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Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
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IRIN-WA Update 544 of events in West Africa (Monday 6 September)
SIERRA LEONE: Nigeria to resume troops withdrawals in October
Nigeria will resume its troop withdrawals from Sierra Leone in October whether or not a UN force is ready to replace them, President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Sunday.
Speaking on nationwide television, he said Nigeria could no longer afford to maintain the troops in the war torn country, AFP reported. "It costs us a lot of money. We want to use that money for other things internally," AFP quoted Obasanjo as saying.
Nigerian soldiers account for 95 percent of the 12,000 to 15,000 ECOMOG troops sent to Sierra Leone in 1997 to bolster its elected government. Nigeria also provided the bulk of troops, money and materiel during ECOMOG's deployment in Liberia during that country's long-running civil war.
Obasanjo said he had suspended the withdrawals, which began last week, after a meeting on Friday with Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah because of the latter's concerns that the action would jeopardise the security of his country. However, Obasanjo added, if the UN wanted Nigeria to remain in Sierra Leone then it should provide the means.
Peacekeeping troops are required for the disarmament phase of the 7 July peace treaty between the Freetown government and rebel forces.
On 20 August, the UN Security Council authorised the provisional expansion of the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) from 70 to 210 military observers. It also agreed to beef up UNOMSIL's political, civil affairs, information, human rights and child protection units.
Croatia to send observers
Meanwhile Croatia has accepted a UN offer to send military observers to join UNOMSIL, that country news agency, HINA reported. They would be the first Croatian troops to participate in international peacekeeping operations, the Defence Ministry said on Friday. The observers are expected to be deployed in late September, the ministry said.
Guinea frees 120 detainees
Some 120 Sierra Leoneans freed by the Guinean government are now being lodged in UNHCR refugee camps in Kissidougou and Guekedou close to the border with Sierra Leone, a UNHCR told IRIN on Monday.
Guinea claims that the former detainees were close supporters of the AFRC military junta ousted by ECOMOG in February 1998. They were held in Kandia, 120 km east of Conakry, AFP reported.
However, a UNHCR spokesman said the Sierra Leoneans were being treated as refugees and that UNHCR had no evidence of their affiliation to the ex-military junta or their participation in human rights abuses.
The UNHCR has not yet started to discuss the voluntary repatriation of these refugees, the spokesman said. He said it was up to the refugees "to decide whether to go back".
LIBERIA: Arrests made in connection with killings in Upper Lofa
Government troops have arrested an unspecified number of suspects in connection with the killing of 16 people on Thursday at Nikegbozu in upper Lofa County, near Liberia's border with Guinea, news organisations reported.
Star radio quoted a government statement as saying that the killings were in retaliation for a recent massacre in Lawalazu, also near the Guinean border. AFP reported witnesses to the Lawalazu incident as saying that the killers had decapitated more than 12 people.
The two incidents involved people from rival ethnic groups, the news organisations reported.
The assistant minister of information and public affairs, Geoff Mutada, told IRIN the information ministry was unable to confirm these reports. "We are currently trying to find out what is happening," he said.
NIGERIA: Little applause for proposed Delta development bill
A bill proposed by President Olusegun Obasanjo for the development of Nigeria's strife-torn Niger Delta has had a
difficult time gaining unanimous acceptance.
In fact, none of the groups in the region, often in conflict with one another in recent years, have found the draft Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) bill acceptable.
On 1 September, traditional rulers from the Delta, grouped in the
Traditional Rulers Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria (TROPCON), urged the National Assembly to throw out the bill, saying it was not meant to serve the interests of the people in the oil region.
Obasanjo's bill proposes a development plan for the impoverished Delta to be funded with 0.5 percent of the annual budgets of the oil transnationals operating in the country and half of the 13 percent of oil revenue which, under the constitution, should go to each producing region.
[See separate Item: irin-english-1548 titled 'IRIN special report on proposed Niger Delta bill']
Malaria and malnutrition
A team of medical scientists studying the effect of malaria on Ibeshe island near Lagos, have raised alarm over the combined impact of malaria and malnutrition on people there.
Team leader Dr. Bamgboye Afolabi, a senior research fellow at the Nigerian Medical Research Institute (NIMR), told state-run News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the weekend that while a malaria control programme mounted by the Lagos government in 1998 had helped some people, Ibeshe residents had not benefited because they had no access to medical facilities.
He said about 30 percent of the more than 450 children the team saw and followed up had malaria parasites. The researchers also found that the children's diet -mainly carbohydrates- was not varied enough.
Afolabi urged the government and corporate organisations to provide the team with a generator to operate a small laboratory, boats, life jackets and drugs to enhance their effort to provide free treatment to people in Ibeshe, NAN reported.
NIGER: Seven cleared for presidential race
Niger's State Court, equivalent to a constitutional court, has cleared seven candidates to run in presidential elections expected to end military rule in the landlocked West African country at the start of next year, according to news reports.
The candidates include the former secretary-general of the Islamic Conference Organisation, Hamid Algabid, and ex-president Mahamane Ousmane (1993-1996).
Algabid will be running on the ticket of the Rassemblement pour la democratie et le progres (RDP) and Ousmane is backed by his Convention democratique et sociale (CDS).
Campaigning is due to begin on 26 September and close on 15 October. Parliamentary elections and -if needed- the second round of the presidential poll will take place on 24 November.
Under this timetable, fashioned by the military junta that has ruled Niger since assassinating then president Ibrahim Bare Mainassara in April, a democratic government will be installed on 1 January 2000.
UNICEF: Schooling as solution to child labour
UNICEF has launched an initiative to combat child labour with pilot programmes aimed at providing schooling to some of the estimated 250 million children aged five to 14 who are forced to work full time in developing countries.
The initiative covers 29 countries, five of which are in West Africa: Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali and Senegal. It includes special educational strategies for working children through flexible schooling hours, equivalent out-of-school educational programmes and economic incentives for parents so their children can attend school rather than work.
The initiative, which also stresses the need to attack child labour itself, will be greatly helped by the passage in June of the International Labour Organisation's Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said, urging all nations to ratify the convention.
"The Convention specifically mandates that educational options be provided to working children," Bellamy said. "Its ratification will be a central event in the movement to end child labour."
AFRICA: Training for food security
Twenty-two participants from 10 African and Caribbean countries have completed a four-week food-security training programme in Benin, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported on Monday from Cotonou.
The Formation internationale en nutrition et sciences alimentaires (FINSA - International training in nutrition and food sciences) programme lasted from 9 August to 3 September and was held in the towns of Ouidah and Cotonou.
It focused on food security for lasting development, the analysis of the food and nutrition situation of households, the identification of high-risk groups, and the identification, planning and implementation of food security programmes.
The programme - attended by participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, CÙte d'Ivoire, Guinea, HaÔti, Mali, Niger, Rwanda and SÈnÈgal - was the eighth edition of FINSA, which is backed by the Dutch government, UNICEF, WHO and the FAO.
The FINSA programmes are conducted by the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences of the Universite nationale du Benin with the participation of the universities of Wageningen and Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Abidjan, 6 September 1999; 19:00 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1554
[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
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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