UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 265, 98.8.04

IRIN-West Africa Update 265, 98.8.04


U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

Tel: +225 21-73-54 Fax: +225 21-63-35

e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 265 of Events in West Africa, (Tuesday) 4 August 1998

SIERRA LEONE: Rebels surrender to ECOMOG

Brigadier-General Subsash Joshi of the UN Military Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) told IRIN on Tuesday that 39 rebels and 86 camp followers had turned themselves in to the West African intervention force ECOMOG in the eastern town of Kenema. He said it was the first time such a large number of rebels had surrendered to ECOMOG, adding that there had been previous surrenders in the towns of Makeni and Kabala.

Sierra Leonean President, Alhaji Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, had extended a presidential amnesty pardoning rebels if they laid down their arms before 8 August. In an effort to promote reconciliation, Kabbah granted amnesty to all rebels who surrendered.

Clashes in north claim dozens of lives

Some 30 civilians, three ECOMOG soldiers and an unspecified number of rebels were killed in last week's battle in the northern city of Kabala between ECOMOG and rebels soldiers, AFP reported on Tuesday, quoting missionaries in Kabala. Fighting broke out on Tuesday last week when rebels pretending to surrender opened fire on ECOMOG. The dispatch said around 70 houses were torched during the seven-hour clash. A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed on the town since the incident.

Joshi told IRIN that a team of military observers had visited Kabala on Monday, but had not been able to determine the number of casualties. However, he said the accounts of the destruction of the town carried by the media had been exaggerated. Joshi added that there had been looting after the fighting.

Rebel soldiers of the toppled Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and their Revolutionary United Front (RUF) allies have put up stiff resistance in eastern Sierra Leone since ECOMOG restored the elected government to power earlier this year.

Government introduces exit permits

The Government of Sierra Leone introduced exit permits on Monday for its citizens travelling outside the country as part of measures to check rebel activity, Reuters reported, quoting state radio. The dispatch quoted Interior Minister Charles Margai as saying that all Sierra Leoneans travelling abroad had to obtain a police permit 72 hours before leaving the country. Other measures included the reintroduction of national identity cards and erection of roadblocks at strategic points.

ICRC aid

An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) statement announced on Tuesday that it had distributed seeds and food aid to more than 9,000 farming families in Sierra Leone. Most of the families had returned to Sierra Leone from Liberia. The aim of the distribution programme was to assist resident populations and returnees to regain self-sufficiency. Each family is expected to receive a three-month food package to help them through until the harvest.

NIGERIA: Yorubas back transition plan

A meeting of one of Nigeria's three main ethnic groups, the Yorubas, has agreed to participate in the democracy transition plan outlined by Nigeria's new military leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, media reports said on Tuesday.

The BBC said the decision came at the end of a major gathering in the southwestern city of Ibadan, in which Yoruba leaders complained they had been politically sidelined for years.

The Yoruba political leadership, known as Egbe Afenifere, reportedly said it would use the transition process to work for greater autonomy for the Yoruba people. But Reuters said Abubakar's offer fell short of Yoruba demands for a government of national unity and conference on Nigeria's political future.

Biafran leader declares candidacy

Meanwhile, the man who led the eastern Ibo uprising against northern rule during Nigeria's bloody 1967-1970 Biafran civil war, has declared his intention to run for the presidency next year, AFP reported on Tuesday.

It said Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu had told a radio station in the main eastern town of Enugu he would not hesitate to "carry the Ibo banner" in the May 1999 polls, if he was allowed to participate.

"I stand before Ndigbo (the Ibo people) if they require me," AFP quoted him as saying. More than one million people died during the Biafran War, many from disease and starvation.

AFP said the Ibos also have complained of being politically marginalised since their secession attempt failed.

Security advisor arrested

Nigeria's former security adviser, Alhaji Ismael Gwarzo, has been arrested in connection with allegations of massive fraud and corruption, media reports said on Tuesday.

The BBC said the aide to the late military strongman, General Sani Abacha, was reported to be undergoing questioning over a withdrawal of nearly US$ 2.5 billion from Nigeria's central bank during the Abacha regime.

