UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Update 398 for 1999.2.9

IRIN-West Africa Update 398 for 1999.2.9


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

Tel: +225 21 73 54 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org

IRIN-WA Update 398 of Events in West Africa (Tuesday 9 February)

SIERRA LEONE: Rebels "cautiously welcome" Kabbah's peace offer

A spokesman for the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) yesterday (Monday) "cautiously welcomed" President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's offer to allow talks between jailed rebel leader Foday Sankoh and RUF commanders. According to the Sierra Leone News website, RUF spokesman Omrie Golley said the rebels were now awaiting government proposals "in the shortest possible time" on how to proceed "in order to carefully study them and respond". He stressed there were many issues to be resolved, including the venue of the talks and security guarantees for both Sankoh and his rebel interlocuters.

Presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai yesterday told IRIN that Kabbah had agreed to let Sankoh consult with his rebel commanders so they could present their peace plans to the government, but stressed the offer was only good if the rebels accepted the government's legitimacy, laid down their arms and presented no preconditions for talks.

The Sierra Leone parliament has welcomed the move, saying the Abidjan peace accord signed between Sankoh and Kabbah in 1996, which would form the basis of any peace deal, was still a "viable framework" for settling the conflict.

Freetown reported calm after attempted rebel incursion

Humanitarian sources told IRIN that Freetown was calm yesterday. An ECOMOG official was quoted as saying rebels still trapped in the city were being flushed out with the help of residents who were providing information. Rebels attempted to enter Freetown over the weekend via Tombo town, but were repelled by ECOMOG troops who killed about 85 insurgents, the official said. However, residents were still fleeing the city with about 400 arriving in Conakry last week, according to the humanitarian sources.

Elsewhere in the country, a rebel attack was reported on Kenema airport on Sunday, while a large influx of displaced people arrived in Bo from Mile 91. They have yet to be registered. One humanitarian worker who returned from Bo last week described the situation as tense, with fuel seven times the normal price.

GUINEA BISSAU: Rival armies set up disarmament committee

Rival forces in Guinea Bissau have set up a committee to oversee the disarmament of all armed units in the country, AFP said today (Tuesday) citing military sources in the capital, Bissau.

Representatives of the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, will also be on the committee which was formed yesterday. The committee will take an inventory of weapons in the country and register the number of men under arms.

"It would be desirable to have the heavy weapons under control," the Togolese commander of the ECOMOG force said. "Once this is completed we will avoid any risk of war."

According to AFP, a military spokesman for the loyalist troops said over state radio that the weapons collection would be a difficult and lengthy affair, as it was in the Central African Republic and Liberia.

The protagonists in the Guinea Bissau conflict are President Joao Bernardo Vieira and the leader of the self-styled Military Junta, cashiered armed forces chief of staff General Ansumane Mane. Some 3,000 Guinean and Senegalese back Vieira's loyalist forces while at least 90 percent of the Guinea Bissau army support Mane, whom Vieira fired over accusations of arms smuggling to Senegalese separatists. Mane said Viera was guilty of that charge.

Under a fragile peace accord signed in November 1998, supposedly to end a five-month civil war, Guinean and Senegalese troops are to leave as ECOMOG troops arrive in the country. On Friday, Mane give Senegalese troops 48 hours to leave the country, with the arrival of ECOMOG troops. The last of the ECOMOG troops were to have disembarked in Bissau late yesterday.

Meanwhile, Mane has said his movement has no proof of French military involvement in the Guinea Bissau conflict, other than the transport of ECOMOG troops to the theatre of operations. He was responding to accusations by pro-junta Prime Minister-designate Francisco Fadul and by a Roman Catholic priest that a French warship had shelled anti-government positions in last week's fighting in the capital. French President Jacques Chirac denied the charge.

Bissau residents flee as humanitarian aid arrives

Bissau residents continue to flee in response to radio appeals by the junta and despite the four-day lull in the fighting, news reports said. According to the Portuguese news agency Lusa, Bissau remained tense. Meanwhile, a Portuguese air force transport plane with eight mt of humanitarian aid from the Portuguese NGO, Assistencia Medica Internacional (AMI), was due to arrive in the "coming days". The cargo of medical equipment is destined for hospitals treating war victims of the fighting which broke out in Bissau on 30 January.

An aircraft left Dakar, Senegal, yesterday for Bafata, Guinea Bissau's second city, with 20,000 doses of meningitis vaccine, Lusa, said. This is in addition to the 25,000 doses sent to the region last week.

