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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 577 for West Africa (Thursday 21 October 1999)
CONTENTS:
SIERRA LEONE: Ex-rebels get ministerial posts in unity government SIERRA LEONE: Hundreds of former combatants hand in their weapons GUINEA-BISSAU: Supreme Court approves presidential candidates CAMEROON: Floods along the River Benue NIGERIA: Floods swamp communities in the Delta WEST AFRICA: EU aid for Mauritanian, Senegalese flood victims
SIERRA LEONE: Ex-rebels get ministerial posts in unity government
Former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and their Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) allies have been given four ministerial posts in a unity government designed to consolidate peace in Sierra Leone.
Presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN on Thursday the new ministers were Mike Lamine (Trade and Industry), Alimamy Paulo Bangura, (Energy and Power), Peter Bandy (Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment) and A.B.S. Jomo-Jalloh (Tourism and Culture).
Deputy ministerial positions went to Emmanuel Sabai (Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government), Susan Lahai (Ministry of Transport and Communications), Idrissa Kamara (Ministry of Labour and Industrial Relations) and Francis Musa (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Marine Resources.
The appointments, which were announced on radio on Wednesday, bring the number of cabinet members to 18. A peace deal signed in July in Lome stipulates that the rebels would be offered one senior cabinet position such as finance, foreign affairs or justice. However, it left the decision as to what constitutes a senior ministry to President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
"It has been determined that the Ministry of Trade and Industry is a senior ministry," Kaikai said.
SIERRA LEONE: Hundreds of former combattants hand in their weapons
Hundreds of former pro- and anti-government fighters began handing in their weapons on Wednesday in a symbolic ceremony marking the launch of a programme to disarm some 45,000 ex-combatants.
The UN observer mission in Sierra Leone, UNOMSIL, told IRIN on Thursday that all groups were represented in Wednesday's ceremony: the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and ex-Sierra Leone Army, as well as the pro-government Civil Defence Force (CDF).
Officials of the Sierra Leone government, the United Nations, the West African peace force, ECOMOG, and the public were also present in Wilberforce Barracks, where the launch was held.
"We were pleasantly surprised at the turnout of the citizens," Presidential Spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN.
The former fighters are now to be taken to the Lungi demobilisation centre for up to 90 days and processed by ECOMOG and UNOMSIL, after which the government will take over. They will receive food, civilian clothing, counseling and medical care. They will also be interviewed on their occupational choices and where they wish to live, UNOMSIL said.
At the end of their stay at the centre, the fighters
will each be given an allowance of US $300 in two equal
tranches, after which they will be expected to fend
for themselves, according to UNOMSIL.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Supreme Court approves presidential candidates
Guinea-Bissau's Supreme Court on Wednesday approved the applications of the 12 candidates to run for president in elections to be held on 28 November, a humanitarian source told IRIN on Thursday.
The list of candidates is expected to be officially proclaimed within the next few days, according to the source, who also said the Court began examining the applications of some 2,600 candidates for seats in parliament on Wednesday.
A delegation from the Comunidad de Paises de Lingua Portuguesa (CPLP), which groups Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome/Principe in addition to Guinea-Bissau, arrived in the country on Wednesday to evaluate preparations for the elections. Following the visit, the CPLP will decide how many observers it will send to monitor the polls, the humanitarian source said.
Also in Bissau since Wednesday is a delegation from the International Federation of Human Rights. The team will spend one week assessing the human rights situation in the West African nation, whose elected president, Joao Bernardo Vieira, was overthrown in May by a section of the military.
CAMEROON: Floods along the River Benue
Floods along the River Benue in northern Cameroon have rendered many people homeless and destroyed farmland, according to humanitarian and media sources in Yaounde.
The floods have been caused by heavy rains and the spilling of water from the Lagdo hydroelectric dam, William Eteki Mboumoua, head of the Cameroonian Red Cross, told IRIN on Thursday. He said many villages had been flooded and many homes destroyed. The Red Cross, he said, has sent medicines, food, blankets and mosquito nets to the area.
AFP reported that about 1,000 persons living along the dam, which is about 50 km south of Garoua, administrative capital of the Northern Province, had been displaced.
Mboumoua said he was unable to give an idea of the number of people affected but that from all indications, it was high. "Some have left their villages and are living in precarious conditions," he said.
According to Mboumoua, many bridges had collapsed in the area. "We fear that, if this situation continues, the flood waters could reach as far as Nigeria," through which the Benue also runs, he said.
This year, neighbouring Nigeria and Chad have also been affected by floods, as have Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Mauritania.
NIGERIA: Floods swamp communities in the Delta
Municipal leaders in five districts in the Niger Delta where floods have forced people from the homes and destroyed farmland have sent a distress call to the federal government, `The Guardian' newspaper in Lagos reported on Thursday.
The affected municipalities are Patani, Oshimili South, Ndokwa East, Burutu and Bomadi, which have had higher-than-average rains in recent weeks.
A community leader, Raymos Guanah, told `The Guardian': "There is imminent threat of famine and starvation because crops and farmlands covering hundreds of hectares of land have been submerged by the River Niger."
Earlier this month, heavy rains and the spillage of water from hydroelectric dams in the northwest caused floods in Niger State and neighbouring states.
WEST AFRICA: EU aid for Mauritanian, Senegalese flood victims
At least 35,000 flood victims in Mauritania and Senegal will receive aid to the sum of 650,000 euro (about US $700,000) from the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), ECHO reported this week.
Flooding in the south Mauritanian region of Rosso and across the border in the department of Podor in northern Senegal has seriously disrupted agriculture, leaving 30,000 Mauritanians and 5,000 Senegalese homeless. They need shelter and sanitary conditions in reception centres for the displaced so as to prevent epidemics, ECHO said.
The aid will be managed by ECHO and distributed by the Italian and Spanish Red Cross societies.
The Spanish and Senegalese Red Cross societies are already undertaking ECHO-financed aid projects in Podor. On Monday, they started distributing 5,000 blankets, 2,500 mats, 500 cooking utensils and 100 tents. They have also provided three large shelters that serve as classrooms and dispensaries. Other aid includes 300 mt of cereals, agricultural tools, seeds, disinfectant and soap, ECHO reported.
Similarly, victims in Mauritania started receiving 15,000 blankets, 5,000 tents, 7,000 mats, 15,000 cooking utensils and 1,500 buckets. They will also be supplied with disinfectant, soap, cereal, and agricultural tools.
Abidjan, 21 October 1999; 17:19 GMT
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-1825
[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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