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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 588 (Friday 5 November 1999)
CONTENTS:
SIERRA LEONE: UN agencies looking for US$70.9 million SIERRA LEONE: Ex-junta accuses RUF of kidnapping SIERRA LEONE: Obasanjo in Freetown WEST AFRICA: Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees ends tour GABON: France sends help for Congolese refugees GUINEA-BISSAU: First step of demobilisation programme underway GUINEA-BISSAU: First round of polio vaccination campaign NIGERIA: Opuama Youths release four of six Shell hostages
SIERRA LEONE: UN agencies looking for US$70.9 million
UN agencies are appealing to the international community for just under US$71 million to implement 34 projects in Sierra Leone next year, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Thursday.
Sectors covered by the projects include: agriculture/food security, child protection, coordination, education, food aid, health and nutrition, human rights, logistics and emergency support, reintegration of refugees/returnees and water and sanitation.
"The scenarios and strategies outlined in the Appeal are based on a realistic assessment of the situation at hand. In addition to supporting hundreds of thousands of people it will provide an enabling and constructive environment for all efforts aimed at bringing peace to Sierra Leone," the UN said.
UN bodies participating in the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Sierra Leone include FAO, OCHA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, UNFPA, the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone, WFP and WHO.
[The appeal can be viewed at <http://www.reliefweb.int>]
SIERRA LEONE: Ex-junta accuses RUF of kidnapping
A spokesman for the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC - former military junta) has accused the Revolutionary United Front of kidnapping some 500 of its soldiers in the east of Sierra Leone, AFP reported on Thursday.
The AFRC's Edward Nicol told AFP that the kidnappings took place on Wednesday night and Thursday morning at Pendembu, some 300 km east of Freetown. He described it as "regrettable" that the AFRC had violated the ceasefire in this way.
There has been no independent confirmation of the allegation.
SIERRA LEONE: Obasanjo in Freetown
President Olusegun Obasanjo arrived in Freetown on Friday for a one-day official visit and immediately went into a meeting with his counterpart, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, AFP reported national radio as saying on Friday.
Discussions were expected to centre around the withdrawal of the Nigerian-led ECOMOG force, AFP reported.
WEST AFRICA: Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees ends tour
More needs to be done to enable refugees to make informed choices on whether they wish to stay in countries of asylum, return home or resettle in third countries, Deputy UN High Commissioner for Refugees Frederick Barton told IRIN.
Barton was speaking at the end of a 10-day mission to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire, his first since taking up his post at the end of August.
Places he visited included Zwedru in Grand Gedeh County in eastern Liberia, some 25 km from the Ivoirian border, and Nicla in Guiglo prefecture, western Cote d'Ivoire. Nicla, which is some 30 km from the border, hosts just over 10,000 Liberian refugees, many of whom come from Grand Gedeh.
"We need to encourage people to move back and forth across the border so that they can make their own decisions," Barton told IRIN. "There currently seems to be a disconnect between Zwedru and Guiglo."
He said he was encouraged by activities in Zwedru such as school rehabilitation, vocational programmes and microcredit schemes and that Zwedru was a model for other areas for refugee return.
Some 336,000 Liberians refugees have been repatriated since May 1997, 121,000 with help from UNHCR. This leaves some 144,000 still in the region, mainly in Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea.
UNHCR's "organised mass repatriation programme" for Liberians is scheduled to end in December.
GABON: France sends help for Congolese refugees
The French Red Cross is due to relay over 80 mt of food, medicines and hygiene products provided by France to tens of thousands of Congolese refugees in southeast Gabon, AFP reported.
The supplies were scheduled to be trucked on Friday from the Gabonese capital, Libreville, to the provinces of Haut Ogooue and Nyanga. Once there, the items will be distributed by the Gabonese Red Cross.
AFP said the aid, worth one million French francs (US $159,873 ) was paid for and shipped by France from the port of Le Havre. In August, France provided another 20 mt of humanitarian aid for refugees in Nyanga.
Belgium, China, Japan and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) have also given aid to between 20,000 and 30,000 refugees who have fled fighting in the Republic of Congo.
GUINEA-BISSAU: First step of demobilisation programme underway
A supervisory working group on policy and planning issues and a technical unit for the management of the demobilisation, reintegration and reinsertion programme have been set up in Guinea-Bissau.
They have been tasked with establishing vulnerability criteria for the demobilisation of former combatants and overseeing the census of armed forces, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its situation report for 16 to 31 October.
The two bodies were established by Prime Minister Francisco Fadul on 12 October. Their creation represents the first step in a demobilisation programme designed with the World Bank's support.
Guinea-Bissau has an estimated 23,000 troops, including members of the army, border patrol and police, according to OCHA. After demobilisation their number should decrease to 11,000, OCHA said.
GUINEA-BISSAU: First round of polio vaccination campaign
Polio vaccination days were held in all regions of Guinea-Bissau on 30 and 31 October by the Health Ministry with support from WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International and the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, OCHA reported.
A second round of polio immunisation, in conjunction with measles vaccinations, is scheduled for December. An estimated 205,000 children under the age of four years are to be vaccinated nationwide.
NIGERIA: Opuama youths release four of six Shell hostages
Youths from the Opuama community near the Niger Delta town of Warri released on Thursday four of six employees of Royal Dutch/Shell they kidnapped last week, a spokesman for the multinational told IRIN.
The official, Bisi Ojediran, said on Friday that the kidnappers made no monetary demands for the hostages' freedom. Their release was as a result of negotiations with Opuama community leaders, Ojediran said. The remaining hostages are being held in an undisclosed area near Warri.
The six hostages were taken along with their helicopter in a renewed upsurge of violence in the troubled Delta.
Ojediran said this was the first time the Opuama had seized Shell employees. Shell has reached "peace" agreements with some communities in the Delta that have been taking hostages and snatching the firm's oil flow stations, locking in tens of thousands of barrels of oil per day of production.
"Sometimes they want attention," he said.
Abidjan, 5 November 1999; 18:15 GMT
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-1925
[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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