| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Tel: +225 21 73 54 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org
IRIN-WA Update 457 of events in West Africa (Wednesday 5 May)
GUINEA BISSAU: Elections in November
Presidential and legislative elections will be held
in Guinea Bissau on 28 November, according to a presidential
decree read out on Monday on national radio, news agencies
reported.
Lusa reported that the date was set after consultations between the country's political parties, elections commission and government.
A peace pact signed last November, five months after fighting erupted between forces loyal to President Nino Vieira and Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Ansumane Mane, had provided for polls by March 1999, but sporadic clashes broke out early this year.
This led caretaker Prime Minister Francisco Fadul to
advocate a postponement of the elections to November,
among other things, to allow time for the reintegration
of military and police forces and the return of people
displaced by the war, according to Lusa.
NIGERIA: Military approves new constitution
Nigeria's Provisional Ruling Council - its highest policy-making body - on Tuesday approved a new constitution, according to news reports, which said it was due to be signed into law on Wednesday.
The constitution is to take effect on 29 May when the country's civilian government takes over.
Council spokesman Major General Abdullahi Muktar said on Tuesday that the council had also repealed Decree 43 of 1993 which requires the registration of all newspapers, judging the decree undemocratic and harmful to journalism.
Cholera, measles, TB kill 100 people in Kano
An outbreak of cholera, measles and tuberculosis has killed at least 100 people in the northern Nigerian state of Kano, `The Guardian' of Lagos reported on Wednesday.
The principal medical officer in charge of the state's Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH), Dr. Mansur Muhammad told the newspaper that since the epidemic was first reported on 24 April, 1,000 persons had been admitted to the IDH: 700 for cholera, two for measles and 300 for tuberculosis (TB).
"The situation is under control," he said.
Government, he added, had moved quickly to check the outbreak by providing free anti-TB drugs, which it had never done before.
Ten feared dead in clash between Nigerians, Chadians
At least 10 people are feared dead and 30 have been hospitalised following clashes between residents of Kirikasama town in Nigeria's Jigawa State and "bandits" from Chad and Niger, the `Post Express' of Nigeria reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper said most of the displaced had fled to the town of Hadejia. The secretary for the Kirikasama local council, Alhaji Haruna Musa, told reporters that, up to Saturday, the number of casualties and the reason for the violence were unclear.
During the clashes, which erupted on Thursday night
and lasted through Saturday, four villages were burnt
in Kirikasama.
TOGO: Stay-away only moderately successful
A stay-at-home protest called by seven opposition parties to press for the resolution of a political impasse in Togo has been only partially successful, news sources told IRIN on Wednesday.
"Just over half the people followed the call," one source said.
Some activity was paralysed. In one primary school, for example, just about one-tenth of the teachers reported for duty, while 'zemidjans' (scooters which function as taxis) were difficult to get. However, most public servants went to work.
Riot police were deployed at Lome's main road intersections, but there was no violence.
On Monday, the opposition had called on civil servants,
bank employees, traders, transport workers and taxi
drivers to stay at home until the government released
the correct results of presidential elections held
in June 1998.
The opposition claimed the results, giving President
Gnassingbe Eyadema a victory, were rigged. As a result,
all but one of the opposition parties boycotted legislative
elections held in March.
Government threatens to sue Amnesty
Togo's government said on Wednesday it would sue Amnesty International over a report alleging that Lome was responsible for hundreds of political killings, disappearances, and torture.
The Amnesty report contained "disinformation, fakery and gross fiction", the government said in a statement.
The 45-page report accused the Togolese armed forces and paramilitary police of killing hundreds of people, including members of the military. For days, their bodies were washed up on the beaches of Togo and neighbouring Benin, it said.
The government expressed indignation at the accusation, describing it as "surreal and unfounded", while a news source told IRIN: "We are surprised by Amnesty's report especially about the bodies floating on beaches".
The government noted that had hundreds of bodies turned up on beaches, especially when the country was awash with journalists during the electoral period, someone would have reported it.
SIERRA LEONE: Looking for Freetown's missing children
About 356 of the 3,286 children registered as missing in the Freetown area after a rebel attack there on 6 January have been found, according to the UN Humanitarian Assistance and Coordination Unit (HACU)'s April report on Sierra Leone.
UNICEF and its partners are following up on their well being through regular visits, medical and counselling services, HACU said.
HACU also reported that the UNHCR has provided assistance to some 480,000 Sierra Leonean refugees in neighbouring countries. However, a programme to repatriate Liberian refugees from Sierra Leone has been suspended to allow for a re-registration exercise to determine the exact number of people willing to go home.
IDP situation
Food, household units, health services, water, health education and agricultural inputs are among the things IDPs in Yele, some 50 km north of Bo, need most urgently, according to a recent assessment by humanitarian agencies.
Some 5,743 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been registered in Yele, while 3,000 more are estimated to be staying in villages just outside the town. Insecurity in the area is preventing more accurate assessments, according to HACU.
Meanwhile, 9,489 IDPs have been reported in the town of Mondema, while 20,000 are now in Waterloo, southeast of Freetown. Toilet facilities and water sources remain a big problem there, according to the HACU report. ECOMOG has assured agencies that the area is secure, although, the report says, access is not always possible.
There are also reports of large concentrations of displaced
people in the northern district of Kambia, although
exact figures are not known.
Humanitarian access
Humanitarian agencies are unable to move substantial quantities of relief goods to any part of the country but Freetown.
The northern districts of Bambali, Koinadugu, Kambia, Tonkolili and Port Loko, home to some 1.6 million people, have been inaccessible to agencies over long periods of time, according to the HACU report.
More than 60 percent of the people in the Eastern Province are not receiving relief aid, while at least 55 percent (2.6 million) of residents of conflict-affected parts of the country are out of reach of humanitarian agencies.
In the more accessible government-controlled areas,
where some two million people live, agencies are providing
emergency relief to just over 120,000 persons, although
insecurity on the roads and sometimes in towns affect
their operations.
Rebels accuse government of creating obstacles to peace
Meanwhile, Sierra Leonean rebels meeting in Lome for internal talks accused the government side on Tuesday of creating obstacles to peace by stepping up its military offensive and rejecting a ceasefire proposal, according to news reports.
Revolutionary United Front spokesman, Omrie Golley, in an interview with AFP, accused ECOMOG troops - which back the government - of "stepping up their offensive when there should be a silencing of guns".
Last Thursday, ECOMOG forces recaptured the strategic town of Masiaka, some 60 km northeast of Freetown, from the rebels.
A ceasefire proposal was submitted to the government by the UN special envoy, Francis Okelo, at the weekend, an UN information officer based in Freetown confirmed to IRIN. However Kabbah's government said it would not support a ceasefire unless traditional chiefs, ECOMOG and the cabinet gave their backing, AFP reported.
Information minister Julius Spencer told the BBC on Tuesday that his government would want UN monitors in place before concluding a ceasefire with the RUF.
Abidjan, 5 May 1999, 18:09 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 18:13:25 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 457 for 5 May [19990505]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
| Previous Menu | Home Page | What's New | Search | Country Specific |