UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-WA Update 399 for 1999 2.10

IRIN-WA Update 399 for 1999 2.10


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 399 of Events in West Africa (Wednesday 10 February)

SIERRA LEONE: Support for Kabbah's peace dialogue

There appears to be widespread support for President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's offer to hold talks with Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and to allow them to discuss with their jailed leader Foday Sankoh. NGO organisations such as Refugees International and the Inter-religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL), issued statements urging the international community to back Kabbah's attempt to hold a dialogue which they said was "the only way to achieve peace in Sierra Leone". The UN Special Representative for Sierra Leone, Francis Okelo, described Kabbah's initiative as a "positive step" and it was now important for the rebels to "respond positively".

According to AFP, Togo has offered to host talks between the Sierra Leone government and rebels. Foreign Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh said Togo, as current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), "has a responsibility to seek peace in Sierra Leone".

Rebels reportedly stopping civilians from fleeing to Liberia

RUF rebels are preventing hundreds of civilians from fleeing eastern Sierra Leone, UNHCR said, citing four Sierra Leonean refugees who managed to cross into northern Liberia. Hundreds of people are reportedly trying to leave rebel-controlled territory in Kailahun district, about 20 km from the Liberian border town of Vahun but are being "kept against their will" by the rebels, a UNHCR spokesperson said in Geneva.

Liberian refugees ask to be repatriated

The spokesperson added that 400 Liberian refugees turned up at UNHCR offices in Freetown, asking to be repatriated. UNHCR will look for the means to return them as soon as the security situation improves. Before the recent round of fighting, UNHCR was caring for 8,000 Liberians in Sierra Leone, including 5,000 in Waterloo, near the capital. Humanitarian organisations have expressed concern over the whereabouts of these Liberians who scattered when Waterloo was attacked by the rebels.

LIBERIA: Taylor urges RUF leader to demonstrate more leadership skills

President Charles Taylor has called on RUF leader Foday Sankoh to show more leadership skills in helping to end the Sierra Leonean conflict, Star Radio reported today (Wednesday). In a statement, Taylor said he welcomed President Kabbah's anouncement on Sunday allowing Sankoh to hold talks with his commanders. He urged all sides in the conflict to use this opportunity to work for peace and condemned "all acts of violence against civilians."

Foreign Minister meets UN officials

Meanwhile a foreign ministry statement issued in Monrovia said Liberia will continue to search for peace in Sierra Leone and will respect all UN Security Council resolutions there and in the sub-region, Star Radio reported. Foreign Minister Monie Captan, currently on a diplomatic mission to the US, made the pledge during a meeting with the President of the Security Council.

The statement once again denied allegations of support for the rebels, including the use of Liberian territory for transporting arms to the RUF.

Captan also met with the acting chairman of the UN Sanctions Committee on Liberia and, according to Star, said that although his government disagreed with the continuing UN arms embargo on Liberia, it would not undermine the decision. The statement added he had also met UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and was expected in Washington D.C. this weekend for talks with US government officials.

Sierra Leonean ambassador reassures Liberian refugees in Freetown

The Sierra Leone ambassador to Liberia, Dr K. Salia Bao, has held talks with Liberian refugees in Freetown. According to Star Radio, he assured the refugees that they would be protected by his government and UNHCR. He added that his government did not take pleasure in seeing any Liberian suffer in Sierra Leone.

GUINEA: UNHCR begins refugee census

UNHCR is to begin a long-awaited census of refugees living in the forest region of Guinea today, according to a news release from the agency. The exercise was due to take place last year but was postponed because of presidetial elections. There are an estimated 431,000 refugees, mostly in the Gueckedou region. Of these, some 333,260 are Sierra Leoneans and 98,440 are Liberians.

UNHCR says the week-long census is important for several reasons. It will allow the Guinean government, UNHCR and its partners to know precisely how many refugees are being assisted and to detemine their areas of origin in the event of future voluntary repatriation and reintegration. Furthermore, according to Elike Segbor, UNHCR chief in Gueckedou, the exercise will enable UNHCR to speed up a plan to relocate refugees away from the Sierra Leone border, where they are vulnerable to rebel attack. A site further inland capable of accommodating 50,000 refugees has already been identified.

