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IRIN-WA Update 459 of events in West Africa (Friday 7 May)
GUINEA BISSAU: Loyalist troops capitulate
Forces loyal to Guinea Bissau's president, Joao Bernardo Vieira, have surrendered to the self-styled Military Junta, ending a 10-month battle for power that began in early June 1998, a Western diplomat in Senegal told IRIN on Friday.
Loyalist Chief of General Staff Brigadier Umberto Gomes
said in a statement
handed to the Portuguese military representative in
Bissau for delivery to the Junta commanders that the
surrender was motivated by concern for the country
and human life, news reports added.
Fighting started late Thursday, after six months of calm, when loyalists resisted efforts by the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, to disarm some of the presidential guards. Under a peace agreement signed in Nigeria in November 1998, each of the rival leaders was to have reduced his bodyguards to 30 men by Wednesday.
Junta spokesman Commander Zamora Induta told Portuguese radio: "We were taken by surprise this morning at about 05:00 [GMT] by an offensive launched by President Nino Vieira's forces." However, a Western diplomat told IRIN the circumstances around the start of the fighting were unclear and still needed investigation.
An exact tally of the casualties has not yet been given. The Missionary News Agency, MISNA, reported that three bombs fell, killing 24 people at the entrance of the Giuseppini del Murtialdo Professional Education Centre. AP reported at least 20 wounded were admitted to Bissau's main hospital.
As the fighting started with light arms, bazookas and mortars, many people fled the capital for the port, for possible evacuation. Lusa, reporting from the city, spoke of tens of thousands of fleeing civilians.
An interim government had been formed to lead the country to general elections on 28 November. It is now unclear what effect the latest developments will have on this process and on the money donors promised for reconstruction.
On Wednesday, 32 donor nations and international agencies attending a roundtable in Geneva pledged some US $200 million over three years for the reconstruction of Guinea Bissau.
Guinea Bissau's troubles started when Viera dismissed his armed forces chief of staff, General Ansumane Mane, on 6 June 1998 allegedly for smuggling arms to separatists in Casamance, southern Senegal.
However, a parliamentary report on the arms trafficking,
made public on 13 April, listed 40 people as directly
responsible, including former Defence Minister Samba
Lamine Mane, ex-police chief Joao Monteiro and the
former army second-in-command, Afonso Te. It accused
Vieira of negligence but not of direct involvement.
NIGERIA: Ten killed in ethnic clashes
At least 10 people have died in ethnic fighting in Nigeria's southern oil town of Warri, news reports said Friday, quoting witnesses.
The fighting started on Thursday between Ijaw and Itsekeri communities after Itsekeris abducted some Ijaw youths, AFP reported. A witness, Ema Akalugba, told AFP the Ijaws retaliated by burning down the Itsekeri village of Madagho, killing the 10 and injuring several. The response followed an earlier attack on an Ijaw boatman in the Niger Delta oil region, Reuters said.
The two communities have been fighting since early 1997 over the relocation of a local government headquarters from an Ijaw to an Itsekiri area.
SIERRA LEONE: ICRC set to return in next few days
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be returning to Sierra Leone "probably by the beginning of next week", its West Africa spokesman, Christian Frutiger, confirmed to IRIN today.
Frutiger said that one delegate will travel to Freetown in the next few days and make a needs assessment to prepare the ground for the arrival of the first ICRC team. "We will start with a small team to assist civilians and displaced people," Frutiger said. "We aim to continue our activities in the Netland Surgical Hospital in Freetown and envisage going up country if the security situation permits."
A spokesman for the Sierra Leonean government said the two sides had resolved a row which erupted in January when the government accused the Swiss-run agency of assisting rebels who were besieging the capital, Reuters reported. The ICRC evacuated its last five expatriate staff from Freetown on 13 January, Reuters added.
Government tentatively agrees to ceasefire
Presidential spokeman Septimus Kaikai confirmed to IRIN
on Friday that the government was ready to agree to
a ceasefire with rebels provided UN monitors were in
place. "We need monitors on the ground to ensure
that peace holds," Kaikai said.
Up to this week, the government had said it would only
agree to a ceasefire if rebels vacated highways and
key mining areas. Much of the interior of Sierra Leone
remains inaccessible to humanitarian agencies due to
the insecurity on the roads. "We believe if they
move away from the highways, we can reduce the suffering
of the population," Kaikai said on Friday.
Asked if the rebels had agreed to these conditions, Kaikai said he "was not aware if they had". He was also unable to confirm whether the ceasefire would go ahead if they did not.
Meanwhile, Revolutionary United Front (RUF) spokesman Omrie Golley was quoted by AFP as saying on Thursday from Lome, Togo, that while the rebels had agreed to a draft peace proposal to cease hostilities, they had not agreed to free up highways. RUF leader Foday Sankoh and his commanders have been holding internal meetings in Lome since late April to develop a strategy for peace negotiations with the government.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Francis Okelo, has expressed the concern of the UN that the dialogue process should be given a fair chance to succeed, according to a statement from the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL).
The parties involved in the conflict are being encouraged to exercise voluntary military restraint for the duration of the talks, facilitate the free movement of civilians and allow humanitarian organisations unhindered access to the suffering people, the statement said.
The ceasefire proposal now under consideration was initiated by President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo as chairman of ECOWAS, according to UNOMSIL. It was sent to Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and discussed with him by the ECOWAS executive secretary on 2 May. The foreign minister of Togo presented the same draft to the RUF delegation in Lome.
Abidjan, 7 May 1999, 18:51 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 18:54:58 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 459 for 7 May [19990508]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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