UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 322, 98.10.22

IRIN-West Africa Update 322, 98.10.22


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: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 322 of Events in West Africa (Thursday) 22 October 1998

GUINEA BISSAU: Vieira declares ceasefire as rebels seize Bafata

Beleaguered Guinea Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira declared a unilateral ceasefire with the rebels yesterday (Wednesday) as the country's second largest city, Bafata, fell to them, media reports and humanitarian agencies said.

Vieira announced the ceasefire, effective 10 p.m., on state radio. However, one humanitarian source told IRIN today that shelling continued in Bissau and that the situation remained confused. The official said the rebels, who call themselves the Military Council, were yesterday about 500 metres from the presidential palace.

Vieira said he had declared the ceasefire to end the "sacrifice and the suffering of the people". He had also offered direct talks with the rebel leader, General Ansumane Mane.

Earlier yesterday, Reuters said, envoys from France, Portugal and Sweden met Vieira in an effort to end the war, and appealed to the rebels to stop shooting.

Bafata, which Guinean units were helping loyalist troops defend, fell at around midday yesterday. The fall of the strategic second city of Guinea Bissau opens the way for a rebel attack on Gabu, some 50 km to the east. Prabis, west of Bissau, is also under rebel control.

Thousands flee fighting

A humanitarian source said some 50,000 people, "probably more", had gone to Prabis to avoid the fighting. He said an undetermined number had moved to the Bijagos islands. Reuters yesterday put that figure at 10,000. The population in Prabis is reportedly most at risk from lack of food because of the town's isolated location. Its population has also tripled and the water supply remains very poor. Food and housing are a problem and health supplies are expected to run low with the influx of the internally displaced.

In Dakar, Senegal, some 40 NGO's and UN agencies are meeting to assess and plan a response to the situation. The source said measures had been taken to position 200,000 mt of food each in Cacheu, to the northwest, and Bolama to the south, as well as 100,000 mt in Bubaque, on the Bijagos islands.

Humanitarian organisations report that the movement of people northwest to Cacheu was orderly. "There was no panic," one source said.

Roman Catholic missionaries in the Bafata area have described the humanitarian situation as "catastrophic". The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the national Red Cross had been setting up first aid teams equipped with vehicles, stretchers and blankets to evacuate the wounded to the main city hospital. The ICRC said when conditions permitted, it continued to provide dressings and surgical supplies across the country.

Humanitarian agencies are concerned that the harvest will be disrupted and food supplies strained with the movement of people. There is also concern at the plight of refugees fleeing the upsurge of fighting in Casamance to Guinea Bissau.

Senegal's Diouf defends intervention

Senegalese President Abdou Diouf yesterday addressed the French National Assembly, where he was speaking on a host of issues, including Senegal's military intervention in Guinea Bissau, while placard carrying supporters and opponents demonstrated outside, AFP reported

Diouf said the Senegalese and Guinean (Conakry) military intervention in Guinea Bissau had been in favour of the legitimate government. At a news conference later, Diouf said his army would not get bogged down in Guinea Bissau. "There are some upcoming meetings which should allow us to progress," he said.

ECOWAS to send envoy

Meanwhile, ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate said yesterday that peace talks co-sponsored with the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) "would begin shortly", Reuters reported.

Kouyate also said that the ECOWAS chairman, Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar, had decided to send a special envoy immediately to Guinea Bissau "with a view to bringing the parties to see reason and make them respect the ceasefire".

The 16-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is scheduled to meet on 30-31 October in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

United Nations calls on warring sides to respect humanitarian law

In a statement received by IRIN today, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sergio Vieira De Mello, appealed to the belligerents to "respect international humanitarian law and principles and to ensure the safety and security of innocent civilians". He also appealed to them and neighbouring countries to facilitate the delivery of urgently required humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable populations of Guinea Bissau.

