UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
West africa: IRIN Update 419 for 10 March 1999

West africa: IRIN Update 419 for 10 March 1999


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IRIN-WA Update 419 of Events in West Africa (Wednesday 10 March)

SIERRA LEONE: More attacks in Kambia

The north-western area of Kambia, near the Guinean border, is still very insecure with reports of further rebel attacks on the village of Pamelap, where aid agencies are located. Humanitarian sources told IRIN shooting broke out on Sunday and aid workers trying to flee into Guinea were turned back at the border. Guinean officials have been preventing foreign-registered vehicles from entering the country. Before Sunday's fighting, relief workers registered 23,557 displaced people in Balamoya and surrounding villages. The plan was to bring relief supplies to them on Monday. It is believed more displaced people are stuck in villages between Rogberi and Balamoya, while others may have used bush paths to cross over to the Dakagbe refugee camp in Guinea.

The missionary news agency MISNA also reported a rebel attack on Mambolo in Kambia district yesterday (Tuesday), but said further details were awaited. In a separate development, MISNA said a cargo ship transporting over 1,790 mt of rice from Italy was due to dock in Freetown port on Saturday. The consignment has been held up in the Guinean capital, Conakry, for over a month due to the security situation in the Sierra Leone capital.

Police officers to be armed

Interior Minister Charles Margai has announced that police officers will soon be armed, for the first time since independence, the Sierra Leone News website reported. The move was aimed at protecting civilians, including the police, from the rebels. Police officers had complained they were targeted by the rebels and lacked the means to protect themselves. Margai also promised new uniforms and a new barracks.

GHANA: British, French foreign ministers due in on joint trip

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine were due to pay a joint visit to Ghana today (Wednesday) and Cote d'Ivoire tomorrow (Thursday) in line with a pledge to cooperate more closely on African issues. According to a press release issued by the two embassies in Abidjan, they will meet top officials of both countries. This is the first joint trip by British and French foreign ministers and it comes within the framework of the joint declaration adopted at the Franco-British summit in St Malo, France, last December. The statement pledged greater political harmonisation in their Africa policies.

AFRICA: Burkina president calls on Europe to fund peace

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore said yesterday in Strasbourg that no peace agreement in Africa could be implemented in a lasting manner without financial support from Europe, AFP reported.

"We need observers, peacekeeping forces on the ground. We can find the human resources in Africa, but we need Europe's financial and logistical support," AFP quoted the Burkinabe president as saying at the end of a visit to the European Parliament.

MALI: Developing nations review healthcare gains and challenges

Some 200 delegates from 46 African, Asian and Latin American nations are meeting this week in Bamako to evaluate achievements made in healthcare delivery over the past 12 years and to recommend ways to enhance such services.

The 8-12 March meeting, organised by the government of Mali, WHO and UNICEF, is being held to review the Bamako Initiative, which was adopted in March 1987 and is being implemented in 33 African, Asian and Latin American nations, according to a news release from the organisers.

Geared towards guaranteeing populations' access to primary healthcare, the Initiative has helped revitalise more than 6,000 healthcare centres in about 15 countries, providing some 60 million people with sustainable access to affordable healthcare, according to the news release.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Opposition says polls were flawed

Equatorial Guinea's main opposition party, Convergencia para la Democracia Social (CPDS), warned this week that the public was dissatisfied with Sunday's parliamentary polls and could react with violent protests, Spanish radio reported.

Placido Mico, the CPDS secretary-general, told the radio on Monday that "people might lose heart and, above all, grow desperate" following the irregularities reported in the elections -- the most frequent complaint was that people were not allowed to vote in secret.

"I think this shows simply that what he is doing is going backward," Mico said, referring to irregularities and to statements by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Nguema told Spanish radio on Monday there was no doubt that anomalies might have occurred but said: "I think they are only human: nobody is perfect."

GUINEA BISSAU: Senegalese troops clash with demonstrators

Senegalese soldiers clashed yesterday with demonstrators in Bissau, capital of Guinea Bissau, during a rally demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, news reports said.

Portuguese state radio said the trouble started when thousands of demonstrators, chanting anti-Senegalese slogans at the downtown waterfront venue of the rally, stoned a Senegalese truck full of soldiers, trying to reach their Command centre at a naval barracks.

The soldiers jumped out and started beating, kicking and punching demonstrators. However, no shots were fired and injuries were described as slight. A Guinea Bissau navy captain, Caetano Fernandes, told the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, that the clashes were "a small incident" that would not affect the ongoing effort at national reconciliation after an eight-month war. The rally was organised by the National Civil Movement for Peace, Democracy and Development.

Guinean and Senegalese troops were called into Guinea Bissau by President Joao Bernardo Vieira to help loyalist forces put down a military revolt led by cashiered armed forces chief of staff, General Ansumane Mane. Foreign troops, except those of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), are due to leave Guinea Bissau no later than 16 March, under an agreement between the warring factions.

Portugal promises aid

In another development, Portuguese Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Luis Amado said on Monday that Lisbon would supply teachers and training to help rebuild Guinea Bissau's devastated school system.

Schools were either destroyed or damaged badly during the eight-month military revolt which began on 7 June 1998. Amado, who ended a two-day visit to Bissau yesterday met with Prime Minister Francisco Fadul. Guinea Bissau presented Amado with a list of 22 priority areas for which it is seeking Portuguese aid, Lusa said.

Abidjan, 10 March 1999, 17:50 gmt

[ENDS]

Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 17:58:23 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 419 for 10 March [19990311]

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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