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IRIN-WA Update 414 of Events in West Africa (Wednesday 3 March)
SIERRA LEONE: WFP begins humanitarian flights into Freetown
WFP yesterday (Tuesday) began airlifting emergency supplies and people to Sierra Leone from Conakry, Guinea, on a recently-leased helicopter. In a news release, the UN food agency said it hoped to use the helicopter to fly to the eastern towns of Bo and Kenema, where aid efforts have been hampered due to insecurity along the roads. "The availability of regular air transport into Sierra Leone, fully dedicated to humanitarian activities, will greatly facilitate our work in reaching people who need assistance," said Abnezer Ngowi, the acting WFP country director for Sierra Leone.
Yesterday's flight carried 15 UN and NGO representatives, and WFP will operate the helicopter on behalf of the aid community working in Sierra Leone.
Ogata urges ECOMOG forces to stay
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata said an eventual repatriation of refugees to Sierra Leone would depend on the security situation. Summarising her West African visit, a UNHCR spokesman quoted her as saying it was practically impossible to get humanitarian aid to most of the country.
Yesterday, addressing a news conference in Abidjan at the end of her tour, Ogata said she hoped the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, would stay in Sierra Leone, despite Nigeria's intention to withdraw its troops. "I hope there are no immediate drastic changes following the election in Nigeria as there is no alternative to peacekeeping forces at present," she said.
National rights group tells government to let RUF speak
The influential Inter-religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL) has called on the government to listen to what the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has to say. In a statement received today (Wednesday) by IRIN, the IRCSL welcomed a proposed dialogue between the rebels and the government, centred on a modified version of the 1996 Abidjan Peace Accord. "We urge that the government in this dialogue should talk less and listen more," the statement said. "Let the people of Sierra Leone be given the opportunity to hear from the RUF and its allies what they seek."
However it added that power-sharing after armed insurrections "has never provided a lasting answer". The IRCSL urged the international community to facilitate a free and open dialogue between the parties within the next six weeks. It also called for the immediate temporary closure of Sierra Leone's border with Liberia as "that area continues to be a threat to this nation's security". Liberia has been accused of helping the rebels in the Sierra Leone conflict, a charge repeatedly denied by Monrovia. The statement also warned the government to be "much more vigilant" at the international level.
It further expressed concern over surrendered soldiers, currently encamped at the Mammy Yoko hotel in Freetown. "The government should listen to the view of the public as to the formation of the new national army vis-a-vis those surrendered soldiers at Mammy Yoko." The government has pledged to rebuild the national army, including the reinstatement of some 200 former officers.
Britain to give military aid
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook yesterday announced a US $16 million package to fund a military force in Sierra Leone, news reports said. The aid would provide further support to ECOMOG, help train a "democratically accountable" military force and promote demilitarisation, he told the House of Commons. His announcement follows a recent fact-finding mission to Freetown by high-level British miltiary officers.
NIGERIA: Obasanjo outlines his policies
Nigerian President-elect Olusegun Obasanjo told the nation yesterday that national reconciliation would be his priority on assuming power on 29 May, state radio reported.
"They [the people] want me to restore the dignity of our country. They want me to revitalise our political institutions and reinvigorate the economy," he told his first post-election news conference, held in Abuja.
Obasanjo also said he was determined to run an open, transparent government in which the judiciary and legislature would not be hindered. He pledged to fight corruption, resuscitate public services and provide the next generation with a "truly democratic Nigeria".
He promised a re-examination of laws and policies that prevented genuine investment, in a measure designed to boost the economy. The badly bruised economy has been worsened by the slump in oil prices which account for some 90 percent of Nigeria's foreign earnings.
Moreover, the parlous state of the economy has fueled mounting domestic pressure for Nigeria to withdraw its troops serving with ECOMOG in Sierra Leone. While reaffirming that the troops will leave under his administration, he said: "The issue is when they will be pulled out, and I say as soon as possible."
Former military leaders congratulate Obasanjo
Former military heads of state, generals Yakubu Gowon and Ibrahim Babangida, have separately urged support for Obasanjo, state television reported yesterday.
Gowon, under whom Obasanjo served as a divisional commander during the Nigerian civil war, said the armed forces should give in to civilian authority and support the new leadership in formulating a stable policy. Babangida, describing Obasanjo as an international democrat and statesman, appealed for continued cooperation to enable the incoming administration to lift the country to greater heights, the television said.
LIBERIA: Watchdog body warns of social unrest
The watchdog Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) has warned of potential social unrest in Liberia due to its "stagnant and depressed economy". In a statement received by IRIN, the JPC described the economy as a "comatose patient teetering on the very edge of life". Statistics were hard to come by, it noted, but said unemployment was generally considered at over 75 percent. "Such large numbers of people, particularly young men...poses a serious social problem whose volatility could lead to an explosion into violent social unrest, with unimaginable consequences for the government and civil society," the statement said.
Groups stand by child slavery report, urge international probe
The JPC, which is being taken to court along with another human rights organisation Focus over a report on child slavery in southeast Liberia, has said it stands by the report, Star radio reported today. JPC Director Stephen Wilson said the organisation was ready to defend itself in court against a case filed by four southeastern counties.
A press statement by Focus, received by IRIN, said the Liberian government "seems bent on repeatedly denying the reality" in the counties of Sinoe, Maryland and Grand Kru. "We call on the public not to be carried away by such denials which are only aimed at diverting attention away from the inhumane treatment being meted out against the children," the statement said. It called for an international investigation into the issue.
CAMEROON: Opposition leader says anglopones exploited
Cameroon's most vocal opposition leader, John Fru Ndi, has called on the party vanguard of his Social Democratic Front (SDF) to "prepare for war" in what he says is the continued exploitation and marginalisation of the country's English-speaking minority by the French-speaking population, news organisations reported.
Fru Ndi made the call during a party provincial conference at the weekend in Nkambe, northwest province, AFP reported. He said the government had "done all it could to frustrate anglophones" in all aspects of life in Cameroon.
A Cameroonian political analyst, who agreed with this assessment, nevertheless told IRIN today that Fru Ndi did not have the capability to go to war against the state. He said Fru Ndi's statement was aimed at regaining political prominence after first losing face by championing the national cause - in which he ignored the anglophone question - then later trying to drum up support for the anglophone cause.
"He has lost a lot of credibility," the analyst, who requested anonymity, said.
English-speaking Cameroonians feel they have been forced into a federal union and then stripped of their political culture, their way of life and discriminated against in state employment.
Abidjan, 3 March 1999, 17:40 gmt
[ENDS]
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 17:49:11 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 414 for 1999.3.3
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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