UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 307, 98.10.01

IRIN-West Africa Update 307, 98.10.01


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

tel: +225 21 73 54 fax: +22521 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 307 of Events in West Africa, (Thursday) 1 October 1998

NIGERIA: Independence anniversary marked by new optimism

In a nationwide radio and television speech marking Nigeria's 38th independence aniversary today, the country's military ruler, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, urged civilians who will regain power next year to learn from the mistakes of successive military administrations.

"I pray and hope that our civil leaders on whom the mantle of national leadership will fall in a few months' time have learned useful lessons from our past travails," Abubakar said. He said it was unfortunate that the "the efforts of our founding fathers were interrupted in 1966 with the first military intervention in government".

Abubakar, who assumed power on 9 June after the sudden death of his hardline predecessor, General Sani Abacha, also pledged to end the two-tier foreign currency exchange rate and to finalise a new draft constitution designed to end decades of military rule. Reuters said the abolition of the dual-rate system of exchange was one of the main conditions for improved relations with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It said the measure could eventually lead to relief of external debts of more than $30 billion.

In his speech, Abubakar said Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission had met officials from the United Nations and the Commonwealth as part of "continuing efforts to ensure free and fair elections". "We must take an unflattering excursion into our past, critically but objectively evaluate our efforts at nation-building, and humbly acknowledge our mistakes," he said. Abubakar has promised a 10-month transition to civilian rule with the military handing power to an elected government on 29 May, 1999.

Police withdraw after five officers killed

Police have withdrawn from an area around the town of Apata in southwestern Nigeria following the killing of five colleagues earlier this week, AFP reported yesterday. The agency quoted a report in the Nigerian 'The Guardian' newspaper saying that the five policemen had been sent to the town to keep the peace between the feuding Ilaje and Ijaw communities. Clashes between the communities in the Apata region of Ondo State broke out on 19 September over the ownership of oil wells in the town. Police reported last week that 23 people died, but villagers put that number at 200, AFP said.

Army removes roadblocks in Ogoniland

The Nigerian army has removed road blocks around the Ogoniland area of the Niger Delta, AFP reported yesterday, quoting a statement by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). The movement, founded by the Ogoni rights activist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1994 with eight fellow activists during the Abacha regime, said however that the army's Rivers State task force should withdraw from the region entirely.

LIBERIA: U.S. embassy to remain shut pending apology

The United States charge d'affaires in Liberia, John Baumann, has said the embassy in Monrovia would remain closed until the Liberian government "thoroughly investigates" and apologises for a recent shooting incident at the embassy on 19 September, independent Star Radio reported today.

Baumann was quoted as saying his government was re-assessing its relations with Liberia and a decision would be made whether to continue, scale down, or close the embassy operations. He said the embassy "will be dealing strictly with humanitarian affairs", the radio said.

The embassy was closed when the former faction leader, Roosevelt Johnson, sought sanctuary there after his ethnic Krahn stronghold in central Monrovia was raided by government forces. The US maintains that Liberian forces shot into the embassy compound in pursuit of Johnson. But President Charles Taylor recently denied this, saying all firing had taken place on Liberian soil.

Liberian press union marks anniversary "silently"

The Press Union of Liberia observed its 34th anniversary "silently" yesterday so that it could reflect "soberly" on the situation in the country, Star Radio reported. The union said it would hold the government to its promise to uphold press freedom.

SENEGAL: Court rules against detained unionists

An appeal court in Senegal has turned down an appeal for the release of a group of trade unionists detained in July following a strike by electricity workers in the Syndicat unique des travailleurs de l'electricite (SUTELEC), AFP reported today.

It said the unspecified number of detainees, including the SUTELEC leader, Mademba Sock, were accused of sabotaging installations of the Societe national d'electricite (SENELEC) during a strike in protest against privatisation plans. It said lawyers for the detainees would make a fresh appeal, while other trade unions were considering further protests in support of the SUTELEC detainees.

CHAD: Opposition condemns Congo force

Two opposition parties in Chad have condemned the dispatch of 1,000 troops to help President Laurent-Desire Kabila put down a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), AFP reported yesterday.

AFP quoted the Front national du Tchad renouve (FNTR) and the Conseil democratique revolutionaire (CDR) as saying the intervention was a dangerous development which risked embroiling Chad in international conflicts.

"Chad, which laid to rest its 30 years of wars at home and abroad with difficulty, must respect a constructive neutrality in African conflicts," the CDR said.

According to media reports, Chad's government only acknowledged that it had already sent troops to help Kabila earlier this week, saying the action was in support of "efforts to preserve peace" in DRC.

