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IRIN-WA Update 430 of events in West Africa (Thursday 25 March)
GUINEA BISSAU: Security Council calls for action on elections
The United Nations Security Council said yesterday (Wednesday) Guinea Bissau needed to set the timetable for general elections "at an early date" and could count on the world body for help.
Elections due at the end of March under a peace accord signed in November last have been pushed back, partly because of delays in the deployment of ECOMOG peacekeepers and in the departure of the Guinean and Senegalese troops that backed President Joao Bernardo Vieira.
Prime Minister Francisco Fadul also said at his inauguration in February that the eight-month civil war made it impossible to organise elections sooner than September.
In a statement, the Security Council urged UN member states to provide help to rebuild the country and to support ECOMOG. It said a donors' conference would be held early May in Geneva.
UNHCR staff return to Bissau
Meanwhile, UNHCR staff returned to the capital, Bissau, in mid-March and have begun planning for the repatriation of refugees from four regional countries, UNHCR reported yesterday.
Around 5,000 refugees fled to Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea and Senegal during the fighting last year between forces supporting Vieira and those loyal to former armed forces chief of staff General Ansumane ManÈ.
UNHCR staff will also help resettle the estimated 150,000 internally displaced persons.
GHANA: Training for peacekeepers
Ghanaian and US forces have begun a four-week exercise in international peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, Ghana radio has reported.
The training - part of the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI)- is a follow-up to similar exercises last year in which some 800 Ghanaian troops took part, the radio said. It reported the director of training at the Ghana army headquarters, Colonel David Kattah, as saying that by the end of the training the Ghanaian Task Force should "be able to implement international peacekeeping agreements".
ACRI is a US-sponsored training programme which, according
to the US Department of Defence, is conducted in coordination
with African partners, the Organisation of African
Unity and the United Nations. It was begun in 1997.
Other African nations that have participated in the
training programme include Senegal, Uganda, Malawi,
Mali and Ethiopia, according to the US Department of
Defence.
Ghana's army has had experience in peacekeeping in numerous past and present conflict situations - from the Congo crisis of the 1960s to Lebanon and most recently Liberia and Sierra Leone.
WEST AFRICA: Nigerian president-elect meets UNHCR
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and Olusegun Obasanjo today (Thursday) discussed future collaboration and the plight of refugees in Africa during a visit to the UNHCR office in Geneva by the Nigerian president-elect, UNHCR reported.
The meeting was "a vital opportunity to share our dismay over the continuing mayhem in Sierra Leone," Ogata said afterwards. She recalled her recent mission to West Africa, during which she spoke with civilian victims of rebel atrocities.
Obasanjo blamed economic deprivation for many of Africa's refugee crises, and urged that initiatives to prevent and resolve conflicts should go hand in hand with steps to address poverty and injustice, UNHCR reported.
The Nigerian president emphasized the importance of "strong and moral leadership" in resolving Africa's problems. He also pledged to support UNHCR when he takes office in May.
Ogata commended Nigeria-led efforts to restore peace in several West African countries. She said she hoped nations in the region would continue to pursue peace,warning that "a backslide in many areas would be catastrophic".
"Hundreds of thousands of people have had to leave
their homes and many more could be chased into exile,"
she said.
TOGO: Ruling RTP makes clean sweep of parliamentary
seats
The ruling Rassemblement togolais du Peuple (RTP) has won 79 of the 81 seats in parliament while two went to independents, according to provisional results released by the Commission electorale nationale (CEN) in Lome.
The opposition boycotted the election, refusing to participate unless its complaints of fraud at mid-1998 presidential polls were addressed. President Gnassingbe Eyadema was declared winner of the 1998 election but the result is disputed by the opposition.
The CEN said voter turnout at Sunday's legislative election was just over 66 percent, while the opposition put it at no more than 10 percent.
LIBERIA: Refugees continue to sail home
Over the past two weeks, UNHCR has repatriated 513 of the 720 Liberians in Freetown who had registered with it to go back home by sea, according to the UN agency.
A humanitarian source told IRIN today that most of the returnees, who sailed home on four trips beginning 10 March, had registered apparently because the war entered Freetown in January.
Most are people from the Krahn ethnic group who fled Liberia in September 1998 after supporters of Krahn leader Roosevelt Johnson fought bitter gun battles with government forces in central Monrovia.
UNHCR has since located another 2,000 of the 8,000 Liberians it had counted in Sierra Leone at the end of 1998. Many of the refugees had been dispersed by the January fighting.
In a report yesterday, UNHCR said 1,225 refugees were repatriated from Freetown, N'zerekore in Guinea, and Tabou, Guiglo and Toulepleu in Cote d'Ivoire in the past week. Nearly half (590) went back to Grand Geddeh county - populated mainly by Krahns - which, UNHCR said, was "a positive development for the repatriation programme" given the September fighting.
Since May 1997, at least 102,500 Liberians have returned home through the UNHCR, the agency said.
Abidjan, 25 March 1999, 19:20 GMT
[END]
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 19:23:35 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 430 for 25 March [19990325]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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