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IRIN-WA Update 408 of Events in West Africa (Tuesday 23 February)
NIGERIA: Obasanjo pledges to attact foreign investment
The People's Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer, Olusegun Obasanjo, has promised to use his international contacts to attract investment to Nigeria if he wins the presidential race on Saturday.
"I promise to use that international connection for the good of Nigeria," he said, according to Nigerian radio today (Tuesday).
He noted that without foreign investment the economy would remain weak and unable to provide enough jobs for the "teeming population". Nigeria has a population of 108 million.
Obasanjo, who was campaigning in northern Nigeria yesterday (Monday), was due to appear in the troubled Niger Delta today, then return to the north before ending his campaign effort in Lagos on Thursday.
His rival, Olu Falae, is due to concentrate his campaign
today and tomorrow in the north, an Obasanjo stronghold,
before heading for the southwest on Thursday.
Obasanjo denies being military favourite
In an interview with the BBC, Obasanjo rejected suggestions that he would represented the interests of the military if elected. He also rejected an assertion by Falae, who served as finance minister under a military government in the 1980s, that an Obasanjo presidency would represent a continuation of the last 15 years of military rule in civilian guise. Obasanjo retired from the army in 1979 as a general and so far has been the only soldier to have handed power to an elected civilian president.
In seperate interviews, Obasanjo told news organisations that the current military government had no candidate. If anyone had gained from the military, he said, it was his opponents in the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All People's Party (APP). In particular, he added, the AD benefited from a decision to ease the ruling that any party with less than 10 percent of the vote in 24 states in local polls would not qualify for the presidential elections. The easing of that rule enabled the AD to qualify, he said.
INEC denies receiving money fron EU
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied reports, attributed to an EU spokesman, that it had received a donation of US $4 million from the European Union. In a statement, cited by state television, INEC acknowledged receiving some technical assistance, such as training, but not money form the EU.
SIERRA LEONE: British military team promises ECOMOG "all-embracing" aid
ECOMOG Force Commander Major General Timothy Shelpidi has hailed British assistance to the West African intervention force. An ECOMOG press release, sent to IRIN today, said Shelpidi met a five-man British military team in Freetown yesterday to discuss details of British aid for ECOMOG operations. "ECOMOG continues to appreciate the assistance being given in the form of logistics and other aids," Shelpidi was quoted as saying.
The head of the British team, Brigadier David Richards, told the ECOMOG High Command that a "comprehensive package" of British assistance would be worked out based on the current consultations and he hoped such action would prompt similar efforts by other countries, the press release said. According to Richards, the assistance would be "all-embracing" to complement ECOMOG activities on land, sea and air and also to train the future Sierra Leone army.
Missionaries of Charity reopens in Freetown
The Missionaries of Charity mission has reopened in the Kissy neighbourhood of Freetown, according to the missionary news agency MISNA. The bishop of Makeni, Giorgio Biguzzi, who visited the mission on Saturday, said he was surprised to see it functioning despite the absence of the Sisters. Two men and two women, who had previously assisted the Sisters, were administering care to some 30 people, mostly children and the elderly. "I was convinced that everything would have been abandoned after all the looting in the past weeks," the bishop said. A nearby parish was supplying food and medicine. In January, rebels kidnapped six Sisters of Charity and four of them lost their lives, MISNA recalled.
Freetown residents uneasy over call for military aid
Residents of Freetown are reportedly uneasy about President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's call for military assistance, the Freetown correspondent of Monrovia-based Star radio said today. In a nationwide broadcast on Sunday, Kabbah urged the international community to come to his country's assistance against the rebels, including militarily if necessary. But, according to Star radio, Freetown residents were afraid the request would "harden the rebels against dialogue". They wanted Kabbah to be "consistent in pushing for dialogue", the radio said. Hundreds of people are reportedly still at Lungi airport trying to flee the country, it added.
Rebels pushed back from Kambia
State radio today said Guinean troops of the West African intervention force ECOMOG had successfully repelled a rebel attack on the northwestern town of Kambia. The attack, launched by the rebels last Thursday, left several civilians dead and many buildings were torched, according to the radio. "A good number" of rebels were killed and others taken captive, it added.
GUINEA BISSAU: WFP distributes food to displaced people
Some 170,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Guinea Bissau capital, Bissau, will have received 800 mt of rice, peas, vegetable oil and wheat flour by the time WFP ends its current food distribution effort tomorrow (Wednesday), the agency's regional spokesman, Wagdi Othman, told IRIN today.
