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Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
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IRIN-WA Update 274 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday - Monday) 17 August 1998
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG battles with rebels continue
News agencies reported at the weekend that the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, had pushed rebels from various strongholds in eastern and northern Sierra Leone. Reuters reported fierce fighting in the eastern city of Kailahun after ECOMOG with troop reinforcements from Guinea flushed out rebel fighters in the area on Saturday.
The dispatch, quoting a source close to ECOMOG, said: "The Guinean troops have in the past two days captured the main highway leading into the town and are now shelling rebel positions in the town and pushing forward." The Kailahun district is a major diamond centre and is the rebels' last big stronghold in eastern Sierra Leone.
In a related development, Sierra Leonean soldiers retook the town of Kruloba, the rebels' main base in northern Sierra Leone near the Guinean border, AFP said on Saturday. The report said an ECOMOG officer claimed that its troops had been "trying to destroy the base for the past three months. Our warplanes have been bombing it but thick forest that has been hiding it and the mountain around it had made the task difficult." He added that former Sierra Leonean soldiers, who had surrendered to ECOMOG, had been used to capture the base. ECOMOG has continued to face resistance from forces loyal to the toppled military regime in several parts of the country.
Niger to send troops
Meanwhile, the government of Niger announced on Friday that it would send 500 men to join ECOMOG in Sierra Leone for a renewable six-month period, AFP reported, quoting official sources.
UN Secretary-General concerned by situation
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he remained "deeply concerned" about civilians caught in the fighting in Sierra Leone despite a relative improvement in the security situation. In a report to the UN Security Council on Friday, Annan said that since the end of June the military and security situation in Sierra Leone had "improved somewhat as reports of atrocities committed by elements of the former junta had markedly declined".
However, the report estimated that for each of the 600 or so persons attacked since March 1998 and who survived and sought medical attention, at least four others were either dead or unaccounted for. Meanwhile, the rebels hold several thousand civilians captive. It said they included women and children, who were used as human shields, porters and for forced sexual activity.
Annan said that the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration plan adopted by the government represented "the best hope in the immediate future for consolidating the stability of the country". An estimated total of 33,000 former combatants are to be demobilised between 1998 and 2001 costing US$ 33.6 million.
According to the report, the OCHA Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) in Freetown estimated that there were currently an estimated 166,000 internally displaced persons. Annan also called on donors to contribute to the government's rehabilitation programme.
Some 100 civilians drown after abduction
More than 100 civilians, who were abducted by rebels in Sierra Leone, drowned when their boat capsized in a river in Sierra Leone, AFP reported on Monday, quoting the daily 'The Concord Times'. The report quoted a survivor, who said the rebels had intended to forcibly recruit the civilians into their ranks and were taking them towards an unknown destination when their boat hit a rock and capsized. The Sierra Leone Port Authority officials said they had been notified of the incident but had not been able to go to the scene for fear of a rebel ambush.
Germany sends 20 vehicles for police
Sierra Leonean Interior Minister Charles Margai announced that the German government would be sending 20 vehicles to strength police operations in the country, news reports said on Sunday.
NIGERIA: Military leader visits Lagos
The Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, commenced a three-day official visit to Lagos at the weekend, marking the first visit to the country's economic capital by a Nigerian military leader for almost five years. News reports said Abubakar was visiting Lagos and southern cities to inspect military installations and meet local army commanders.
AFP quoted the Nigerian daily, 'This Day', as saying that the meetings with military chiefs in southern Nigeria were to "enable them to take a final look at the list of ministers to be announced this week". Sources close to senior officials in Abuja, the federal capital, told AFP, that Abubakar had found some "difficulty in finding credible politicians who would be willing to serve in a short-lived administration, and which would make it difficult for them to participate in elections".
After Lagos, Abubakar was also expected to visit Ibadan, some 140 km to the north of Lagos, and then the eastern town of Enugu, 400 km east of Lagos. News reports said there was tight security in Lagos with extra police and soldiers on duty. Lagos, a mainly Christian city, has been the centre of much of the opposition to military rule from within the country. News reports noted that former military ruler, General Sani Abacha, did not visit Lagos at all during his four years in power.
Abubakar dismissed the last cabinet on 8 July. The senior Nigerian ruling body, the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC), met on Friday last week to discuss the composition of the cabinet.
Military admits to past "diversions" of oil
The Nigerian military government has acknowledged that much of the oil intended for the country's fuel-starved domestic market had been "diverted" in the past and vowed to use security agencies to ensure effective distribution.
