much present in Liberia and we have not folded our arms," Reuters quoted Shelpidi as saying. "If there is any trouble in Liberia and we receive orders from the Liberian government, ECOMOG will move in quickly and decisively."
Mandingoes appeal for protection
Liberia's predominantly Muslim Mandingo community in northern Nimba County have appealed to the government for protection following a series of recent arson attacks on homes, a mosque and attacks on individuals, Star Radio reported on Tuesday. In as brief dispatch, it did not say what kind of protection they sought. "The appeal by the Mandingoes comes in the wake of increasing brutalities against them," it said. The radio said Mandingoes returning from refugee camps in neighbouring countries were "finding it difficult to resettle".
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG forces get a boost
The ECOMOG intervention force battling rebels loyal to the country's ousted military junta are being reinforced by a special contingent of 300 French-trained Gambian troops and some military equipment from the United States, media reports said on Wednesday.
AFP quoted West African diplomats as as saying the specially trained Gambian contingent had been pledged by President Yahya Jammeh at the Organisation of African Unity summit in Burkina Faso earlier this month. The American aid comprises a US$ 4 million package including helicopters and communications equipment, media reports said.
Liberian message of "good neighbourliness" to Sierra Leone
President Taylor of Liberia was reported on Tuesday to have sent Senator Kerkura Kpoto to the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, with a message to President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah aimed at ensuring peaceful relations between the two countries. AFP said Kpoto had denied in a radio interview any Liberian support for rebels of Sierra Leone's ousted military junta. But it added, he did not deny that former fighters loyal to Taylor's wartime faction in Liberia who had refused to lay down their arms were operating as mercenaries in Sierra Leone. It was time, he was quoted as saying, "that the non-aggression pact between the two countries is reactivated so as to put an end to mutual suspicions on both sides".
Abidjan, 24 June 1900 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/ or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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