"It's a one-off general food distribution," he said. He noted that these people were trapped in the city without food during recent fighting between loyalist and anti-government troops.
Othman, who has just returned from Bissau, said life in the city was gradually returning to normal. However, food is limited in the markets and money is scarce.
"Most of the population cannot buy food and is still in need of food aid," he said.
In addition, he said there were still 100,000 IDPs in areas near the capital, such as the town of Safim. There, he said, 60,000 IDPs were living in makeshift camps "almost everywhere in the town". WFP and its local partner, Caritas, are continuing food distribution in Safim.
Fadul pledges to work for entire country
Guinea Bissau's newly-installed prime minister, Francisco Fadul, has pledged to to serve all nationals irrespective of party affiliations. "The fact that I belonged to the junta does not prevent me from being reasonable and balanced," he told the Pan African News Agency (PANA) shortly after his inauguration on Saturday. "I will remain neutral."
Fadul, who backed the Military Junta of General Ansumane Mane in an eight-month effort to unseat President Joao Bernardo Vieira, said he would be unable to call legislative and presidential elections as planned at the end March, under a subregional brokered peace accord.
"We can only hold legislative and presidential elections after having reorganised the army and police forces, brought back refugees and stabilised the population," he said.
Fadul's inauguration effectively ended the army rebellion of 7 June 1998, a day after Vieira fired Mane on allegations of arming Senegalese separatists. Mane, citing a parliamentary report, said Vieira was responsible for supporting the Senegalese rebels.
WEST AFRICA: Ogata begins visit
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata begins a visit to the region today, starting in Guinea-Conakry. According to a UNHCR press briefing, her eight-day mission will also take her to Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone, security permitting. She will meet heads of state and UN officials and "take a first hand look at one of the world's most difficult refugee situations", a UNHCR spokesperson said.
He recalled that Guinea hosts a refugee population of almost 470,000 (mostly from Sierra Leone, with about 120,000 from Liberia). In Liberia itself, UNHCR is assisting an estimated 95,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and working to support the repatriation of Liberians from neighbouring countries. Since the end of 1997, about 100,000 Liberians have returned home. Cote d'Ivoire still hosts some 90,000 Liberians.
IFRC launches urgent appeal
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched an urgent appeal for support for its programmes in West Africa. In a press release received by IRIN today, the Federation noted that ongoing armed conflict in the region, notably in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea Bissau, had resulted in hundreds of thousands of displaced people and refugees. Mortality rates from cholera, meningitis, yellow fever and hepatitis-A remained high, while HIV/AIDS cases were growing at an alarming rate. The Federation appealed for 3,082,000 Swiss francs for its ongoing programmes and a further 13,279,000 Swiss francs for its emergency programmes in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire.
BENIN: Voter registration begins
Voter registration began in Benin yesterday for parliamentary elections due on 28 March, news reports said. Registration will continue till 1 March, according to the nati00 Liberians.
IFRC launches urgent appeal
The Internationy MISNA reported today.
TOGO: Electoral campaign underway amid opposition boycott
Campaigning for Togo's general elections on 7 March got underway on Friday, PANA reported yesterday. It noted that the ruling Rassemblement du peuple togolais (RPT) and its allies were the only contestants. Opposition parties have said they would boycott the event unless the government first resolves the "fraudulent results" of the June 1998 presidential election, PANA said.
The opposition also wants the constitution amended to enable the outgoing parliament to stay on if general elections fail to go ahead as scheduled. However, the government wants the poll held as planned because the current parliament is to be dissolved on 22 March, a day after the second round of the elections.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Party threatens to boycott poll
Meanwhile, one of Equatorial Guinea's leading legal opposition parties, the Convergencia para la Democracia Social (CPDS), has threatened to boycott legislative elections due on 7 March because many of its members are imprisoned, party Secretary-General Placido Minko said, according to AFP.
In a statement, made on Thursday over Spain's Radio Exterior, Minko said the national electoral commission had rejected the dossiers of CPDS candidates "without reason". Other opposition parties had also been stopped from conducting pre-campaign activities and some activists had been arrested, he said.
"If the campaign begins under these conditions we will simply pull out and we reject any responsibility for the consequences," he said.
Members in the 80-member legislature, the Camara de Representantes del Pueblo, serve a five-year term.
Abidjan, 23 February 1999, 17:10 gmt
[ENDS]
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 14:55:02 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: Subject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Round-up 7-99 for 1999.2.19
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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