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IRIN-WA Update 470 of events in West Africa (Monday 24 May)
SIERRA LEONE: Ceasefire violations
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and ECOMOG, the West African peacekeeping force that backs Sierra Leone's government, on Monday accused each other of breaking a ceasefire just hours after it entered into effect.
Omrie Golley, the RUF's legal spokesman, told IRIN that ECOMOG helicopter gunships fired on RUF troops in Magbas, near Magburaka, some 150 km northeast of Freetown and, in the east of the country, near the Tongo-Moyamba junction.
ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukulade told IRIN ECOMOG troops had come under "a massive rebel attack around Magburaka between two and five o'clock this morning". He said troops along the main highway between Freetown and the eastern town of Kenema had also come under rebel attack.
The ceasefire came into effect on Monday.
Meanwhile, two UN monitors have arrived in Freetown
to examine the military and security situation, Jacqueline
Chenard of the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra
Leone (UNOMSIL) told IRIN on Monday.
[See separate item issued earlier today by IRIN West Africa]
Western Sahara: Eagleton appointed UN Special Representative
The UN Secretary-General has designated William Eagleton as his new Special Representative for the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
Eagleton was the UN Special Coordinator for the Restoration of Essential Services in Sarajevo (1994-1996) and Deputy Commissioner General for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in 1988-1994.
He has also served as a diplomat with the US government in many North African and Middle Eastern countries since the early 1960s.
Eagleton is expected to assume his new functions at MINURSO Headquarters in Laayoune, the main town in Western Sahara, by early June. Robin Kinloch, the former chairman of the Identification Commission of MINURSO, has been appointed as Eagleton's Deputy.
NIGERIA: 30 feared dead in communal fighting
More than 30 people were feared dead while several others were seriously wounded during clashes at the weekend in the northern town of Kafanchan, Kaduna State, 'The Guardian' reported on Monday.
The conflict between members of the Hausa ethnic group and indigenous people from southern Kaduna erupted over the official installation of the new emir of Jemaa, according to the independent newspaper. Jemaa is an area near Kafanchan.
According to news reports, south Kaduna indigenes in Jemaa's council rejected the new emir's ascension to the throne after the death of his father, the late emir, saying that the emirate system was a Hausa tradition alien to their culture.
During the clashes on Saturday, some houses were set on fire and protesters built huge bonfires to prevent the new emir's entourage from entering the town, 'The Guardian' said.
WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS emergency meeting
An emergency meeting of West African foreign ministers began on Monday with the violent overthrow of the presidents of Guinea Bissau and Niger and the war in Sierra Leone as its main focus, news reports said.
Niger's president, Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, was shot dead by his presidential guard on 9 April and, on 7 May, Guinea Bissau's Joao Bernardo Vieira was overthrown by a Military Junta.
Reuters reported that the executive secretary of the 16-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Lansana Kouyate, called for sanctions against the new leaders in Guinea Bissau and Niger.
"It is time to bring an end to coups which only tarnish the image of our sub-region," Kouyate told Reuters. "If we are silent it will continue."
The commander of ECOMOG - the ECOWAS peace monitoring force in Sierra Leone - Major General Felix Mujakperuo, was scheduled to brief the meeting, which representatives of the Organisation of African Unity and the UN were also expected to attend.
TOGO: Opposition supporters demonstrate
Around 3,000 demonstrators from opposition parties called on Saturday in Lome for an international investigation into an Amnesty International (AI) report that hundreds of political opponents were killed during political unrest in 1998 in Togo, news reports said.
Protesters also called for the release of three human rights activists - Nestor Tengue, Francois Gayibor and Antoine Koffi Nadjombe - detained for allegedly collaborating with AI.
In its document, released on 6 May, AI said government forces carried out the killings at the time of Eyadema's re-election in June 1998. The Togolese government denied this and is suing AI over the report.
LIBERIA: Food arrives for 26,500 refugees
Enough food to feed 24,000 people for one week arrived on Sunday in the north Liberian town of Kolahun, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported.
WFP said its convoy of 18 trucks carried 77 tonnes of cereals, cooking oil and pulses destined for 26,500 Sierra Leonean refugees in Kolahun and nearby Vahun. The convoy travelled through Voinjama, where gunmen took 24 people hostage, among them diplomats and relief workers, in April.
