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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 575 for West Africa (Tuesday 19 October 1999)
CONTENTS:
SIERRA LEONE: Missing priests reportedly safe SIERRA LEONE: Instability in Makeni worries aid agencies LIBERIA: UNOL's mandate extended GUINEA-BISSAU: Elections on track, diplomats say GUINEA-BISSAU: Prisoners of war still await release GUINEA-BISSAU: World Bank support for education NIGERIA: Ogoni refugees not inclined to return home CHAD: Repatriation of refugees to begin soon, UNHCR says WEST AFRICA: Albright winds up West African tour
SIERRA LEONE: Missing priests reportedly safe
Sixteen people missing since Friday, including the Bishop of Makeni, Giorgio Biguzzi, two priests and various aid workers, are now safe, the Missionary News Agency (MISNA) reported.
MISNA had reported on Monday that Biguzzi was believed to have been detained by members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). However, AFRC leader Major Johnny Paul Koroma later contacted MISNA, denying any responsibility for Biguzzi's detention. He said that, on the contrary, his men had rescued the bishop.
Biguzzi and his group reportedly spent Monday night in Bumbuna, some 40 km northeast of Makeni. "We expect Bishop Biguzzi to arrive in Freetown by helicopter today," a source at the Catholic relief organisation, CARITAS, told IRIN on Tuesday.
SIERRA LEONE: Instability in Makeni worries aid agencies
Aid agencies have expressed concern that instability in the northern town of Makeni could have severe implications for the implementation of humanitarian programmes throughout the north of Sierra Leone.
"Makeni is the gateway to northern and north-eastern parts of the country," a humanitarian source in Freetown told IRIN. "If relief agencies are unable to access Makeni town activities over a far larger area will have to be curtailed."
Another humanitarian source told IRIN that on Monday ECOMOG was not allowing aid agencies to travel north of Rogberi Junction, which is about half way along the road from Freetown to Makeni.
Freetown-based humanitarian agencies with operations in Makeni have had difficulty establishing radio contact with their staff since Friday, raising concerns for their safety.
In the absence of concrete information, there was much speculation on Tuesday about events in Makeni, humanitarian sources in Freetown told IRIN.
LIBERIA: UNOL's mandate extended
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to extend the mandate of the UN Peace-Building Support Office in Liberia (UNOL)until December 2000.
The decision came after the Liberian government said UNOL was making "catalytic contributions" to the country's post-conflict peace-building efforts.
Annan noted that much had been achieved since Liberia's civil war ended in 1997 but that there was more to do, particularly on national reconciliation, democratization, reintegration of former combatants, good governance and promotion of the rule of law.
UNOL, set up in 1997, has been supporting the government's efforts to consolidate peace, promote national reconciliation and strengthen democratic institutions, Annan said.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Elections on track, diplomats say
There is no reason to delay Guinea-Bissau's elections, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Nana Sinkam, told journalists in Bissau on Tuesday.
"To postpone them would be to prolong the suffering of the people of Guinea-Bissau," he said at a news conference held jointly with representatives of the European Union (EU) and Sweden. "The conditions for organising the elections have already been met and the resources are already available."
A humanitarian source in Bissau told IRIN that Tuesday's news conference was held against the background of rumours that some members of the Military Junta that overthrew then president Joao Bernardo Vieira in May were against the holding of the polls.
Nana-Sinkam dispelled the rumours. "I have met the top army officers and they confirmed that the army would remain keep out of the polls and go back to the barracks," he said.
EU Delegate Miguel Amado said the EU had already made the sum of US $5.5 million available for the first and second rounds of the election. The Netherlands has pledged US $500,000 and, according to news organisations, Japan has promised to provide US $5 million.
Twelve candidates, including one woman and three independents are running for president, while 13 parties are vying for the 120 seats in the National Assembly.
According to the Comissao Nacional de Eleicoes (National Election Commission) 499,152 persons - 90.6 percent of the estimated electorate - had registered by 28 September, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Action (OCHA) reported.
Some 53.1 percent of the registered voters are women, including 150,459 who reported that they did not know how to write, OCHA said in its humanitarian situation report for 1-15 October.
According to the UN Peace-Building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS), which Nana Sinkam heads, some 100 international observers will monitor the elections. The observers will spend two weeks in the country.