AFP quoted Major-General John Inienger, a PRC member, as telling a news conference: "We have discovered that there has been a lot of diversion. We will involve security agencies to ensure that there is effective distribution of petroleum."
Reuters reported that the chronic fuel shortages in Nigeria, which is the sixth largest oil exporter in the world, had become a blatant symbol for Nigerians of military misrule.
Fifteen killed after torrential rains
At least 15 people were killed and hundreds were left homeless when buildings collapsed during torrential rain in the northern town of Kano in Nigeria, news reports said. Local reports, quoted by the BBC, said the damage was reported in various districts in Kano.
GUINEA BISSAU: Senegalese opposition leader demands troop withdrawal
Senegal's leading opposition figure, Abdoulaye Wade, demanded on Friday that Senegal pull out of neighbouring Guinea Bissau, where some 3,000 of its troops have been helping President Joao Bernardo Vieira put down an army rebellion, news organisations reported.
Wade, leader of the main opposition party, the Parti Democratique Senegalais (PDS), said in an appeal to President Abdou Diouf: "The Senegalese people are urging the President of the Republic to tell the truth." He has repeatedly asked for casualty figures, citing the high human and financial cost of the intervention. No figures have been released by the government.
Human rights agencies have accused Senegal of committing systematic abuses in trying to quell the rebellion, which started in June after Vieira sacked his former armed forces chief of staff, General Ansumane Mane. A ceasefire negotiated by the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) was declared on 26 July.
Humanitarian aid blocked
Meanwhile, humanitarian sources in Senegal's capital, Dakar, told IRIN on Monday that the Senegalese military was continuing to "effectively block" the free passage of urgently needed humanitarian supplies for Guinea Bissau.
One source said that although individual cargoes had been cleared on a case by case basis after considerable lobbying with the Senegalese government, bureaucratic delays in obtaining permission to cross was "tantamount to an embargo". "Guinea Bissau's needs are considerable," another source added. "If aid cannot flow freely, hundreds of thousands of people in need of assistance have effectively been cut off."
The Portuguese news agency, Lusa, meanwhile, said that following complaints by Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF), the Senegalese government had agreed on Saturday to lift the border blockade.
WEST AFRICA: Ghana-Togo border incident
Six people were arrested at the weekend after unidentified gunmen allegedly opened fire from Ghana on a border post in neighbouring Togo. News organisations reported that the army chiefs of both countries quickly called a joint operation to stop the incident and further compromise what AFP called "years of mutual distrust" between the two countries.
Togolese Interior Minister Colonel Seyi Memeni said in a radio broadcast that no casualties were reported in the dawn incident on Friday. Although it was not clear what the motive for the attack was, he added that two men had been arrested in Ghana and four in Togo.
Relations between the two countries have long been soured by accusations by both sides that the other harbours its dissidents, AFP noted. It said that when President Jerry Rawlings thus personally joined a helicopter border patrol joining the Togolese air force in a search of the area, President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo welcomed the move. Army generals from both countries also met to prevent any further trouble, news reports said.
Security at the border was tightened ahead of the disputed 21 June presidential election which returned Eyadema to power for another five years. Togo's main opposition leader, Gilchrist Olympio, has accused Eyadema of robbing him of power. In a separate incident shortly after the attack, news reports quoted the main opposition party, the Union des forces pour le changement (UFC), as saying the house of its secretary general, Jean-Pierre Fabre, had been destroyed by fire.
Regional security meeting in Benin
Five presidents of the regional organisation, the Conseil de l'Entente, met in Cotonou, the capital of Benin, to discuss security issues and the strengthening of cooperation amongst its members, the Ivorian daily 'Fraternite Matin' reported on Sunday. A final commuique said the illegal circulation of small weapons was in part responsible for the upsurge in banditry in the region and called for greater information-sharing and collaboration among police forces in the region. They also discuss the economic impact of drought in the region.
Member countries of the Conseil de l'Entente are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger and Togo.
Meanwhile, at a separate meeting in Abuja, Nigeria and
its northern neighbours, Chad and Niger, agreed to
coordinate a campaign against banditry by "unruly"
soldiers in their common border region, AFP reported
on Monday, quoting the Nigerian daily 'The Post Express'.
Abidjan, 17 August 1998, 19:40 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: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 19:40:56 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update no 274, 98.8.17 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980817193937.32182A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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