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IRIN-WA Update 279 of Events in West Africa, (Saturday - Monday) 24 August 1998
NIGERIA: Military leader on first visit abroad
The Nigerian military leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, held talks on Monday with President Nelson Mandela in South Africa at the start of a visit focused on Nigeria's transition to democracy, news organisations reported.
Relations between Nigeria and South Africa deteriorated under the regime of his hardline predecessor, General Sani Abacha. South Africa backed Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth following the execution of human rights activist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight others in November 1995.
News reports quoted officials as saying the conflicts in Guinea Bissau and the Democratic Republic of Congo were also expected to be discussed. A South African official, quoted by Reuters, said: "Nigeria has been a leader in peacekeeping and there will probably be some sharing of views. There will definitely be a sharing of views on the Congo."
Nigeria has played a major peacekeeping role over the years in Liberia and Sierra Leone as the leading nation in the West African intervention force, ECOMOG.
On Tuesday, Abubakar who has released scores of political prisoners and pledged a return to democracy through elections by May next year, is expected to address the South African parliament in Cape Town on the situation in Nigeria. Officials said he would also visit Mandela's former prison on Robben Island.
Abubakar names ministers
On Saturday, the eve of his departure to South Africa, Abubakar named a 31-member cabinet in which he scrapped the key petroleum resources portfolio. News organisations said the oil portfolio was transferred to the presidency because it had become a target of criticism over fuel shortages in the domestic market and the rampant corruption in its dealing with the industry.
Reuters said Abubakar had put respected figures in key posts in his new cabinet in an apparent bid to win favour abroad and get to grips with acute economic problems. They included Ignatius C. Olisiemeka, a former ambassador to Washington, who was appointed foreign minister, and Alhaji Ismaila Usman, a respected former Central Bank official, who received the finance portfolio.
Eight military officers were appointed to the cabinet. A local newspaper editor, quoted by Reuters, said the "appointments to the foreign ministry and finance ministry as well as the scrapping the oil ministry were a sign of someone who intends to get down to business before handing over to civilians next May".
[This IRIN update is accompanied by a full list of the new Nigerian government.]
Nigerian leader warns new ministers
Abubakar, meanwhile, warned the new ministers that they faced "enormous responsibilities" overseeing the transition to democratic rule, news organisations reported.
Speaking at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Abuja on Saturday, Abubakar was quoted by Nigerian state television as saying he was determined that the new ministers would not be "associated" with corrupt practices and warned that they would be "closely monitored" to ensure that their assignments were not used as springboards for a launch into "criminal affluence".
Abubakar said a no lesser challenge for the new administration was to turn the economy around. AFP quoted him as saying: "Given our resource endowments, both human and material, this sorry state is a serious indictment of our national will and resource management competence." Nigeria, he noted, was the 13th poorest nation in the world.
Electoral commission seeks US$ 11.8 million
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it would need US$ 11.8 million to cover the costs of preparing for the elections scheduled for next year, AFP reported on Sunday, quoting the Nigerian daily 'The Guardian'. The money is expected to cover the cost of organising local, regional and presidential elections promised for the first quarter of 1999.
Abubakar promised the INEC "sufficient resources" to ensure it organises free and fair elections.
SENEGAL: Casamance ambush
Two gendarmes were killed and two wounded on Friday night, when they were ambushed in an attack blamed on separatists in Senegal's southern province of Casamance, AFP reported at the weekend.
The dispatch quoting informed sources said the incident occurred near Kolda, 170 km east of the regional capital, Ziguinchor. It added that the gendarmes were ambushed on their way back from patrolling an area where a number of civilian vehicles had been attacked in recent weeks.
Heavy rains in Dakar
A torrential downpour at the weekend caused flooding in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, and brought transport to a virtual stop on Saturday night and on Sunday morning, AFP reported. It said a number of buildings were damaged and many homes flooded. No casualty figures or damage estimates were immediately available, but it that similar downpours in Tambacounda, in the east, had resulted in a number of deaths.
GUINEA BISSAU: Rebels hand over captured helicopter crew
Army mutineers in Guinea Bissau have handed over the crew of a Senegalese helicopter captured last week, when it accidentally touched down in a rebel-held area of the country, AFP reported at the weekend.
The news agency quoted a statement from Senegal's ministry of foreign affairs as saying the rebels had also promised to return the aircraft.
According to AFP, the rebels claimed the helicopter belonged to the Senegalese armed forces, which have been helping Guinea Bissau's President Joao Bernardo Vieira put down the rebellion sparked by the dismissal of his former armed forces chief of staff, General Ansumane Mane.
But Senegal has maintained that the helicopter belonged to a civilian company, AFP reported. A ceasefire was signed on 26 July and the two sides are expected to embark on peace talks later this week.
TOGO: Opposition demands election re-run
Two opposition parties have demanded a re-run of Togo's controversial June elections, which saw President Gnassingbe Eyadema win a final term in office, AFP reported on Friday. Quoting a letter from the leaders of the Comite d'action pour le renouveau (CAR) and the Parti democratique pour le renouveau (PDR) to Togo's prime minister, Kwassi Klutse, AFP said the opposition had rejected Eyadema's offer to join a new unity government headed by Klutse.
Klutse had earlier urged the two parties to discuss the issue. But both reportedly told Klutse that the government's running of the elections had plunged Togo into political crisis and they should be re-run.
According to media reports, opposition parties claimed the exiled veteran opposition leader, Gilchrist Olympio from the Union des forces du changement (UFC), in fact won the poll. The European Union (EU) has also criticised the conduct of the elections.
GHANA: Rawlings offers to mediate
Ghana's President Jerry Rawlings has offered to mediate in Togo's political crisis, AFP reported at the weekend. It quoted Rawlings as telling a Togolese governmental delegation visiting Accra on Thursday that he wanted to help build "national consensus" between Togo's government and opposition to "promote peace".
A Togolese delegation, headed by the minister for foreign affairs, Koffi Panou, was visiting Rawlings to discuss cross-border security in the wake of an alleged terrorist attack a week earlier on the Togolese side of their joint border. It said Panou had accused Olympio, who has lived in Ghana since a 1992 assassination attempt, of masterminding the attack, AFP reported.
For his part, Rawlings said that although no effort should be spared to find those responsible, "the situation should not be exploited to implicate the innocent".
Annan receives doctorate
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan returned to his native Ghana on Saturday for "a private visit" in which he would also receive an honorary doctorate from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the UN Information Centre in Accra reported.
WEST AFRICA: Equatorial Guinea concerned at oil prospecting
Equatorial Guinea's government announced on Friday it was concerned at the activities of two oil prospecting platforms operating out of neighbouring Nigeria, which it said infringed on its territorial waters, AFP reported.
The news agency quoted a deputy foreign affairs minister, Miguel Oyono, as saying the platforms, allegedly operated by France's Elf oil company, had no authorisation to enter a maritime zone currently disputed between Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria.
According to Oyono, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria accepted mediation of the issue just over a month ago. Equatorial Guinea had now contacted the
Nigerian and French governments to ensure negotiations were not "further complicated" by the matter, he said.
Equatorial Guinea produces some 90,000 barrels of oil a day and is also negotiating its maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Guinea with neighbouring Sao Tome and Principe, AFP reported.
Abidjan, 24 August, 1998 19:35 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, 24 Aug 1998 19:37:25 +0000 (GMT) Subject: IRIN West Africa Update 279, 98.8.24 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980824193533.17846A-D N A T I O N S
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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