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IRIN-WA Update 549 of events in West Africa (Monday 13 September 1999)
SIERRA LEONE: Ex-SLA pledge change of attitude to disarmament
Senior officers of the former Sierra Leonean Army (ex-SLA) have promised to get their troops to abide by a peace agreement concluded two months ago by government and rebel representatives, ECOMOG reported on Friday.
The ex-SLA officers "pledged positive changes in the attitude of their men towards the disarmament exercise, and to ensure a halt to all hostage-taking or cease-fire violations, by the ex-combatants along the highways," the West African peacekeeping force said in a statement.
The pledge was made at a meeting last week at ECOMOG Headquarters in Freetown which was also attended by senior representatives of the government, the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone(UNOMSIL), the World Bank, diplomats and other parties associated with the country's Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme.
Under the Lome agreement signed on 7 July by the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the encampment, disarmament and demobilisation of ex-combatants was to start within six weeks, that is by 18 August.
It was agreed at last week's meeting that the ex-SLA officers should go to their bases near the Occra Hills - some 50 km east of Freetown - to explain to their men the preparations being made for the handing in of their weapons and arrangements for their welfare.
The ex-SLA in Occra Hills have been responsible for a spate of kidnappings in recent weeks.
ECOMOG quoted UNOMSIL and World Bank officials as saying at the meeting that "a peaceful and conducive security atmosphere" was a crucial element for the DDR programme to take off.
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade, ECOMOG's spokesman, told IRIN on Monday that he expected the ex-SLA officers to return to Freetown by Tuesday to brief ECOMOG on the outcome of their meetings with their men.
Olukolade added that the DDR process would be speeded up by the return to Freetown of Foday Sankoh and Johnny Paul Koroma - who are still out of the country - as it would reduce the number of people with whom ECOMOG would need to consult.
"We can deal directly with the leaders and they can deal with their men," he said.
Food reaches Makeni
Relief agencies have begun distributing food to thousands of people in the rebel-controlled northern town of Makeni, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday.
Wagdi Othman, a spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Abidjan, told IRIN relief agencies sent a 65-truck convoy carrying 1,200 mt of food to the town on Saturday. "Distributions started on Sunday to a registered caseload of 97,000 in the Makeni area," he said.
A spokesman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Freetown told IRIN the delivery of food to Makeni was a "collaborative effort" involving WFP, World Vision International, Catholic Relief Services and CARE.
"This food distribution will help to alleviate the poor nutritional situation in Makeni but future interventions will depend on security," the OCHA official said.
[See separate Item: irin-english-1593, titled 'Food aid reaches Makeni']
LIBERIA: Monrovia denies attacks on Guinean villages
Liberia has denied claims that its troops attacked three
Guinean villages over the weekend, killing 28 people,
news organisations reported.
AFP quotes Defence Minister Daniel Chea as saying that the Liberian government "knows nothing about the attack" and its troops were not involved in the reported agression.
A Guinean source told IRIN the alleged attack occurred on Friday in the Macenta area, near Guinea's border with Liberia. The source claimed that a Liberian soldier was captured.
Efforts by IRIN to obtain information from the Guinean Defence Ministry proved fruitless.
The Guinean allegation came in the wake of repeated claims by Monrovia that insurgents who staged attacks in the northwest Liberian county of Lofa in August came from Guinea, which the Guinean authorities have denied.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Independents vie for presidency
At least two independents have confirmed their candidature for presidential polls to be held in Guinea-Bissau in November.
Sociologist Faustino Mbali, principal adviser to Prime Minister Francisco Fadul, on Sunday declared his intention to run for president. The other confirmed independent is Fernando Gomes, head of the country's human rights league.
The election is to be held on 28 November, under an agreement reached in late 1998 between then president Joao Bernardo Vieira and a Military Junta that eventually ousted him in May this year.
GHANA: Campus under police guard
Ghana's government has sent police to the university campus in Accra in response to protests since last Thursday by militant students demanding more money to offset a hike in tuition fees, news reports said.
One news source told IRIN that although the students
had disrupted lectures at the University of Ghana's
Accra campus, there had been no violence so far. The
government has sent in riot police armed with water
cannons to ensure that students wishing to attend lectures
do so without fear. However, the source said, their
number was "woefully inadequate".
The protesters say the three billion cedis (US $1.1
million) the government has set aside for bursaries
is inadequate. They want the amount increased to 13
billion cedis (US $4.94 million) because tuition fees
have risen from the equivalent of US $120 to US $800
per year.
[See separate item titled 'Police on university campus']
NIGERIA: Bitumen exploitation to displace 30 communities
Thirty communities in south-western Nigeria will be displaced when the oil-rich West African country starts the exploration and exploitation of its bitumen deposits, a local government official in the area has said.
Bitumen exploitation in Irele, Ondo State, is expected to begin as soon as the federal Ministry of Solid Minerals allocates blocks to investors.
The chairman of the Irele local government, Oluremi Ayeomo, said recently that people in at least half of the satellite towns and villages in his district would be affected, especially peasant farmers who grow mainly cocoa, palm produce, kolanut and cassava.
Nigeria has over 42 billion barrels of bitumen reserves in the south-western states of Lagos, Ondo, Edo and Ogun. Bitumen is used mostly to produce asphalt, but heavy crude oil can be processed from it.
Main port in Lagos resumes operations
Rival dockers resumed work in Lagos on Friday, a day after fighting that left 10 people died, AFP reported, quoting port authority officials. Lagos is Nigeria's largest port for non-oil imports. Rival ethnic gangs of dockers fought pitched battles there on Thursday over control of the main dockers union.
AFRICA: Governments need to value their people
Former Nigerian health minister Olikoye Ransome-Kuti
on Monday accused some African governments of corruption
and stealing the bulk of funds meant for the purchase
of medical drugs, PANA reported.
He told the ongoing 11th International Conference on
AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Lusaka that
due to inefficiency and the wastage of drugs, only
US $12 worth of drugs eventually got to the patient
out of every US $100, according to World Bank estimates.
Kuti said many of the HIV/AIDS patients could be saved
and the epidemic effectively controlled in Africa if
governments valued the lives of their people and looked
critically at the ways funds were being spent, PANA
reported.
"Donors no longer listen to our whines," he
said. "I am also sure they will respond promptly
when our countries demonstrate a determination to care
for the people.
"Even now, out of a total expenditure of 141 million dollars on AIDS reported from 25 sub-Saharan African countries in 1996, the countries contributed only US $13 million - 9 percent of the total, whilst 91 percent came from donors."
Abidjan, 13 September 1999; 19:00 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1596
[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, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org 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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