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IRIN-WA Update 456 of events in West Africa (Tuesday 4 May)
NIGER: Commission appointed to draw up new constitution
The military junta in Niger has appointed a technical commission to draw up a new constitution, a media source in Niger confirmed to IRIN.
The committee has until May 17 to complete its work, which also includes drafting an electoral code and a charter governing political parties, said the source, confirming an earlier report by AFP.
The country's latest constitution, promulgated in 1996, was scrapped on 11 April, two days after a military coup in which then president Ibrahim Barre Mainassara was killed. Since then, Niger has been ruled by a 14-member Conseil de reconciliation nationale headed by Commander Daouda Mallam Wanke.
TOGO: Mediators arrive
Foreign mediators are now in Togo to discuss ways to resolve the crisis over the June 1998 re-election of President Gnassingbe Eyadema.
The four mediators from the European Union, France, Germany and la Francophonie arrived on Monday, according to Reuters. They told reporters they planned to talk with the various parties involved in the dispute, Reuters reported.
The opposition maintains that Eyadema, who seized power in 1967, rigged last year's presidential election. Seven opposition groups have called on Togolese to stay home on Wednesday to demonstrate that they want an acceptable solution to the crisis, Reuters reported.
SIERRA LEONE: Joint effort to control health situation
The WHO, UNICEF, health NGOs and the Health Ministry in Sierra Leone have joined forces to try to bring the health situation under control following a health emergency declared in January, according to a recent report by the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU).
According to the report, there are now 25 working health centres and eight mobile clinics operating in Freetown and another 22 centres are being reopened. All private and public hospitals in accessible areas have now been rehabilitated and staffed with the support of the UNICEF, WHO and health NGOs.
Health agencies tackle measles
Measles immunisation campaigns, coordinated by MSF-Belgium, MERLIN, UNICEF and the Health Ministry have now been completed, according to the HACU report. They covered 45,723 children below the age of 12 in Bo and Kenema and 20,802 in Freetown and the Western Area.
HACU reported a "significant reduction" in the number of children admitted to the Kenema paediatric ward and the Blama measles isolation unit operated by MERLIN some 20 kms west of Kenema.
The health ministry reported about 19 measles cases in eastern Freetown in April but UNICEF is confident that the immunisation campaign will prevent any major outbreaks in the area, HACU said.
The measles campaign in Bonthe District, Southern Province, has ended with almost 100-percent coverage of the target population, HACU reported.
Chicken pox no serious threat
Although 135 chicken pox cases had been reported by mid-April in Freetown, health agencies say the situation is being well managed and is not a serious health concern, HACU said.
Amputee assistance
Assistance to amputees and people wounded during the war is continuing with the support of Handicap International and other partners who provide occupational and psycho-social therapy. MSF-France helps with the treatment of amputees when required, the HACU report said.
Displaced children suffering from malnutrition
The situation of infants in camps for the displaced
is "seriously compromised" because of an
extreme scarcity of food and high commodity prices
in the country, according to a report issued on 22
April by the Ministry of Health.
The report, entitled 'Rapid Assessment of the Nutritional Status of Under 5 Children in IDP camps in Freetown', said the presence of acute malnutrition among children of breastfeeding age indicated maternal malnutrition. It recommended that all lactating internally displaced mothers be included in Supplementary Feeding Programmes.
BURKINA FASO: Parliament adopts tough bill on drugs
Parliament in Burkina Faso has adopted a bill providing for tougher punishment for the production, sale and use of illegal drugs, according to AFP.
AFP quoted Francoise Odette Coulibaly, chair of the Burkinabe parliament's Commission on Social and Institutional Affairs, as saying that stiffer penalties would be imposed on offenders working in syndicates and those who recruit minors or the mentally handicapped.
Offenders could face prison sentences of between 10 and 20 years. Fines could range from five million to 25 million CFA francs (US $8,000 to $42,000 dollars). If the bill is signed into law, a drug investigation unit will be established.
GUINEA BISSAU: Two commercial banks to reopen
Guinea Bissau's two commercial banks should reopen on the same day mid-May, Totta & Acores Bank Director Carlos Madeira said on Monday in Bissau.
Lusa reported that the exact date for the reopening of the Totta bank and the Banco Internacional da Guine-Bissau (BIG) was still to be decided by Totta's board in Lisbon and the government of Guinea Bissau. Banks were closed in the country following the outbreak in June 1998 of a military rebellion that has since ended.
Bissau seeks US $130 million for reconstruction
Guinea Bissau needs US $130 million to begin rebuilding its shattered economy after the 1998 military rebellion, Prime Minister Francisco Fadul has been quoted as saying.
Reuters reported that Fadul as telling `Diario Economico', a Portuguese paper, that Guinea Bissau would be asking donors for this money at a conference in Geneva beginning on Tuesday.
"This sum will be used in future projects to be run by the new government to be elected in November," it quoted Fadul as saying.
NIGERIA: Military must be modernised, say top officials
Senior military officials have called on the incoming civilian administration in Nigeria to ensure that the armed forces are modernised and powerful enough to carry out their constitutional duties, local media have reported.
The chief of air staff, Air Marshall Nsikak Eduok, told reporters at an air force reunion in Port Harcourt that "it could be suicidal to say scrap the military", the `Post Express Wired' newspaper reported.
The newspaper also quoted outgoing military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar as saying that "no serious minded nation can underplay the need for a strong, well equipped and highly professional military".
These reactions come amid proposals by some politicians that the military be disbanded as an antidote to incessant coups. Nigeria, which has been ruled by the military for most of its 39 years of independence, also plays the key role in the West African peace monitoring group, ECOMOG.
A political analyst in Nigeria told IRIN on Tuesday that coups had little to do with whether the military was weak or strong. The analyst, Mimi Walson-Jack, director of the Centre for Responsive Politics, cited the example of The Gambia which, he recalled, had no army when the first attempted coup took place there in the mid-1980s. Keeping the military out of politics, he said, depended on the maintenance of a strong society and a civilian administration should cultivate this.
"The people can resist the military whether or not the military is strong. This depends on a strong society," Walson-Jack told IRIN. "So (a civilian) government should not hinder civil society."
Although Nigeria needs a strong military, he said, its mission must now go beyond traditional military frontiers and incorporate "humanitarian and social activities". They must, he added, help in disaster situations such as in floods, set up camps and provide food, "something they don't do here."
As to Nigeria's subregional military's dominant role in ECOMOG Walson-Jack said: "I do not believe that Nigeria has a duty to police West Africa. We have a responsibility at home." However, he said, should others in a subregional or global situation provide more equitably in providing financial, military and human resources to quell a situation, then Nigeria "must play its part."
SENEGAL: President receives literature award
President Abdou Diouf of Senegal has been awarded the "Patron Noble Art" by the Pan-African Association of Writers (PAWA), in recognition of services he has rendered to the arts, AFP reported.
Diouf received his prize on Monday at the opening ceremony
in Dakar of the third international literary symposium,
entitled "Literature and Human Rights".
ABIDJAN, 4 May 1999, 18:45 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 18:32:01 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 456 for 4 May [19990504]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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