UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-WA Update 555 for 21 September [19990922]

IRIN-WA Update 555 for 21 September [19990922]


UNITED NATIONS Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

Tel: +225 21 73 54 Fax: +225 21 63 35

IRIN-WA Update 555 of events in West Africa (Tuesday 21 September 1999)

LIBERIA: Refugees in Sierra Leone continue to return home

Seventy-one Liberian refugees arrived in Monrovia by boat from Sierra Leone on Monday, a refugee resettlement official, James Youquoi, told IRIN.

Youquoi, of the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), said on Tuesday that the refugees had been living in the Sierra Leonean cities of Freetown, Bo and Kenema.

Returnees were safe, he said, and those who are residents of outlying counties have decided to stay with their relatives in Monrovia and its suburbs for the time being.

Thousands want to return home

Some 2,000 of the 7,000 registered Liberian refugees in Sierra Leone had told the UNHCR they wanted to return home by the end of July 1999. However, voluntary repatriation was suspended for over six months in the wake of the rebel invasion of Freetown in January. The effort restarted on 4 September when 121 Liberians arrived by boat in Monrovia.

So far, at least 330,000 Liberian refugees of an estimated 480,000 have returned home either with UNHCR's help or on their own. The UNHCR continues to assist Liberian refugees who wish to return home.

Rise in food production

Rice production in Liberia has increased from 25 percent of its pre-war level in 1995 to 70 percent in 1998, the Country Representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Liberia, Kasa Kimoto, told IRIN on Monday.

The FAO is projecting a further increase to 255,000 mt in 1999, 85% of its pre-war level. He ascribed rising production largely to the positive response of the international community, including UN agencies, donors and NGOs.

Agricultural productivity has been increasing in Bong, Bomi, Montserrado and Nimba counties, he said, but not in Maryland, Sinoe and Grand Kru where poor roads have made access to farms difficult. In Lofa County, many of the estimated 25,000 displaced people are farmers which would prevent them from harvesting their crops in two weeks.

Cassava production was not as badly affected as rice during the war and reached 96% of pre-war levels in 1998, although it was 50% in 1995.

He said livestock production, with the exception of chickens, needed improvement. The FAO is testing pigs for African swine fever in Nimba County.

[See separate Item: titled 'Rise in food production']

Annan calls for aid to Guinea and Liberia

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan joined West African leaders on Monday in a plea to the international community to help Guinea and Liberia cope with refugees and the growing humanitarian crisis resulting from armed dissident activity along their common border.

UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan had been following, with concern, the mounting tension between the two countries in the wake of attacks on towns and villages that had left many civilians dead.

Annan welcomed the declaration adopted last week by the Ad Hoc Committee of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government, in which the leaders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone agreed to undertake confidence-building measures to re-establish an environment of peace, security and trust.

Annan called on these leaders to abide faithfully by their agreement and was "ready to assist them in any way possible", Eckhard said.

AFRICA: Experts to discuss arms register for the continent

Delegates from 20 African countries, subregional economic groupings, the UN and research institutions begin discussions on Thursday to set up an arms register and database facility in Africa, the UN body organising the event has said.

The Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNRCPDA), headed by Ivor Fung, said on Tuesday the two-day workshop would debate details on a `Light Weapons Arms Register and Database' as a mechanism for greater transparency. UNRCPDA, based in Accra, said the register would be "a crucial requirement in building trust, confidence, security and durable peace in Africa".

Once set up, the organisers said, the register should ensure the storage of information on the flow of light weapons, the monitoring of the flow and thereby help to determine "destablising accumulations" of arms in Africa.

The Accra workshop is being organised by UNRCPDA in collaboration with the Ghana government and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS. Funding is from the Netherlands government.

The workshop will form part of the activities of the Programme for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED). This body is the technical and secretariat arm established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to implement the moratorium on the import, export and manufacture of light weapons, declared by ECOWAS on 31 October 1998 for a renewable three-year period.

COTE d'IVOIRE: Strong trade, economic ties sought with India

Cote d'Ivoire sought on Monday to strengthen trade and economic ties with India so it could transform its predominantly agricultural economy, into an industrialised one, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

"Steps have to be taken to boost bilateral trade between the two countries which at present amounts to only sixty million US dollars and is in favour of India," Jean Claude Brou, the chief of cabinet of the Ivorian prime minister, told a meeting organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Mumbai (formerly Bombay).

Cote d'Ivoire, he said, wanted to industrialise as a cushion against the impact of adverse movements in the prices of agricultural products.

PTI reported him as saying that opportunities for Indian industry in the Ivorian economy existed in food processing, mining, oil and natural gas, farm equipment, pharmaceuticals, machine tools, tourism, infrastructure projects like roads, ports and telecommunications.

MALI: Taylor visits

Liberian President Charles Taylor arrived in Bamako on Monday for a day of talks with his Malian counterpart, Alpha Oumar Konare, AFP reported. Taylor said that he was making the trip to "benefit from the experience" of Konare, who takes over the chairmanship of ECOWAS in November. Taylor flew in from Burkina Faso where he held talks with President Blaise Compaore, a key ally. Abidjan, 21 September 1999; 17:35 GMT

[ENDS]

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Item: irin-english-1647

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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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