Meanwhile, there was still some uncertainty about a proposed constitutional amendment requiring candidates for the presidency and other top state posts to have had parents born in Guinea-Bissau, OCHA reported.
A media report that the National Assembly had cancelled the amendment was denied earlier this month by assembly member Mumine Embalo and former parliamentarian Salvador Tchongo, OCHA said.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Prisoners of war still await release
Guinea-Bissau's 385 prisoners of war were still in jail on Tuesday, just under two weeks after Attorney General Amine Saad announced that at least 70 percent of them would be released conditionally, according to humanitarian sources in Bissau.
"We are awaiting the return of the Attorney General (who is currently out of the country) to know exactly how many will be freed," one source told IRIN.
The detainees are mainly people loyal to ex-president Joao Bernardo Vieira who had fought against the Military Junta that deposed Vieira in May after launching a rebellion against him in June 1998.
GUINEA-BISSAU: World Bank support for education
The World Bank is providing US $15 million for a primary education programme in Guinea-Bissau, OCHA reported.
The programme will focus on three areas, including improving access to education by building and repairing schools and upgrading the quality of education by producing schoolbooks, training teachers and supporting innovative teaching methods.
It will also seek to improve management by producing a database and raising teacher salaries, OCHA said.
NIGERIA: Ogoni refugees not inclined to return home
Despite Nigeria's return to civilian rule, Ogoni refugees who fled the southeast of the country have opted not to return home, the UNHCR said in its mid-term report for 1999.
In fact, UNHCR said it had received at least 270 new asylum requests from Ogonis and that 300 of about 860 Ogoni refugees had been accepted for resettlement in third countries.
"The overwhelming majority wanted to go to the US, Canada or South Africa," a UNHCR official told IRIN on Tuesday.
The Ogonis fled what they considered was the repressive rule of military ruler General Sani Abacha.
UNHCR also reported that during the period under review, another 60 asylum seekers arrived in Benin from the Great Lakes region, bringing to at least 800 the number already in the West African country. Some have since been successfully resettled in Burkina Faso.
CHAD: Repatriation of refugees to begin soon, UNHCR says
The repatriation of some 25,000 Chadian refugees from Cameroon, Central African Republic and Sudan is set to resume by the end of October after experiencing delays, UNHCR reported in its mid-term report for 1999.
The returnees will be able to join some 10,000 other former refugees in cooperatives set up to ease their reintegration into society, according to UNHCR, which said it would open two new offices and send more staff to Chad to support the process.
The report also said an influx of Sudanese refugees into Chad in January following ethnic clashes in the Southern Darfur Province had brought to 28,000 the number being helped by UNHCR.
WEST AFRICA: Albright winds up West African tour
Sierra Leone can expect a US $55-million windfall in US aid if former foes in the West African country implement a peace pact that ended some eight years of war, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Monday.
"We and the international community will be watching to see that the rebels make good on their promises to end the fighting and disarm," she said in Freetown.
The money would help to resettle displaced persons and reintegrate former fighters into society. Albright told reporters, after a meeting with Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and former junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma, that the US would forgive another $65 million in debt once Sierra Leone reached agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the US Information Agency reported on Monday.
Albright said more money was envisaged for the proposed UN peacekeeping mission that would field some 6,000 troops in Sierra Leone. The West African Peace Monitoring Group, ECOMOG, will get an additional US $11 million in US aid on top of the US $15 million already received, she said.
"We will continue to be the largest provider of humanitarian assistance," she said.
Albright began her a week-long six-nation tour of Africa with a visit to Guinea on Monday. Other stopovers include Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania, where she was scheduled to attend the funeral of late president Julius Nyerere.
In Mali, Albright reviewed on Tuesday Malian peacekeeping troops trained under President Bill Clinton's Africa Crisis Response Initiative of 1996. Some of them have served in Sierra Leone and will return there, Reuters reported, to help supervise the peace agreement signed by the government and the rebels in July.
Albright announced a US $2-million grant for teacher training and scholarships for Malian women and girls. The United States has allocated $38 million in aid to Mali this year and Albright said she expected to maintain that level in the next financial year, Reuters reported.
Abidjan, 19 October 1999; 18:55 GMT
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-1808
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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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