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IRIN-WA Update 395 of Events in West Africa (Thursday 4 February)
SIERRA LEONE: "Massive recruitment" under way, army chief says
Sierra Leone army chief-of-staff Brigadier-General Maxwell Khobe yesterday (Wednesday) announced his army was recruiting some 5,000 men to take over from the West African intervention force ECOMOG, news reports said. Khobe, who is leading a delegation to Nigeria, said a "massive recruitment" was underway ahead of a planned Nigerian withdrawal by the end of May. "If Nigeria pulls out, other countries will be there," Khobe said. According to PANA news agency, Khobe claimed that with additional troops pledged by west African countries and the necessary logistical support, ECOMOG could end the crisis in Sierra Leone. However, a hasty withdrawal of the Nigerian contingent would make it possible for the rebels to carry out their threat of "destabilising not only Sierra Leone, but Guinea and possibly Nigeria," he warned. Currently, Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea are supplying troops to the ECOMOG force in Sierra Leone. Ghana meanwhile has announced the appointment of a new defence minister, Lieutenant-Colonel Enoch Donkoh, to replace M.Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, who has become a presidential adviser, according to AFP.
Khobe, a Nigerian and former ECOMOG commander in Sierra Leone, blamed the rebel incursion into Freetown last month on the "command structure problem", PANA reported. "The soldiers on the check points did not do their work," he pointed out. He said they probably did not realise the rebels had entered the city disguised as refugees. Such a lapse would never be repeated, "even if it means killing civilians used by the rebels as human shields," he said.
He reiterated charges that Liberian President Charles Taylor was supplying and training the rebels. "If you get Charles Taylor, then you have solved the problem," he said. "Basically the war is over diamonds." The Liberian government has denied any involvement in Sierra Leone's war, but the senate yesterday announced an investigation into the allegations. "These accusations...have become so profound that it no longer serves the country's interest to simply declare Liberia's innocence or defend a national position," AFP quoted Senator Charles Brumskine as saying.
Jailbreakers reportedly turning themselves in
Convicts in Freetown, who escaped from jail during the rebel attacks on the city, have started turning themselves in, Star radio reported today (Thursday). It said many of the inmates were serving sentences for treason. However, former Sierra Leone president Joseph Momoh, who was given a 10-year jail sentence for collaborating with the military junta that seized power in 1997, has not given himself up, neither have former parliamentarian Victor Foh and broadcaster Hilton Fyle, both of whom have been sentenced to death.
GUINEA BISSAU: ECOMOG troops ashore in Bissau
Some 300 ECOMOG soldiers from Benin and Niger landed in Bissau today after being held up for four days by fighting between loyalist and mutinous troops in the Guinea Bissau capital, AFP reported.
They came ashore on landing crafts from the French warship, Le Siroco, which arrived in Guinea Bissau waters on Sunday at the onset of the last round of fighting. The troops were able to land after the Togolese defence and foreign ministers brokered a ceasefire yesterday between rivals President Joao Bernardo Vieira and military junta leader Ansumane Mane. News reports and diplomats said the ceasefire was holding despite earlier exchanges of gunfire.
The Benin and Niger units make up part of an ECOMOG intervention force due to arrive tomorrow (Friday). Diplomatic sources told IRIN today that a Gambian company and the remaining Togolese troops will be shipped from Dakar, the Senegalese capital, to Bissau on the French warship. The troops will oversee the implementation of the security aspects of a peace accord signed on 1 November 1998 by the belligerents and permit the withdrawal of Senegalese and Guinean troops supporting Vieira.
NIGERIA: Splits within APP over presidential candidate nomination
There was confusion yesterday in Nigeria's second largest party, the right-wing All People's Party (APP), as two factions announced the suspension of the other's members in a row over plans for an electoral alliance with the Alliance for Democracy (AD) party, news reports said.
At the centre of the disagreement is who will be the alliance's joint candidate for presidential elections due to take place on 27 February. Under the terms of the partnership, the two parties can only put forward one name and, last week, the AD nominated Chief Olu Samuel Falae as its candidate.
At a news briefing in Abuja yesterday, a group of top APP politicians announced the removal of party chairman, Alhaji Mahmud Waziri, his deputy and the national secretary, AFP reported. Waziri responded by suspending the membership of five of the group, including former foreign minister Tom Ikimi for involvement in "anti-party" activities, AFP said.
Meanwhile, all is not well in the AD, as one of its founders and leading figures Bola Ige, is refusing to support the man who beat him as his party's presidential candidate, Olu Falae, AFP said.
The largest party in the election race, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), is due to name its candidate next week and is currently the favourite to win both the legislative elections on 20 February and the presidential poll a week later.
Bomb at PDP meeting
Two people were slightly injured on Tuesday when a petrol bomb was thrown into a hall at Port Harcourt where the PDP was holding its local primary for this month's presidential elections, AFP quoted press reports as saying today. The bomb was thrown as votes were being counted. Several ballot papers were burnt and there was minor damage to the building.
CHAD: Kabila reportedly ready to sign "immediate ceasefire"
Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent-Desire Kabila has expressed willingness to hold talks with all Congolese, including rebels of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) "inside or outside the country", AFP reported. In a joint statement with his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby yesterday, during a visit to N'djamena, Kabila said he was ready to "sign an immediate ceasefire and continue the process of democratisation ahead of general elections which would be both democratic and open". According to the statement, both heads of state urged the international community to support this peace initiative by sending a peacekeeping force under the auspices of the OAU and the UN. Deby, who has sent some 800 troops to fight alongside DRC government troops, justified the intervention by saying Chad was helping DRC to find peace. "We will only leave the DRC when our mission has been achieved," he told a news conference at the end of Kabila's visit.
LIBERIA: Government promises money for agricultural research
The Liberian government says it will provide US $250,000 to the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) in Psychic, Bong County, Star radio reported today. President Charles Taylor said the money will be available within three months and will be used to reopen the institute which has been inactive for nine years. He added that the government will push ahead in its programme to achieve self-sufficiency in food, Star said.
An FAO special report on Liberia last month said crop and food supply figures indicated a "significantly improved food situation".
WEST AFRICA: Final draft of gas pipeline project ready
The draft final report of the feasibility study of the 600 km West African Gas Pipeline Project has been submitted to the secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria, the organisation said yesterday (Wednesday) in a statement sent to IRIN.
The proposed pipeline, which will serve Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo, may also be extended to Cote d'Ivoire later. Finance for the study came from Chevron, Shell Petroleum Development Company, the Nigerian petroleum Corporation (NNPC), SociÈtÈ BÈninoise du Gaz (SOBEGAZ), SociÈtÈ Togolaise du Gaz (SOTOGAZ) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
On completion of the study, a concession agreement will be negotiated with the West African Pipeline Company (WAPCO) which will build and operate the pipeline on commercial basis. ECOWAS said a meeting to discuss the feasibility study will be held in March by the Ministerial Steering Committee. The meeting will take place either in Lome, Togo, or Abuja.
Abidjan, 4 February 1999, 17:25 gmt
[ENDS]
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 17:28:44 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 395 for 1999.2.4
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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