Diplomats quoted by the BBC said Gwarzo had already been made to pay back some US$ 250 million reaped from government coffers as part of the new government's drive to distance itself from the former administration.

GUINEA BISSAU: National assembly meets for crisis talks

The speaker of the national assembly has called a meeting of parliament to try and find a peaceful resolution to Guinea Bissau's civil war, which in two months has destroyed much of the capital, Bissau, and displaced some 300,000 people, AFP reported on Tuesday.

It said the speaker, Malam Bacai Sanha, had announced the initiative on national radio on Monday, even though the assembly's mandate had already expired in June. Calling on the support of the leaders of all political parties, including the Social Renovation Party's influential main challenger in the last presidential elections, Koumba Yalla, Sanha reportedly received the go-ahead to make the appeal from beleaguered President Joao Bernardo Vieira following a meeting at the weekend.

Forces loyal to Vieira, backed by an estimated 3,000 Senegalese troops, have been observing a ceasefire negotiated last week with army rebels led by Vieira's former armed forces chief of staff, General Ansumane Mane.

AFP quoted Guinea Bissau observers as saying the parliamentary initiative could result in the setting up of a government of national unity if the ceasefire last week also held.

Brazil rules out military intervention

Brazil has ruled out sending peacekeeping troops to Guinea Bissau, saying it might instead contribute police to a future Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) ceasefire monitoring mission, media reports said on Monday.

Brazil's foreign minister, Luiz Felipe Lamperia, reportedly rejected earlier suggestions Brazil would be prepared to send troops to intervene in the fighting. However, Brazil might still send police, the Brazilian Estado news agency said, although no deadline for a decision had been set.

LIBERIA: Liberian refugees to stay in US

Liberian refugees have been allowed to stay in the US beyond a September deadline for them to return home, PANA reported on Monday. The news agency said a bill passed by the US Congress has extended the asylum of about 8,000 Liberians by a year.

According to PANA, the Liberians were given Temporary Protected Status in the US during Liberia's seven-year civil war, which ended in 1997.

Human rights candidate flees

A member of Liberia's human rights commission, who failed Senate ratification, has fled to the US, independent Star Radio reported on Tuesday. According to the Monrovia-based station, Kormah Bryemah left Liberia last week "for fear of his life".Although it was President Charles Taylor who was said to have nominated to Bryemah to the commission, Liberia's Senate reportedly rejected him for "double dealing".

A local source in Monrovia told IRIN on Tuesday, however, that it was not clear Taylor had wanted Bryemah to sit as a human rights commissioner. "In the past there have been public relations exercises, where the President nominates someone, but leaves it up to his Senate to ensure they are never appointed," the source said.

Bryemah reportedly complained in April that he had been detained and beaten on the orders of Taylor's police chief, Joe Tate.

CHAD: Amensty calls for MP's immediate release

Amnesty International called on Monday for the immediate and unconditional release of a Chadian member of parliament, Yorongar Ngarlejy, charged with defamation on 20 July. Amnesty said Ngarlejy's arrest was "politically motivated" and a result of his peaceful opposition to the government as well as his public criticism of the Chadian President, Idris Deby, and the President of the national assembly, Wadal Abdelkader Kamougue. Ngarlejy had accused Deby of "keeping the running of the oil industry in the family".

Elf, the French oil giant, has a large operation in Chad and is scheduled to begin the construction of an oil pipeline from Chad to Cameroon.

BENIN: Denmark gives CFA 8 billion

Denmark has granted a non-reimbursable loan of CFA 8 billion (FFr 80 million) to Benin to carry out water and sanitation projects in the north of the country, AFP reported on Tuesday. AFP quoted a Danish embassy official as saying Benin was now a priority country for Danish international development assistance.

Abidjan, 4 August, 1998 17:30 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 or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to <archive@ocha.unon..org> - mailing list: irin-wa-updates]

Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 17:28:22 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 265, 98.8.04 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980804172657.27296B-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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