NIGER: Municipal election may be postponed

Municipal elections in Niger scheduled for 22 November may have to be postponed, AFP reported today. According to the report, the Commission electorale nationale independante (CENI), the only body authorised to make such changes, said that a 22 September deadline for registration of candidates had passed without a single application to the interior ministry.

The electoral campaign was to have started on 31 October, but a number of leaders of the country's 11 opposition parties had already requested a postponement so that they could ensure a fair contest, the report said. In July, they signed a pact with the governing parties granting them equal access to state media and guaranteeing the "strict neutrality" of traditional chiefs. Meanwhile, AFP said foreign donors had provided a CFA 3 billion (Ffr 30 million) fund for the elections.

GHANA: River blindness no longer a threat

Samuel Sowah, a WHO regional expert on river blindness, told IRIN today that river blindness no longer constituted a social, economic or health problem in Ghana. He was reacting to news reports this week which said black flies believed to be carriers of the disease had invaded the Bunkprugu region of Ghana, some 500 km north of the capital Accra.

AFP, quoting local newspapers, said that farmers had abandoned their harvest, and that schoolchildren had been made to wear long sleeves and trousers to protect them from the painful fly bites. A report in the 'Daily Graphic' on Monday quoted a regional deputy, Jospeh Labik, as saying: "Those in charge of the programme against onchocercosis (river blindness) tell us that the parasite has been eliminated but the flies are still venonous and their bites painful." The WHO has said that the disease, which has been prevalent in the savannah regions of Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Niger and Togo, has been most eradicated.

Sowah said the WHO was not mandated to control the flies but to treat diseases. He said: "The cost of US$ 900 for spraying a stretch of river is far too much for government budgets when this money could be put to better use building schools." He added that years of treating rivers had rendered the flies harmless and that "in any case, rivers cannot be treated for flies on a permanent basis".

BENIN: OCHA investigating flood devastation

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that a multi-donor mission was in Benin to investigate reports that some 20,000 people might have been rendered homeless by recent floods.

It said that it expected a review on the situation in coming days with "a detailed account on the flood impact and requirements for international assistance". Last week, news reports quoted the government as saying that "more than 2,500 people had been left homeless and 20,000 tonnes of grain destroyed" in the floods about 500 km northwest of the capital, Cotonou. Five people were reported killed, two by drowning and three from cholera, the reports said.

ECOWAS aid package announced

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has granted Benin an aid package of CFA 3 billion (Ffr 30 million) for the development of cattle farming, AFP reported today, quoting a government announcement.

WEST AFRICA: ACP-EU talks open in Brussels

The European Union (EU) and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations started talks in Brussels today at which they are expected to re-negotiate the Lome Convention, one of the world's biggest aid and trade agreements. Media reports said the EU is proposing the negotiation of free trade areas with the 70 ACP countries between the year 2000 and 2005.

The reports said that while the 41 poorest ACP countries would continue to benefit from the 23-year-old Lome Convention, 21 other nations, including Southern African countries, will have to work out a new arrangement. EU sources in London were quoted as saying this could lead to "heated debate".

EU ministers have agreed that protocols on sugar, beef and bananas, which give ACP producers privileged access to the European market, should be reviewed in 2004, the reports said. The present convention is due to expire in February 2000.

Pharmaceutical self-reliance

A regional meeting on local production of basic drugs in Africa has urged countries to be more self reliant, PANA reported today. It said delegates at a meeting in Praia, Cape Verde, from 14-18 September had recommended that the director of the WHO regional office for Africa "discuss the issue of soft loans and direct foreign investment in pharmaceutical production in the continent with heads of multilateral financial institutions".

Delegates also discussed the bulk purchase of drugs and recommended the establishment of a permanent secretariat for the African Association of Central Medical Stores, PANA said. Delegates also proposed the creation of national quality control laboratories, mechanisms to fight counterfeit drugs and illicit drug marketing, and develop inter-country collaboration in drug inspection, drug registration and pharmaceutical legislation.

Inflation in Francophone West Africa

Inflation in Francophone countries of Union economique et monetaire ouest-africaine (UEMOA), has reached 4.6% in July, AFP reported. It quoted a report released by UEMOA headquarters in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as saying the highest rate of inflation since January was recorded in Niger at 7.7%, and the lowest in Senegal at 4.4%. It said that the UEMOA countries had experienced inflation mainly because of the global increase in agricultural output. It said the inflationary trend, however, appeared to have peaked.

Abidjan, 1 October 1998 18:40

[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: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 18:48:10 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 307, 98.10.01 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.981001184632.23486B-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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