UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-WA Daily Media Update 37-97, 8/28/97

IRIN-WA Daily Media Update 37-97, 8/28/97


U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Department of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network

for West Africa

Tel: +225 21-63-35

Fax: +225 21-63-35

e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Daily Media Update 37-97 of Events in West Africa, 28 August 1997

[As a supplement to its weekly roundups of main events in West Africa, IRIN-WA will produce a daily synopsis of international media reports on the region. IRIN issues these reports for the benefit of the humanitarian community but accepts no responsibility as to the accuracy of the original source.]

SIERRA LEONE -Sanctions likely to continue

The 20th summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) started today in Abuja, Nigeria with an opening address by the Nigerian head-of-state General Sani Abacha. He called for the rapid resolution of the crisis in Sierra Leone though he did not provide any insights on how to restore President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who was ousted by a coup d'etat in May 1997. According to PANA, summit leaders are expected to impose more stringent economic sanctions against the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), recommend the reinforcement of ECOMOG contingents in Sierra Leone and extend ECOMOG's mandate in neighbouring Liberia. Analysts say that the enforcement of sanctions will be difficult to implement because of porous borders and the required manpower to maintain them. Despite the embargo announced by ECOWAS on 6 August, ships carrying oil and rice have arrived in Freetown. Twelve West African heads-of-state are present at the summit, four of which are represented at the ministerial level. Source: PANA and AFP.

SIERRA LEONE - ECOWAS troops fire on cargo vessels

Nigerian artillery forces shelled three cargo ships anchored off Freetown harbour on Wednesday night, Sierra Leonean military sources said. An AFP correspondent said that heavy shelling which lasted for more than an hour spread alarm among Freetown residents. Calm was restored on Thursday morning. The origins of the vessels and the nature of their cargo were not disclosed. The leader of the AFRC, Major Johnny Paul Koroma, in a radio address this morning accused the Nigerian contingent of embarking on a desperate attempt to "provoke a war" to coincide with the ECOWAS summit. In the same statement, Koroma advised Nigerian soldiers to direct their efforts at "fighting the dictatorial regime of military ruler, General Sani Abacha, to reverse the coup of 1993 and restore the democratically-elected government of Chief Abiola". Source: AFP.

SIERRA LEONE - Pro-Kabbah radio in chief's house

An AFRC communique dated 27 August stated that it had located the illegal pro-Kabbah radio station. FM 98.4 is reportedly operating, under Nigerian protection, out of the guesthouse of paramount chief Komkanda II in Lungi, near the international airport. The FM station started broadcasting programmes calling for the restoration of President Tejan Kabbah in late June. Source: Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service Radio via BBC monitoring.

SIERRA LEONE - Officers accused of planning attack

Sierra Leonean state-run radio announced that two former military officers, retired Lieutenant-Colonels Komba Mondeh and Tom Nyuma, have been accused of planning a seaborne attack on Sierra Leone to restore the ousted president. Both men are currently residing in neighbouring Guinea. According to AFP, Mondeh has just completed an advanced staff-training course in Jaji, Nigeria while Nyuma has recently returned from military college in Zimbabwe. The former military officers were ringleaders in a coup d'etat led by Captain Valentine Strasser in 1992. Mondeh was secretary of state of marine resources, while Nyuma was internal affairs secretary and later chief of staff under the Strasser regime. Source: AFP.

LIBERIA - Yellow fever outbreak in rural areas

The Liberian health minister Fineboy Darkinah reported that there was an outbreak of yellow fever in northern Lofa County. A medical team arrived yesterday in the north to immunise residents in order to contain the outbreak. The health minister said that reports of an outbreak of measles in Lofa County had yet to be confirmed, but the situation was being closely monitored. He announced that the Liberian and South African health ministers would soon meet to discuss assistance from Pretoria in the health sector. Health facilities and medical equipment are almost non-existent as most were systematically looted over the course of the seven-year civil war. Source: AFP.

NIGERIA - Human rights activist arrested

Tunji Abayomi, human rights activist and lawyer for Nigeria's former military head-of-state General Olusegun Obasanjo, was arrested yesterday in his office by plain-clothed security agents. No official reason was given for his arrest. Abayomi, the chairman of Human Rights Africa, was previously arrested and released from detention in June 1996 for publicly declaring that General Obasanjo was not involved in an alleged plot to overthrow General Sani Abacha. Obasanjo, the first Nigerian military leader to voluntarily hand over power to civilian authorities, is currently serving a 15-year jail term. Source: AFP.

SENEGAL - Senegalese separatist leader assassinated

A leader of the southern separatist movement, the Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces (Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance - MFDC) was killed on Tuesday. Sarani Badiane, one of four aides to the movement's leader Father Diamacoune Senghor, was found with his throat slit just outside of Ziguinchor, 450 kms south of Dakar. No one has claimed responsibility for his death. It is unclear if the murder was a settling of scores within the movement or retaliation by Senegalese soldiers. Twenty-five soldiers were recently killed in Casamance in a rebel ambush. Source: AFP.

SENEGAL & NIGER - Drought update

At a strategy meeting in Dakar on the drought situation in northern Senegal, some 40 representatives of both the Senegalese government and the NGO community described the drought as "catastrophic" with "dramatic" consequences, a World Vision document stated. Government officials announced that 6,000 MTs of subsidised animal feed will be distributed within the next two weeks to farmers in the affected zones: Louga, St. Louis and Thies. The 40-day fodder ration is intended to sustain young cattle that cannot trek to distant pastures which received more rainfall. Families in the stricken areas will also receive 5,300 MTs of millet, which will be targeted to young children and lactating mothers. Heavy rains, which fell in some parts of the country over the weekend, came too late to save this year's millet and peanut crops in the north. World Vision agronomist Mansour Fall, who presented a report at the Dakar meeting, also expressed his concern for next year's harvest as many farmers have lost their seed stock. Moreover, there are concerns that conflicts may arise between herders and farmers due to the declining availability of fertile lands.

Barely a month old in some regions, the rainy season, which should normally have started in June, has come to an end in most parts of Niger. Hundreds of villages were unable to plant their crops and in the few areas where seeds were sown crops have failed. Food stocks in 1997 were already low following a poor harvest in 1996 during which Niger registered a 200,000 MTs food shortage. Source: World Vision and AFP.

Abidjan, 28 August 1997

[ENDS]

[Via the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa (IRIN-WA) Reports mailing list. The material contained in this communication may not necessarily reflect the views of the UN or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts from this report should be attributed to the original sources where appropriate. For further information: e-mail irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci, Tel: +225 217367 Fax: +225 216335.]

Message-Id: <199708290830.LAA27130@dha.unon.org> Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 10:03:32 +0300 From: UN DHA IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci> Subject: IRIN-WA Daily Media Update 37-97, 28 August 1997

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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