UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 327 for 1998.10.29

IRIN-West Africa Update 327 for 1998.10.29


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 327 of Events in West Africa (Thursday 29 October 1998)

GUINEA BISSAU: President and rebel leader arrive in Banjul

President Joao Bernardo Vieira and rebel leader Ansumane Mane arrived in Banjul, The Gambia, today (Thursday) for planned peace talks.

Vieira and Mane were initially expected in Banjul yesterday (Wednesday) for talks on ending the war. The focus was expected to be the formation of a government of national unity, an amnesty law for the rebels and better living standards for those who fought against Portugal in Guinea Bissau's war of independence, AFP said.

Three children seriously injured in mine explosion

Three children were seriously injured today when they stepped on three anti-personnel mines in Cumura, five km north of Bissau, the missionary news agency, MISNA, reported.

One of the children lost both legs while another lost an arm and a leg. The mines were planted around the Franciscan Leper Hospital, now hosting some 50,000 internally displaced people, according to the agency.

Meanwhile, at least 6,000 people, among them 1,500 children, are taking refuge in the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions, in Tequira. MISNA described the situation there as "critical" because the area has been mined by government and Senegalese soldiers supporting Vieira.

Red Cross evacuates 122 children from Bissau

Meanwhile, the ICRC told IRIN today it had evacuated 122 children from Bissau to Wassadou, a Senegalese village some 10 km north of the border with Guinea Bissau.

The children were moved from an area of the city particularly exposed to the fighting, Fatou Diouf, the ICRC official said. The evacuees were all nationals of Guinea Bissau and the operation was at the request of the Interior Ministry. The ceasefire, which appears to be holding, allowed for the evacuation, she added.

However, MISNA reported yesterday that there have been "occasional little clashes" in the city largely controlled by rebel troops.

Pope appeals for end to conflict

Pope John Paul II appealed on Wednesday for a peaceful solution to the war in Guinea Bissau, media reports said. At his general Wednesday weekly audience in St Peter's Square, Rome, the Pope said: "We pray together that all sides in the conflict will put an end to this suffering which has gone on for too long."

NIGERIA: Government announces steps to tackle fuel crisis

The Nigerian military leader, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, announced measures yesterday to tackle the country's fuel shortage, news organisations reported. In a statement issued after a meeting with oil company executives, Abubakar said funds would be provided immediately for repairs at oil refineries in the southern cities of Warri and Port Harcourt. The repairs would improve current output by "at least 50 percent within eight weeks". Meanwhile, security would be tightened along the oil pipelines to prevent tampering.

Other measures to alleviate the shortage would be fuel importation and a clampdown on the black market in oil, with heavy penalties for petrol hoarding and diversion as well as better pay for tanker drivers. According to PANA, the government announced it would establish special tribunals in all the 36 states to prosecute those involved in illegal activities relating to oil.

Nigeria, the biggest oil producer in Africa, has experienced severe fuel shortages over recent years.

Oil closures enter 24 day

About a third of Nigeria's oil output has been shut in for the 24th day running by armed ethnic Ijaw youths demanding better amenities and more access to local government, Reuters reported today. Protestors holding about 20 oil facilities belonging to the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell, and US-based Chevron have stopped the flow of about 600,000 barrels per day.

The protests by the Ijaws are part of an upsurge in violence in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta area, where impoverished communities accuse oil companies of depriving them of their wealth.

(CORRECTION: In update 325 and 326 we reported that a local council headquarters had been relocated from an Itsekiri to an Ijaw area, when in fact it had been moved from an Ijaw to Itsekeri area.)

Former military ruler joins political party

Former Nigerian military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday joined a prominent political party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), at a ceremony in southern Nigeria, AFP reported.

"The PDP has lofty objectives, ideas and programmes that could weld the country together as a truly progressive, united and prosperous Nigeria," Obasanjo said, explaining the reasons for which he joined the party. He added that the party had no tribal, ethnic or religious leanings. The PDP is one of the three largest political parties approved by the Nigerian electoral commission.

Obasanjo was military ruler of Nigeria from 1976 to 1979 and handed over power to a democratically elected government. He was the first military ruler in Nigeria to do so. Gaoled by the late General Sani Abacha in 1995 for allegedly plotting a coup, Obasanjo was released by Abubakar in June 1998.

SIERRA LEONE: Government says 50 drowned fleeing fighting

Sierra Leone Deputy Defence Minister Hinga Norman has accused rebels and dissident troops of disembowelling pregnant women and causing the death of 50 people who drowned fleeing fighting in a northern town on Saturday, Reuters reported today.

Norman made the accusation while visiting the wounded in a Freetown hospital. He was quoted as saying that village authorities confirmed that some 50 people had drowned in the Pampana River, which runs through Alikalia, 220 km northeast of Freetown, while trying to flee the fighting in dug-out canoes.

Traditional chiefs in the town of Makeni, some 140 km northeast of Freetown, also confirmed the drowning to AFP.

British delegation evaluates security needs

A high-level British government delegation has ended initial discussions with Sierra Leonean officials on the restructuring and retraining of its army, a British Foreign Office official told IRIN today.

He said the delegation's visit to Freetown last week was exploratory in nature. The group was made up of officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The official said a stable and disciplined military was "a prerequisite" if the country was to be rebuilt after the trauma of the military coup.

In July this year, the Commonwealth sent a team of seven senior serving and former officers to devise a plan to rebuild Sierra Leone's police force.

LIBERIA: Senate begins debates on security bills

Senators in Liberia on Monday began a debate on bills to re-establish the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the National Security Council (NSC), Monrovia's 'The Inquirer' newspaper reported yesterday.

If passed, it said, the NBI's director would be empowered to investigate major crimes. Information gathered by the NBI will be made available to available to police and other government security agencies on request. The director will also be empowered to compile and publish an annual crime report. The official is to select, hire and train qualified agents to internationally accepted standards, the newspaper said.

The NSC bill seeks to empower the body to coordinate, regulate and provide policy guidelines for all security related operations in the country.

Court martial board president removed

The president of the Court Martial Board, recently established to try 29 army personnel accused of plotting a coup, has been replaced, the Monrovia-based daily, 'The News', reported today.

Brigadier General Morris T. Zaza, who headed the board, was replaced by Brigadier General J. Sackor Japlah. The newspaper said that Zaza had been replaced "following the issuance of a special order on 16 October". It gave no further explanation.

The accused, most of them former senior officers of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), were detained after the shootings on 18 September at Camp Johnson Road, in central Monrovia, involving supporters of Taylor and a rival former faction leader, Roosevelt Johnson. The men are being held and charged with mutiny, sedition and abetting the enemy, the newspaper said.

WEST AFRICA: UN says AIDS shortening life expectancy

The United Nations said it expected a dramatic decline in life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa because of the "devastating" impact of AIDS. Speaking at a press briefing at UN headquarters, Joseph Chamie, Director of the Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said "there would be a heavy, heavy, death toll relating to AIDS".

The 1998 UN World Population Estimates and Projections issued yesterday said in the 29 hardest hit African countries, the average life expectancy at birth was estimated at 47 years, seven less than it would have been in the absence of the disease, AIDS. The report added that eventually the average life expectancy would drop by 20 years.

Chamie said fertility rates had continued to drop in Africa, while mortality rates were on the increase. In Africa, the number of children per couple had fallen from 6.6 to 5.1. Despite these figures, Chamie said the growth rate would continue to increase and population would double in size by 2050 in sub-Saharan Africa.

Abidjan, 29 October 1998, 18:30 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: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 18:52:38 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 327 for 1998.10.29 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.981029185039.2400A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>


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