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IRIN-WA Update 495 of events in West Africa (Monday 28 June 1999)
SIERRA LEONE: Back to the field
Negotiators for Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are consulting their guerrilla commanders on whether or not to accept a peace deal aimed at ending eight years of civil war, sources close to the negotiations in Lome told IRIN on Monday.
The sources could not give details of the proposed deal but one said both sides were "very close to an agreement".
The deal hinges on the number of cabinet positions to be offered the RUF, according to another source contacted by IRIN as well as various news reports.
The BBC reported that the RUF were being offered four full cabinet positions and three minor ones in a government led by Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
RUF negotiators have gone to Vahun, Liberia, to consult with guerrilla field commanders, including the head of the guerrilla force, Sam Bockerie.
Sources said members of the government and RUF delegations were expected back in Lome on Tuesday or Wednesday.
NIGERIA: Ethics code for ministers, advisers
The 42 ministers-designate and 12 presidential advisers approved thus far by Nigeria's senate have adopted a code of conduct designed to ensure probity, transparency and accountability in government, news reports said.
"The adoption of the code of conduct for ministers and special advisers in the federation is a landmark in the revival of just and honest government in Nigeria," President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Sunday.
The precepts of the 14-point code include selflessness, integrity objectivity, openness, honesty and leadership. It comes in addition to a code of conduct for public officers contained in the 1999 constitution, Nigerian radio reported on Sunday.
Constitution to be translated into Hausa
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the northern state of Kebbi has said it will translate the constitution into Hausa to enable people to better understand it, the director of the institution's Kebbi branch, Alhaji Musa Argungu, said.
A substantial number of copies of the translated document will be made available to the public, the `Post Express' newspaper reported at the weekend.
Hausa speakers make up 21 percent of Nigeria 108 million people.
Deputy governor of Anambra escapes assassination bid
The deputy governor of Nigeria's south-eastern state of Anambra escaped assassination on Thursday last but his aide, police Sergeant Joseph Ada, was shot dead, news reports said on Monday.
Deputy Governor Chinedu Emeka was attacked in his car near his home in Onitsha, AFP reported, quoting Police Commissioner Abdulkadri Ahmed. The agency gave no motive for the killing but said Emeka and Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju, both of the ruling People's Democratic Party, were at loggerheads over the choice of a speaker for the state legislature.
Government advised to ratify convention against torture
The Civil Liberties Organisation has advised the government to ratify the UN convention against torture, 'The Guardian' newspaper said. The CLO also called for anyone indicted for torture in an ongoing probe into human rights violations to be tried.
GUINEA BISSAU: Banks to reopen in July
Two commercial banks, the Banco internacional da Guine-Bissau (BIG) and the Tota AÁorels are to reopen on Friday in Guinea Bissau, AFP reported sources close to the ministry of finance as saying.
The banks have been closed since the start of the military uprising in June 1998 that eventually led to the overthrow of President Joao Bernardo Vieira on 6 June 1999.
The fighting, which was concentrated in Bissau, forced many people to flee the country and/or the capital. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Action (OCHA), there are an estimated 60,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country.
Many have lost their homes: a housing survey conducted by the National Red Cross with OCHA support showed that 4,772 houses were partly or totally destroyed, affecting an estimated 43,600 people.
Meanwhile, commercial flights are to resume at the Oswaldo Vieira International Airport on 7 July, AFP reported.
LIBERIA: Farmers versus miners
Local authorities in Nimba county in northern Liberia have asked the government to intervene in a dispute between farmers and miners there, Star radio reported.
The farmers have accused miners of encroaching on their land and uprooting their cocoa and coffee plants while preventing them from farming and fishing in mining areas, Star said. They have also charged that mining operations have contaminated most of their sources of drinking water.
However, local mining concerns said they had obtained licenses to mine there.
TOGO: UNDP funds for infrastructure, job creation
The UNDP has launched a US $1.6 million programme in Togo to help the government improve or build new infrastructure and create jobs in construction and environmental improvement.
The initiative will be started in Lome and in Tsevie, some 40 km north of the capital. Funding and technical assistance from the programme will help communities build schools, water fountains, public latrines, roads and market places, UNDP said last week.
It will also provide sanitation equipment to support municipality clean-up programmes, while training will be given to workers, especially women.
About 80 percent of Togo's roughly 4.5 million people live in extreme poverty, according to UNDP. The country's recent economic crisis has made many people migrate to urban areas in the hope of escaping poverty and finding jobs, it said.
SENEGAL: Separatists Want Ceasefire
Some 100 delegates from various factions of the separatist Mouvement des Forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) agreed on Friday to hold negotiations with the Senegalese government, according to news reports.
In a communique issued at the end of a four-day meeting in Banjul, The Gambia, they also called on their fighters and the Senegalese army to cease hostilities immediately in Senegal's southern area of Casamance, PANA reported.
The MFDC, which wants independence for Casamance, also called for the withdrawal of government troops from the area, news organisations said.
The meeting reappointed Reverend Augustin Diamacoune Senghor as leader of the MFDC. According to AFP, Diamacoune is to name delegates to two new MFDC bodies created to conduct national and international negotiations.
Africa: UN urged to do more for African refugees
A UN of the 21st Century could make a greater effort to help African countries that face economic and social disruption in hosting large numbers of refugees, participants in a panel discussion at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said.
Participants in the panel discussion, held at the 24-25 June African Regional Hearing on the Millennium Assembly, noted that people continued to be forced from their countries by internal and inter-state conflicts.
At the same time, they said, growing xenophobia and the emergence of stringent asylum laws in Africa were proof that the legendary African hospitality had been stretched to the limit, according to the ECA.
The panel discussed an approach to humanitarian and human rights issues within a global context. It noted that the UN's response to the refugee crisis in Kosovo had far outweighed its work in helping Africa's refugees, who make up over a quarter of the world's roughly 12 million refugees.
Inadequate political will, the participants added, meant that international standards were not employed in establishing refugees camps in Africa. The UN, they charged, failed to give the required attention to human rights violations in camps.
Instances cited included cases where refugee camps were attacked by the military, and where they served as recruitment posts for militias.
The two-day hearing was convened as an open forum to share views and elaborate proposals on the type of United Nations that Africans want to see in the next millennium.
Abidjan, 28 June 1999; 17:20 GMT
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-1113
[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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