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IRIN-WA Update 545 of events in West Africa (Tuesday 7 September 1999)
LIBERIA: MSF resumes operations in the northwest
Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) has resumed its activity in north-western Liberia, where some 8,000 refugees and many internally displaced people are in urgent need of help, AFP reported on Monday.
MSF, like other aid bodies, suspended its operations because of fighting in August between government forces and insurgents, who took humanitarian workers hostage.
AFP reported MSF as saying that its expatriate staff would travel once a week to Kolahun, some 220 km northwest of Monrovia. The NGO said it would be supplying water and medical aid to people in the area.
Due to security concerns, medical supplies are being
delivered by helicopter but MSF said it would not maintain
this form of delivery for long because of its cost.
SIERRA LEONE: RUF commanders released
Two senior Revolutionary United Front (RUF) commanders, Dennis Mingo and Mike Lamine, were released on Monday, Sierra Leone's presidential spokesman, Septimus Kaikai, told IRIN.
The two men were kidnapped last week in Rogberi, some 80 km east of Freetown, by members of the former Sierra Leone Army (ex-SLA).
Mingo, based in Makeni, is said to be responsible for
much of the Northern Province of Sierra Leone.
The ex-SLA and the RUF became allies in 1997 when the
then Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) overthrew
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and invited the rebels
to join it in Freetown. After the West African peacekeeping
force, ECOMOG, overthrew the AFRC/RUF in 1998, the
allies took to the bush.
A 7 July agreement between the RUF and the government ended the fighting, but ex-SLA members later launched a series of kidnappings, charging that the accord neglected them.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Taking precautions against cholera
Health workers in Guinea-Bissau participated in August in a series of seminars on the detection and treatment of cholera, run by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The seminars, which also dealt with preventive hygiene, placed emphasis on early warning and rapid reaction in the event of cholera outbreaks, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its situation report for Guinea-Bissau for 16-31 August.
Guinea-Bissau had cholera epidemics in 1986, 1987, 1994 and 1996-1997, and they all broke out in October, at the end of the rainy season, according to MSF. It said in a recent release that each epidemic affected more people and a larger area than the previous one.
According to OCHA, the 1997 epidemic caused over 20,000 deaths.
OCHA reported that the paralysis of Guinea-Bissau's health system and the precarious conditions of displaced persons returning to Bissau motivated the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) to provide financial support to MSF for the anti-cholera project.
In addition to the seminars, the project includes the production of a cholera guide, which MSF said it planned to complete in September.
The guide is to include general information on cholera and how to deal with it. Once it is accepted by the Ministry of Health, it is to be published and distributed throughout the country, according to MSF.
Tuberculosis kits, water
Meanwhile, WHO has provided the Ministry of Health with medicines for leprosy and tuberculosis, consisting of enough kits to treat 10,000 persons for three months.
At the end of August, UNICEF began installing eight water bladders, each with a 20,000-litre capacity, in Bissau neighbourhoods that lack running water.
Humanitarian flights reduced
UN humanitarian flights between Bissau and Dakar will be reduced to once a week (Thursdays) starting 16 September, OCHA reported.
The flights were made twice weekly due to the closure of Bissau's airport to commercial traffic for over one year. International flights to Lisbon resumed on 27 July, but the regional commercial service to Dakar has not yet been restarted, OCHA reported.
NIGERIA: Five million jobs in one year, planned
Another five million Nigerians could be at work within a year if their government's plans for more employment fall into place, but the jobs will not come from the public sector, news organisations quoted Vice President Atiku Abubakar as saying.
"The present administration is determined to create a conducive environment for the generation of new employment opportunities by propelling the private sector to become an engine of growth," Abubakar said on Monday.
Abubakar was "taking stock" of the first 100 days in office of the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was sworn in on 29 May, a Lagos daily, `The Guardian', reported on Tuesday.
However, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) told IRIN that the issue of job creation needed to be carefully considered.
The NLC's acting deputy secretary-general, John Odah, said all stakeholders - the government, unions, employers and the unemployed (represented by the Movement of the Unemployed and Destitute) - needed to meet on the issue.
"We need to talk to the victims of the unemployment crisis, a number of whom are articulate men and women who hold degrees and have been roaming the streets for five years," Odah said.
The NLC, he said, was consulting with its South African colleagues on how to organise a "job summit" similar to one held in that country in October 1998. The aim of such a meeting, Odah said, would be to work out a programme to tackle unemployment.
NIGER: Mass jailbreak
Seventy-four prisoners escaped from a jail in Zinder,
Niger's second largest city, between Sunday night and
Monday morning, news organisations reported.
According to the Missionary News Agency (MISNA), the prisoners apparently took advantage of a sudden dust storm, punched a hole in the prison wall and escaped without being noticed.
Three of the escapees were recaptured and two were taken back to prison by their families, a media source in Niamey told IRIN. He said that, as far as he knew, most of the escaped prisoners were still at large on Tuesday.
Zinder is about 750 km east of the capital, Niamey.
Abidjan, 7 September 1999; 18:45 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1559
[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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