UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN Update 448 for 4/22/99

IRIN Update 448 for 4/22/99


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 448 of events in West Africa (Thursday 22 April)

SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG clears highway to interior

ECOMOG, the West African Peace Monitoring Group, has begun to clear rebels from a stretch of highway linking the capital Freetown to the eastern part of the country, a ranking official told reporters in Freetown.

ECOMOG Chief of Staff Major-General John Olu said at a news conference on Thursday that his troops had begun moving towards Masiaka from Songo which they captured on Friday. Masiaka, on a key road junction to the north and to the eastern diamond mining area controlled by rebels, lies 75 km east of Freetown.

The reopening of the highways to the north and the east will allow for the shipment of vital food and medical supplies.

Much of country inaccessible to humanitarian assistance

Meanwhile, humanitarian sources said at least two-thirds of Sierra Leone was inaccessible to aid agencies.

For a year already, fighting in Sierra Leone had made it impossible to assess the needs of at least half the country's estimated 4.6 million people. For example, food stocks were expected to run out in the eastern cities of Bo and Kenema because of poor road access.

The BBC on Wednesday quoted aid agencies as saying thousands of civilians trapped behind rebel lines in the town of Segbwema, some 236 km southeast of Freetown, faced starvation. It quoted an escaped relief official as saying that residents were living off wild fruit.

RUF claims jets killed civilians in Songo, but survivors blame rebels

Revolutionary United Front (RUF) spokesman Omrie Golley claimed on Thursday that ECOMOG jets were responsible for the death of scores of civilians in Songo, some 40 km east of Freetown, Reuters reported.

"For eight consecutive hours they were bombarding allegedly RUF positions in the area on Friday," he told the agency "We unreservedly deny that the RUF has been responsible."

However, survivors were quoted as saying at least 125 people died and that the rebels started killing residents as ECOMOG ground troops advanced on the town, the BBC said. It added the dead included hostages taken by the rebels from other towns and villages.

LIBERIA: armed attack on Liberian border town

Armed men operating from Guinea attacked the Liberian border town of Voinjama, Lofa County and temporarily kidnapped 17 foreign aid workers, a government statement said on Wednesday.

Deputy Information Minister Milton Teahjay told IRIN on Thursday: "The government has not yet been able to establish who the armed men were and the motives for the attack are as yet unclear."

Reports from travellers in the region said the attackers were from two former militia groups - the ULIMO-K and the ULIMO-J movements, according to Reuters.

Reacting to these reports Teahjay said: "They may be ULIMO people but we are not yet in a position to be sure. We are still gathering information in a methodical and responsible way, including any details of possible casualties." He added that the hostages were released after Liberian government forces repelled the attack and the situation was now "under control".

The government said it planned to make a representation to the authorities in Guinea, Reuters reported.

The two ULIMO movements are each led by former warlords and civil war rivals of President Charles Taylor. ULIMO-J is led by ethnic Krahn leader, Roosevelt Johnson, now believed to be in exile in Nigeria. Last September, Taylor's forces attempted to arrest him, provoking clashes in Monrovia. He sought refuge at the American embassy and was flown out of the country by the US military.

Voinjama, some 280 km north east of Monrovia, is the home town of ULIMO-K leader, Alhaji Kromah, who has been in self exile in the United States for much of the time since Taylor took office in August 1997. He recently accused Taylor's security forces of arbitrary arrests and warned of retaliation, Reuters said.

Joint statement

Meanwhile the leaders of Liberia and Libya issued a joint statement expressing their commitment to end the war in Sierra Leone. Their declaration came at the end of a three-day visit to Libya by Liberian President Charles Taylor, Reuters reported quoting broadcasts on Libyan state-run television.

Taylor, also a former warlord in Liberia's civil war, has strong links with Libya and Sierra Leone's rebel Revolutionary United Front.

West African leaders are supporting efforts to begin consultative talks between the rebels and their imprisoned political leader, which are intended to lead to substantive peace negotiations between the rebels and the government in Freetown.

NIGER: Military candidates barred from standing in elections

Niger's new military government decreed on Thursday that military candidates will be barred from submitting their names as candidates in elections pledged for later this year.

News organisations quoted a decree signed by the military leader, Major Daouda Mallam Wanke as saying the ban would also apply to himself and the 13 other officers in the country's ruling National Reconciliation Council (NRC).

Wanke assumed power after members of the presidential guard unit he commanded assassinated President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara on 9 April.

The decree broadcast on state radio added: "Military personnel will be barred from seeking electoral office even if they have resigned." Wanke has pledged a nine-month transition to civilian rule.

NIGERIA: Niger Delta oil activists killed

Two ethnic Ijaw activists were killed on Monday as they tried to stop repairs to oil installations in Ikibiri, some 90 km west of Port Harcourt, Reuters reported.

Witnesses said the two attacked a team working on a pipeline valve with "guns and machetes". They were killed in a shootout, Reuters said.

Attacks on oil installations and flow stations by local communities wanting a share in the region's oil wealth have severely disrupted oil production in the Niger Delta.

Nigerian leader visits Equatorial Guinea

Nigeria's military leader, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, began a short visit to neighbouring Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday, according to Nigerian state television, monitored by the BBC.

The two countries have "a common interest in oil production" and have held talks recently to resolve a dispute over the ownership of offshore oil fields, according to the television report.

Equatorial Guinea was currently exploiting reserves some 76 km off the coast of Malabo, the capital. Abubakar is due to return to Nigeria on Thursday.

Civil service jobs cut "inevitable"

Nigerian Finance Minister Ismaila Usman has said job cuts in the Nigerian civil service were "inevitable", AFP reported on Thursday.

Quoting a speech read out for Usman at a seminar in the eastern city of Enugu, it said that with the implementation of public sector pay rises, the current size of the workforce was "no longer sustainable".

The move to cut jobs comes amid a wave of strikes by civil servants in more than two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states demanding payment of the new minimum wage. Postal and telecommunications workers are the latest group to threaten industrial action if its demands were not met by management, AFP reported.

WEST AFRICA: France urges Africans to tighten economic management French Economy and Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Khan urged African members of the franc zone on Thursday to tighten the financial discipline of their economies, AFP reported.

Opening a meeting of the 14-nation CFA zone in Dakar, he said governments needed urgently to slash their budget deficits and reduce outstanding debts. Such action, he said, would enable these nations - many of them among the world's poorest - to get help from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank

The CFA monetary system is backed by the French treasury.

The meeting also examined the economic crisis in the franc zone after the introduction of the euro, possible French debt relief for franc zone members and negotiations for a new Lome agreement between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries.

Abidjan, 22 April 1999 17:45 GMT

[ENDS]

Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1999 17:26:50 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 448 for 22 April [19990423]

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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