UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN Update 451 for 4/27/99

IRIN Update 451 for 4/27/99


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 451 of events in West Africa (Tuesday 27 April)

SIERRA LEONE: Rebels ready for ceasefire

Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels have said they are ready for an immediate ceasefire, AFP reported on Monday.

"We want the government of Sierra Leone to reply to our ceasefire proposal which can come into force immediately," RUF founder Foday Sankoh said in Lome, Togo. Sankoh, who was released from prison to prepare a possible negotiating proposal with the government on ending the war, said his military commanders were "ready for a ceasefire".

However, Sierra Leonean presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN on Tuesday the government had not received a ceasefire proposal but the government was deeply committed to peace. "This commitment has not changed at all," he said.

Burkina Faso president ready to support peace effort

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore is ready to support efforts by his Togolese counterpart, Gnassingbe Eyadema, to secure peace in Sierra Leone, Togolese Communications Minister Koffi Panou said on Monday. He was speaking shortly after talks with Compaore in Ouagadougou, the Burkina Faso capital.

ECOMOG, the West African peace monitoring group in Sierra Leone, and others have accused Burkina Faso and Liberia of helping RUF rebels, charges which have been denied by the leaders of these countries.

But recalling news reports of Ukrainian arms shipments to the RUF through Ouagadougou, the Sierra Leonean spokesman Septimus Kaikai indicated his government stood by its accusation of Burkinabe involvement.

"As OAU chairman Compaore should not be involved" in such activities, Kaikai told IRIN. "Compaore should, as OAU chairman, do everything possible to ensure that there's peace in Africa," Kaikai added.

Unless there was peace within the sub-region and within the OAU, he said, "there would be no peace in any one country".

Kabbah calls for RUF challenge at the polls

Meanwhile, President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah challenged the RUF on Tuesday to fight his government at the ballot box in 16 months and not on the battlefield, news reports said. He was speaking in a nationwide independence day radio and television broadcast. His offer came a day after the RUF ceasefire proposal reported from Lome.

Kabbah, who came to power in democratic elections ending military rule in 1996, also unveiled plans for an independent human rights commission. The body would investigate war atrocities, most of which the media has blamed on the RUF. The commission would also ensure the protection of fundamental rights of all Sierra Leoneans, he said.

Prison sentences reduced

AFP also reported that Kabbah reduced the prison sentence of 14 persons and rescinded expulsion orders against two Lebanese and a Briton, Roger Crook, manager of the Sofitel hotel Mamy Yoko in the capital Freetown. The hotel was requisitioned by rebels who seized power in 1997, sending Kabbah into a brief exile in neighbouring Guinea.

Thirty other detainees, suspected for taking part in this coup, were also freed on the orders of the justice minister. Among them was Alimamy Koroma, a retired army colonel, two clergymen and a woman.

NIGERIA: Calm returns to troubled state

Calm has returned to the Aguleri and Umuleri communities in Nigeria's eastern Anambra State after three weeks of bloody violence, AFP reported on Monday quoting a state police spokesman.

The official, Sani Mohammad, told AFP that local media reports of dozens of dead were untrue. "There are not dozens dead. We are sure," he said. Media reports had estimated the number dead to be between 20 and 50 and said thousands more had abandoned their homes.

"Residential building in the warring communities were veritable targets in the heat of the crisis, thus accounting for the displacement of thousands of families," the `Post Express' newspaper of Nigeria said on Friday.

AFP said rivalry between the two communities began in 1995 over the building of a petrol station.

Oil production cut by 148,000 bpd in March

Nigeria cut crude oil production by 148,000 barrels per day in March to bring output in line with a new OPEC quota of 1.89 million bpd, Planning Minister Rasheed Gbadamosi said on Monday.

AFP quoted him as saying the cut had been decided at a meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on 23 March and dictated by falling prices. It said that crude prices had risen recently because of the cuts and last week "stood at around US $16 dollars a barrel".

Oil to be imported

On a related issue, Nigeria is to continue importing finished petroleum products to meet rising local demand, the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Alhaji Dalhatu Bayero, announced this week.

Nigeria has resorted to imports because most of its three refineries need repairs and are producing at 60 percent of installed capacity, the BBC said quoting 'The Vanguard' newspaper.

Bayero told reporters that petroleum consumption was between 18 million and 20 million litres against current production of six million litres. He was speaking at the weekend's convocation ceremony of the Petroleum Training Institution, Effurun, near Warri, in southeast Nigeria.

SENEGAL: Casamance separatists prepare for peace talks

Separatist leaders of southern Senegal's troubled Casmance area were meeting the Gambian capital Banjul this week to reach a joint consensus for talks with the government aimed at ending a conflict which started in 1982, local media reports said on Tuesday.

Abbe Diamacoune Senghor, leader of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casmance (MFDC), said earlier the aim of the talks with other MFDC factions was to approach the government of President Abdou Diouf with a "united strategy".

The reports said he had already held a meeting at the weekend with Gambian President Yahya Jammeh who has repeatedly offered to help mediate in the conflict.

Diamacoune met Diouf in January, after both agreed that dialogue would be the only way to resolve the issue. No details of the talks underway this week have been disclosed.

NIGER: Francophone group suspends cooperation

The organisation of francophone nations suspended its cooperation with Niger this week in protest the assassination of President Bare Mainassara in a military coup on 9 April, AFP reported on Monday.

In a dispatch from Paris, it said Boutros Boutros Ghali, president of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF), had issued a statement "strongly condemning the assassination of President Bare and expressing his deep concern at the coup d'etat in Niger".

Analysts said the suspension was a blow to Niger. Earlier, Niger's main European partner, France, also suspended aid. Japan and the European Union have announced that they too would "review" cooperation with the impoverished West African nation.

Mainassara was gunned down by members of the presidential body guard, whose commander, Major Daouda Mallam Wanke, assumed the leadership of the country. Wanke has pledged a nine-month transition to general elections and civilian rule.

The francophone nations demanded an inquiry, and said it "deplores this brutal rupture in the democratic process which runs counter to fundamental francophone values". Wanke, has maintained that Mainassara died in "an accident" and that there was no need for an investigation into the circumstances of his death.

GUINEA BISSAU: NGO meeting in Lisbon

A European Meeting of NGOs in Solidarity with Guinea-Bissau will be held in Lisbon, 29-30 April 1999.

The meeting is being held at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Room 2, Congress Area on Avenida de Berna, nS 45-A. The underground station is Praca de Espanha. Organisers can be contacted by e-mail at acepongd@mail.telepac.pt or by fax +351 1 386 36 99.

Abidjan, 27 April 1999 16:00 GMT

[ENDS]

Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 16:42:59 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 451 for 27 April [19990427]

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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