Meanwhile, local radio stations have warned of the possibility of other epidemics due to people drinking polluted water, the missionary news agency Misna reported yesterday. There is an insufficient number of wells in the country and people are drinking directly from rice paddies where many corpses have been abandoned, it said.

NIGERIA: Abubukar "disturbed" by parties' threats

General Abdulsalami Abubakar said he was "disturbed" by recent threats from one of the country's political parties to pull out of presidential elections due on 27 February, news agencies reported today. He was referring to the threat by the largest party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), to withdraw if an alliance took place between the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All People's Party (APP). Abubukar, who was in Amman for the funeral of King Hussein, was represented at the meeting at State House in Abuja yesterday by his deputy, Vice Admiral Okhai Akhigbe. According to AFP, Akhigbe urged the leaders of the three main parties, the PDP, AD and APP to work for the success of the elections.

Akhigbe expressed the government's concern over recent disagreements both within and between the three main parties, according to Nigerian television. He added that if the situation was not checked, it could "plunge the country into chaos". Akhigbe asked the APP and the PDP, which are due to hold conventions very soon, to select their presidential candidates with "transparent honesty", The AD has already nominated Samuel Olu Falae as its presidential candidate.

Parties "will find way round" ban on electoral alliance

At the meeting with Akhigbe, leaders of the AD and APP asked the government to put pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow a formal electoral alliance between the two parties, news organisations reported. INEC announced last week that the alliance was "dead," provoking the AD candidate, Falae, to say the two parties would "find a way round the obstacle", PANA reported. Meanwhile the PDP, as expected, welcomed INEC's rejection of the alliance, calling it the "right decision", PANA added.

Government inaugurates committee to oversee handover to civilian rule

Meanwhile a 16-member committee, set up by the government to coordinate the handover from military to civilian rule, was inaugurated yesterday by Akhigbe, the independent 'Guardian' newspaper reported. He told reporters that the committee, made up of civilian and military members, would be responsible for organising the event expected to be attended by many foreign dignitaries. Akhigbe reiterated that the government was committed to handing over power on 29 May, the 'Guardian' said.

Ex-Botswanan president to head Commonwealth observer team

The former president of Botswana, Ketumile Masire, will lead a 23-member Commonwealth observer team to oversee national assembly and presidential elections this month, the Commonwealth secretariat announced yesterday in London, according to the news agency PANA. Electoral arrangements leading to civilian rule began with local elections in December, followed by governorship and state assembly elections in January.

Army to probe alleged Nigerian role in rebel invasion of Freetown

The army has set up a board of inquiry to assess the culpability of Nigerian soldiers in ECOMOG who were based in Freetown at the time of the rebel invasion, the 'Guardian' reported. Sierra Leonean Defence Chief Brigadier-General Maxwell Khobe told the 'Guardian" at the weekend that Abubukar and other Nigerian chiefs were "embarrassed" by the incident and he described the rebel infiltration as a "very big disgrace".

The investigation centres on the role of the 93 Mechanised Battalion, responsible for the Kissy area of Freetown, an eastern suburb which was virtually destroyed during the rebel invasion. Its aim is to ascertain whether any orders were issued or ignored. It will also probe whether any Nigerian officer failed to act on time regarding intelligence received which may have facilitated the rebel invasion, the 'Guardian' said. Already, the comassembly elections in January.

Army to probe alleged Nigeris in custody in connection with the inquiry.

NIGER: Polling disturbances reported, re-run ordered in some areas

The Niger government has ordered a re-run of local elections in constituencies where disturbances have been reported, news organisations said today. Sunday's poll, marking the last phase in the country's return to democracy, was initially described as peaceful, but Niger radio yesterday said it had just received reports of a "number of problems". Many voters were not in possession of their voting cards, in some areas there was a shortage of cards and some politicians were said to have influenced the electorate, the radio reported. It said that in Agadez prefecture for example, candidates "intimidated voters and polling officials".

AFP cited witnesses as saying there had been arson attacks, vandalism and theft of voting material. The independent national electoral commission listed the worst-affected areas as parts of the capital Niamey, Ziner and Maradi in the south, Dosso in the southwest and Tahoua in the north. It blamed the trouble on "discontented candidates".

The election had been slated as a political landmark for Niger, as previously all municipal officials were nominated by the central government.

Abidjan, 9 February 1999, 17:45 gmt

[ENDS]

Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 17:57:15 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 398 for 1999.2.9

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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