GUINEA BISSAU: Date set for withdrawal of foreign troops

Guinean and Senegalese troops backing beleaguered President Joao Bernardo Vieira will start leaving Guinea Bissau on Sunday, news reports said today. The agreement came in a meeting of the Joint Military Commission comprising the loyalists and anti-Vieira forces as well as representatives of the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG; the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, said

The commission decided 1,200 of the estimated 3,000 Guinean and Senegalese would go first and the remainder will have left by 28 February. As soon as the pullout begins, Lusa said, a "minimal joint military force" would be set up and the disarmament of loyalist and anti-government troops would get underway.

The withdrawal of the Guineans and Senegalese and the arrival of ECOMOG were conditions set by the self-styled Military Junta, for the functioning of a government of national unity formed nearly one month ago. The withdrawals were also part of a peace pact signed in November 1998 by the rivals.

Germany asks for money to support ECOMOG in Bissau

Germany's Development Cooperation Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said yesterday (Tuesday) African and European countries needed to follow the French example and help fund ECOMOG's operations in Guinea Bissau. He was speaking in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, where is he attending trade negotiations between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries. France is paying for logistics and the salaries of some 600 ECOMOG troops.

Radio war over as rivals urge reconciliation

Rebel and state radio stations in Guinea Bissau have ceased warlike broadcasts and have, instead, been calling for national reconciliation after last week's fighting in the capital, AFP reported yesterday. The agency also reported that earlier this week the protagonists in the conflict, Vieira and Mane, expressed a desire to meet each other as a confidence-building measure in the fragile peace process.

Vieira told reporters yesterday in Bissau he was prepared to work with Prime Minister-designate Francisco Fadul, a firm Mane supporter. Vieira said he saw no reason why Fadul's government of national unity should not begin work immediately even with the Guinean and Senegalese troop presence. Fadul has refused to put the government in motion - whose principal task will be to organise general elections due 31 March - as long as these troops remain.

Bissau's isolation lifted as major road reopens

Bissau, cut off by weeks of fierce fighting, emerged out of its isolation today as the the country's Joint Military Verification and Control Commission ordered the reopening of the main highway northward out of the besieged capital, AFP reported. The Military Junta spokesman, Major Zamora Induta, said on junta Radio Bombolong that both sides were working to ensure that "no-one is persecuted", AFP said. Politicians and other citizens could now move freely across the lines separating government and junta troops, he said.

WFP said in an emergency report of 5 February, made available to IRIN today, that it would return its international staff to Bissau as the security situation permitted. Staff were pulled back to Bafata, the country's second city, at the onset of the latest fighting on 31 January. The fighting had also caused the UN food agency to suspend food shipment from Banjul, Gambia to Bissau.

Portugal flies in 10 mt of emergency aid

A Portuguese air force C-130 Hercules transport plane left Lisbon for Guinea Bissau today with 10 mt of emergency medical and food aid, Lusa said, citing ministry of defence officials. The consignment, provided by Portuguese aid organisations, includes medicines, surgical equipment, baby food and mineral water.

WEST AFRICA: WHO notes success of programme to combat river blindness

The World Health Organisation says over 34 million people in West Africa have been protected from river blindness due to the success of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP). In a news release to mark the OCP's 25th anniversary, WHO said control of the disease had opened up 25 million hectares of fertile land for agricultural production. This land, which can now feed 17 million people annually, was previousng on 31 January. The fighting had also caused the UN food hat OCP is one of the most successful projects in the field of health and development in Africa," OCP Director Dr K.Yankum Dadzie said. Before the creation of OCP in 1974, river blindness was a real problem in the 11 participating West African countries, with 60 percent of the programme area affected. Dr Dadzie added that the best approach to consolidate the OCP's achievements "is to make them known".

SENEGAL: EU-ACP ministers agree trade privileges cannot continue

Ministers from the European Union and their African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) trading partners agreed yesterday in Dakar that privileged access to the EU market cannot continue indefinitely, news organisations reported today.

The two-day meeting was attended by delegates from 71 ACP countries, mostly former European colonies, and 15 EU countries.

"The ministers recognised that present non-reciprocal trade preferences cannot be maintained indefinitely and that therefore, the status quo is a temporary measure for future ACP/EU cooperation, which should facilitate the transition to a new trade arrangement," a statement issued by participants said.

The "new trade arrangement" would succeed the Lome Four Convention which currently governs relations between the EU and the ACP states, and is due to expire in February 2000. Reuters noted that the current system of preferential access to EU markets for ACP members infringes on the World Trade Organisation's free-trade protocol.

Abidjan, 10 February 1999, 17:45 gmt

[ENDS]

Subject: IRIN-WA Update 399 of Events in West Africa, 10 Feb 1999 Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 17:42:33 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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