SENEGAL: Senegalese army takes out rebel bases

The Senegalese army has taken out rebel bases in eastern Casamance in a bid to crush the new front of the separatist Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), AFP said on Tuesday. The news agency quoted a Senegalese army press release as saying that a large network of rebel bases situated along the Senegal-Guinea-Bissau border had been "dislocated and neutralised" during the mop-up operation, while 60 rebel fighters had been killed.

Other sources quoted by AFP said the Senegalese army had used heavy artillery against rebel bases and made incursions into neighbouring Guinea Bissau. During its campaign, the army confiscated arms and took prisoners of war. The presence of Senegalese soldiers along the Guinea Bissau border and inside the neighbouring country has pushed the MFDC fighters into eastern zone of Casamance province.

Meanwhile, the MFDC leader, Father Augustin Diamacoune, has called for a new peace process to bring together the various rebel factions. AFP said the lack of a single leader within the MFDC had hindered the resolution of its 16-year old conflict against the government of Senegal for the establishment of a sovereign state.

Rights group calls for peace in Casamance

Meanwhile, the French human rights NGO, La Federation internationale des ligues de droits de l'Homme (FIDH) on Tuesday appealed to Diouf to use his authority to re-establish peace in Casamance, AFP reported. An FIDH communique quoted by the agency expressed "strong concern over the continued violence in Casamance and a climate of tension aggravated by the Senegalese intervention in Guinea Bissau". The FIDH also called on the MFDC to "stop all the killing".

LIBERIA: Taylor says media, rights bodies damaging country

President Charles Taylor has accused Liberian human rights organisations and media of trying to destroy the country's image, AFP reported yesterday.

Speaking in Kakata, a former stronghold during the seven-year civil war some 55 km northeast of the capital, Monrovia, Taylor said the press had published "all kinds of things" to damage the country.

"When you grab one pressman, human rights organisations accuse you of clamping down on the press, but they are destroying the country," AFP quoted him as saying.

Earlier this week, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International criticised Taylor for his record on freedom of speech following a ban on Monrovia's press posting editions on the Internet.

Prominent Liberian human rights analysts also told IRIN today that they have been increasingly concerned about government hostility towards press and civil liberty organisations after they called for an inquiry into a pitched battle between Taylor's security forces and supporters of another former faction in central Monrovia last month.

"It is getting harder and harder for local organisations to work in Liberia, just when the need for reconciliation is greatest," one human rights worker commented.

TOGO: Arrest of newspaper editor

Appolinaire Mewenemesse, the editor of a Togolese bi-monthly magazine, 'La Depeche', was arrested yesterday in Lome on charges of having disseminated false information on the role of the Togolese army in increased banditry in Togo, AFP reported. The journalist, in an article dated 15 October, accused the Togolese army of being behind the increased number of security incidents in the country. Meanwhile, Togolese Minister of Defence Assani Tidjani rejected these accusations as "baseless".

UNITED NATIONS: SG calls on African leaders to put their house in order

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, told African leaders on Wednesday that they must establish peace and security if they wanted their countries to develop economically. Speaking at the Second International Conference on Development in Africa convening in Tokyo, Annan said chronically insecure neighbourhoods did not attract investments. The BBC reported that delegates from 82 nations had adopted a plan of action aimed at halving Africa's poverty by 2015 and boosting health, education and economic growth. Japan pledged to give nearly US $800 million over the next five years and encourage private investment in Africa. A Japanese government statement quoted by the BBC however warned that: "If the present situation continues, the growing disparity between rich and poor will become a major cause of worldwide social disorder".

Meanwhile, Sadako Ogata, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the repatriation of millions of refugees who had fled wars in Africa was essential to promoting social and economic development. Out of the 22,4 million refugees worldwide that have been displaced or recently repatriated, over 7,4 million refugees are Africans.

Abidjan, 22 October 1998, 18:45 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: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 19:11:36 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 322, 98.10.22 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.981022185612.19570A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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