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IRIN-WA Update 541 of events in West Africa (Wednesday 1 September)
LIBERIA: Disabled ex-fighters want help to resettle
Liberia's disabled former fighters want the international community to help them resettle in their regions, Eric Myers, chairman of the Ex-combatant Alliance of Liberia, told IRIN.
Disabled ex-combatants want to return to their home areas and to be given a resettlement package to help them become reintegrated into society, Myers said. He said his Alliance included people from throughout Liberia who fought in all the country's former warring factions.
"We want medical care, housing facilities and education," he added.
[See separate item titled 'LIBERIA: IRIN special report on disabled ex-combatants']
SIERRA LEONE: Humanitarian bodies to re-evaluate security
Sierra Leone's humanitarian community will re-evaluate the security situation for the resumption of relief operations in up-country sites following the abduction of two RUF commanders on Monday, the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) for that country has said.
The World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners, HACU said, have postponed food convoys to Makeni, 140 km northeast of Freetown, because of the incident. The convoys had been planned for Tuesday.
"The agencies concerned called back their staff members to Freetown this afternoon for consultation on how to safely implement large-scale food programmes given the current security environment," HACU reported on Tuesday.
It said leaders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the allied Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC - former military junta) in Makeni were actively cooperating in this process.
Concern over security resurfaced when 30 armed men arrested a team of RUF/AFRC, UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) and ECOMOG officials on their way back from Makeni on Monday, HACU said. The assailants, thought to be disgruntled members of the AFRC, robbed their victims of personal clothing, radio handsets, satellite phones and bullet-proof jackets.
Four UNOMSIL military observers and two members of ECOMOG, the West African peacekeeping force, were later released. However, the RUF members "were stripped naked and mistreated", HACU said. The detained RUF commanders are Mike Lamin and Denis Mingo. AFRC officer Idrissa Kamara escaped.
"This particular rebel group have been associated with a number of incidents in he recent past, including the commandeering of relief vehicles, theft of relief items and harassment of drivers and passengers plying the Freetown-Masiaka-Makeni routes," HACU said.
ECOMOG condemns abductions
ECOMOG condemned the abductions, describing them as "an unacceptable violation" of the cease-fire and Lome peace agreement signed by the RUF/AFRC alliance and the government of Sierra Leone, and demanded the immediate release of the victims.
Abductions, ECOMOG said, provided "another basis for the doubts being expressed by some concerned citizens with regards to the sincerity and commitment of some of the combatants to the implementation of the peace agreement".
Groups and individuals among the combatants who nurse grievances, ECOMOG said, should use the existing avenues - such as ECOMOG, the government, and RUF/AFRC-UNOMSIL forum - to file complaints.
Registration in Makeni
The abductions occurred as representatives of some 20 aid agencies were in Makeni registering and preparing to feed the town's hungry residents. The aid workers included two from the World Food Programme (WFP) and 18 from international NGOs.
They had gone to Makeni on Friday and had registered 97,000 people in the town and nearby villages.
NIGERIA: 2,000 troops pulling out
The first 500 Nigerian troops in ECOMOG returned home on Tuesday, marking the start of a staged withdrawal from Sierra Leone, Nigerian defence spokesman Colonel Godwin Ukpo told IRIN.
Speaking from Lagos, he said up to 2,000 troops would have arrived in Nigeria by the end of the week. Before the withdrawals began, he said, there were between 10,000 and 11,000 Nigerian troops in the ECOMOG force.
The size of the ECOMOG force is 12,000 to 15,000 men, according to various sources.
Nigeria, which plays a pivotal role in the West African force, has stated it would withdraw its troops in a cost-cutting effort but without endangering Sierra Leone.
>From Freetown, ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade told IRIN that the Lome agreement allowed for the gradual withdrawal of the troops and that the pullout of Nigerian units would "not jeopardize the peace process or the security of Sierra Leone".
Local government headquarters relocated
The House of Assembly of Delta State on Tuesday agreed to relocate the headquarters of a local government area whose siting two years ago had sparked a crisis between Ijaws, the largest ethnic group in the Delta, and Itsekiris.
The relocation of the seat of the Warri Southwest council from the majority Itsekiri town of Ogidigben to the mainly Ijaw town of Ogbe-Ijoh is contained in the Local Government Law of Delta State 1999, which Delta's parliament approved on Tuesday.
Twenty-three of the 29 members of the House approved the bill, three Itsekiri members walked out before the vote and three other parliamentarians were absent.
There are about six majority Itsekiri constituencies, a media source told IRIN. The Olu of Warri, traditional ruler of the Itsekiri, spoke out against the relocation about a week ago, he said.
Warri Southwest was created in 1996 and the relocation of its headquarters from Ogbe-Ijoh to Ogidigben in 1997 had led to clashes in which many people were killed and property destroyed.
It was also followed by hijackings, hostage-takings and occupations that targeted mainly oil companies.
MALI: Last two POW's return home
Two Malian prisoners of war captured by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) while serving in the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in Sierra Leone have returned home, Radio Mali announced on Tuesday.
They were released on Sunday following negotiations by Malian and Sierra Leonean officials in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The remaining Malian peacekeepers had already been withdrawn by 18 August at the end of their six-month tour of duty.
The two men were captured on 7 May when the RUF attacked Port Loko, 60 km northeast of Freetown, which the Malians had been defending alongside Nigerian units.
Mali had 428 peacekeepers in ECOMOG
CAMEROON: Floods claim about 20 lives
Heavy rains battered northern Cameroon at the weekend, causing floods and leading to some 20 deaths, news organisations and relief workers reported.
A humanitarian source in Yaounde told IRIN that rivers burst their banks, while some mud houses were swept away and others caved in on their inhabitants.
AFP reported official sources as saying that about 20 people drowned in the floods which affected the provinces of Nord (North) and Extreme Nord.
The humanitarian source said there was a possibility of other catastrophes arising as a result of the floods since cholera usually breaks out in the area when there is much water around.
State radio reports lifting of ban on log exports
Meanwhile, the government has suspended a ban on log exports that had been imposed on July 1, Reuters quoted state radio as reporting on Wednesday.
It said a presidential decree suspending the ban and signed on Tuesday states that 70 percent of Cameroon's wood products should be processed locally over the next five years, thus authorising the export of 30 percent of logs.
According to Reuters, the Cameroonian press reported that French timber operators had opposed the ban, which was imposed out of concern for the environment and to promote local industry.
Abidjan, 1 September 1999; 17:40 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1527
[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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