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IRIN-WA Update 461 of events in West Africa (Tuesday 11 May)
GUINEA BISSAU: Benin pulls out troops, calm returns
Benin announced on Monday it would withdraw its 145 soldiers serving in Guinea Bissau with ECOMOG. In a statement released after a special cabinet session, the government said that with the overthrow of President Joao Bernardo Vieira, the need for a continued ECOMOG presence was "null and void".
The ECOMOG force in Guinea Bissau comprises troops from Benin, The Gambia, Niger and Togo. In an interview published in the `Daily Observer' newspaper in Banjul, Gambian National Army commander Lieutenant Colonel Samsideen Sarr said his troops would remain there until the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided otherwise.
ECOMOG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group) troops were deployed in January to police the truce between pro-Vieira forces and those of sacked armed forces chief of staff Brigadier General Ansumane Mane.
Normal activity returns to Bissau
Normal activity has returned to the capital of Guinea Bissau, Bissau, after last Friday's overthrow of President Joao Bernardo Vieira, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday.
"After the looting over the weekend and the arrest of looters, calm now prevails," one source said.
He said ECOMOG and the military junta were patrolling the streets to ensure there would be no more looting. With the prevailing calm, he said, the vast majority of residents who fled the city during the fighting had returned.
However, international telephone links and electricity supplies remained sporadic.
WFP resumes food distribution
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme told IRIN on Tuesday it had resumed food distribution and regular flights, which had been suspended during the fighting. Before the upheaval, the agency was feeding 11,786 people. It now needs to cover another 238,214.
Other humanitarian sources said food aid deliveries by land were impossible because the border with Senegal had been closed.
Junta to free young pro-Vieira troops, some associates
The victorious Military Junta said it planned to free soldiers aged between 15 and 20 years who had fought for Vieira, the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported on Monday. It quoted a Junta source as saying the soldiers would be freed sometime this week after Brigadier Ansumane Mane spoke to them about "the reasons for the struggle" against Vieira.
The source said other key pro-Vieira figures were also likely to gain their freedom, but not those indicted in a parliamentary inquiry into arms trafficking to Senegal's Casamance rebels.
OAU condemns Vieira's ouster
The Organisation of African Unity, the continent's foremost political body, has joined France and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in condemning Vieira's overthrow.
In a communique published at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the OAU's Central Organ for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution called for the immediate restoration of constitutional order and compliance with an ECOWAS accord signed on 3 February by both parties to the conflict.
Various reports put the dead last week at between 80 and 100, and the wounded at around 260.
Fadul apologises to France, Senegal
Guinea Bissau's transitional Prime Minister Francisco Fadul apologised on Monday to France and Senegal, whose embassies were destroyed or ransacked on Friday, AFP reported.
Vieira had sought refuge in each of the two embassies before fleeing to the Portuguese mission where he was still holed up.
However, Fadul, who presented his apology in a radio broadcast, blamed Vieira for precipitating the latest round of fighting. He accused Vieira of failing to cooperate with provisions in the Abuja peace accord of November 1999 that ended some eight months of fighting.
The refusal by around 260 of Vieira's 300 palace guards to disarm, followed by their seizure of weapons stored in a container after an earlier disarmament, set off the fighting, according to reports.
Fadul said the Junta's seizure of power could not be described as a coup.
LIBERIA: UN Mission to Look into US Embassy Shootout
A UN team is to visit Liberia in mid-May to gather information
on shooting incidents that occurred in Monrovia on
18-19 September 1998, UN sources said.
The five-member information-gathering mission led by James Ngobi, a former director of the Africa 1 Division at UN Headquarters, is scheduled to arrive in Monrovia on 16 May and complete its mission there on 22 May.
The team, sent in response to a request from Liberia's government, left New York at the weekend for Nigeria. While there it will have "contacts with individuals who now reside in Nigeria and who were involved in the 18-19 September incidents," one source told IRIN.
On 18 September 1998, a shootout occurred in Monrovia between Liberian government security forces and supporters of former faction leader Roosevelt Johnson. He and some of his group later fled to the US Embassy, where they sought refuge.
More shooting ensued in which three Liberians were killed and two Americans wounded, news reports said. The US and Nigerian governments later arranged for Johnson and his group to be flown to Nigeria, where the former faction leader is in protective custody.
According to news reports, the U.S. government accused Liberian troops of shooting at its embassy premises and demanded an apology from Monrovia. The Liberian government apologised but blamed the damage on Johnson's forces.
BURKINA FASO: Zongo report to be submitted to justice authorities
Burkina Faso's government has decided to hand over to the country's justice authorities a report naming members of the presidential guard as suspects in the murder of an independent journalist, AFP reported.
The decision was announced on Monday at the end of an extraordinary cabinet session called to discuss the report, done by an independent commission set up early this year to investigate the death of journalist Norbert Zongo.
The commission released its report on Friday. It recommended - among other things - that the matter be submitted to the justice authorities.
NIGERIA: Abubakar calls for good governance
Nigeria's head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar,
has urged incoming parliamentarians to work collectively
for stability and good governance in the West African
nation, Nigerian radio reported on 9 May.
Addressing elected legislators at a meeting on Sunday, he said they were "expected to serve as the watchdog to the conduct of state affairs by the executive wing of the government".
"This, if carried out properly, will provide the necessary checks and balances needed for any meaningful democracy to survive," he added.
Abidjan, 11 May 1999, 17:35 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 17:42:46 +0000 (GMT) Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN Update 461 for 11 May [19990511]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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