"We had halted food deliveries to Kolahun after the incident in Voinjama, but it seems that the area is now safe enough for the resumption for relief supplies by road," Mamadou Mbaye, the WFP officer in charge of Liberia, said.
With the upcoming rains, he added, WFP needed to stock food in Kolahun to avoid food shortages in refugee camps.
WFP said that on 21 April, unidentified assailants looted its stores in Voinjama, stealing 550 mt of WFP food and several of the programme's trucks and cars. Other humanitarian organisations in the area were also looted.
WFP recently increased its storage capacity in Kolahun by 2,000 mt, by installing five prefabricated warehouses, Mbaye said. "This will allow us to have a four-month buffer stock," he said.
Taylor reinstates ministers
Liberian President Charles Taylor has reinstated all 13 cabinet ministers - and other officials - he had dismissed just over a week ago for not attending a national prayer session, news reports said.
The last seven ministers to have been readmitted into the cabinet were reinstated on Saturday.
In a radio address, Taylor said his decision was "based on the wishes of the people". His action, he said, should not be seen as a sign of weakness "but rather as an exercise of prudence".
Taylor had sacked the 13 ministers and heads of public corporations for failing to attend the closure of a three-day session of fasting and prayers "to seek God's blessing for the nation", PANA reported.
However, he reinstated six ministers and six managing directors of public corporations soon after, saying they had valid excuses for their absence.
Students demand release of their parents
University of Liberia students from the Mandingo Chiefdom in Lofa County have appealed for the release of their parents who, they said, were being held hostage by vigilante groups in Zorzor District, independent Star radio reported on Friday.
Student spokesman Fokee Kroma said 200 people were being held. They were seized after unidentified armed men captured diplomats and aid workers in Voinjama, an act "in which the vigilantes suspected Mandingos of playing [an] active role", the radio said.
BURKINA FASO: Government to bring Zongo's killers to trial
In a weekend address designed to cool public temper, President Blaise Compaore announced that the Burkinabe government would take every necessary measure to bring to trial the killers of local investigative journalist Norbert Zongo.
Zongo's death on 13 December sparked massive demonstrations in the country in recent months and, in his address Compaore also intimated that protesters who had been detained would be freed.
"In our concern for appeasement, I call on the government to proceed with the release of all the arrested persons who were caught red-handed in acts of vandalism and violence," Compaore said on Friday, "with the exception of those facing legal suit in line with the complaints lodged with the courts."
Compaore said the examining magistrate would be given the necessary materials, and be relieved of all other duties, to conduct his investigation into Zongo's death.
The government will also be asked to speed up the case relating to David Ouedraogo - whose death Zongo was investigating when he, too, was killed - and punish anyone found guilty.
Pressure group not fully satisfied
Unsatisfied by the pledge, Halidou Ouedraogo - chairman of a broad-based pressure group comprising politicians, lawyers and journalists - said on Saturday: "For us the necessary means are not an air-conditioned office for the judge nor powerful cars. ...We need the moral means to assure the independence of the judiciary, its impartiality and accessibility."
Two weeks ago, an independent panel of investigators implicated six presidential guardsmen in Zongo's death. Guardsmen were also accused of torturing and killing David Ouedraogo, who was the driver of the president's brother, Francois Compaore, AFP reported.
Zongo's bullet-ridden and charred body, and those of three others, were found in an abandoned vehicle on a deserted road some 100 km outside the capital, Ouagadougou.
Compaore said he had ordered his defence minister to reorganise and barrack his presidential security regiment. Orders have also been given for compensation to Zongo and Ouedraogo's families.
Desire to heal the nation
Expressing his desire to heal the nation's wounds and investigate all unpunished crimes, Compaore said he had set up a college of wise men - chosen for their integrity - to review all "current outstanding problems" and recommend action acceptable to all political parties.
"I, therefore, appeal to all Burkinabe citizens to demonstrate self-control, peacefulness, as well as the spirit of fraternity and dialogue," he said.
In a related development, university and high school students returned to classes after 10 days of closure because of the demonstrations.
Abidjan, 24 May 1999, 19:35 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-882
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information or free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or fax: +254 2 622129 or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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