IRIN-WA Update 90-97 of Events in West Africa, 11/25/97

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER

U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Department of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated
Regional Information Network for West Africa

Tel: +225 21-63-35
Fax: +225 21-63-35
e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Update 90-97 of Events in West Africa, (Tuesday) 25 November 1997

[As a supplement to its weekly round-ups of main events in West Africa, IRIN-WA will produce a daily synopsis of reports on the region. IRIN issues these reports for the benefit of the humanitarian community but accepts no responsibility as to the accuracy of the original source.]

LIBERIA: More refugees return home

Some 9,000 refugees have voluntarily repatriated to Liberia from Guinea since July while another 28,000 Liberians in Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana have registered to return. According to a UNHCR statement on Monday, the process of repatriation accelerated after successful July elections in Liberia and the end of the rainy season. An improvement in security and "positive steps" by government and the international community to assist return also helped. UNHCR believes many more refugees may have gone home spontaneously. Eighteen international non-governmental organisations (NGOs)recently signed a policy paper criticising repatriation plans in Liberia.Communities should be targeted for aid based on vulnerability "regardless of groups such as refugee", the paper said. "Basic community services for everyone are just not enough for people to be able come back," a humanitarian source in Monrovia told IRIN on Tuesday. The US$ 54 million repatriation programme will run to December 1998. According to UNHCR, 480,000 refugees fled Liberia during the seven-year civil war.

ECOWAS delegation fails to appear in Monrovia

An Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) delegation expected in Liberia over the weekend failed to appear as expected. According to Independent Star Radio, the delegation announced by President Charles Taylor was to discuss a stabilisation force to replace ECOMOG, the current regional peacekeeper, at the end of its mandate in February 1998. Foreign ministry officials gave no reason for the change of plan, but said the team was expected some time this week. The Nigerian Embassy in Monrovia confirmed to Star Radio that the Nigerian government has received a Liberian government request for troops under a bilateral agreement, but no official Nigerian response had been given. Defence minister Daniel Chea told local media on Saturday that Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, and Burkina Faso had agreed to position troops in Liberia under the command of the Liberian government. 200 Nigerian troops who boarded two ships for home on Tuesday may signal a gradual ECOMOG pullout from Liberia, according to PANA. "Any soldier saying goodbye is leaving," an ECOMOG officer in Monrovia said.

SIERRA LEONE: Newspaper editors interrogated

Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) authorities interrogated three newspaper editors on Monday. According to AFP, the editors from the 'Concord Times', the 'Democrat' and the 'Standard Times' were summoned to account for articles the AFRC claimed put "state security in danger." AFRC secretary-general Colonel Abdul Sesay told a press conference "press freedom stops where state security begins." Sesay criticised certain journalists for trying to deliberately undermine and destabilise the AFRC. The International Press Institute in Vienna condemned on Tuesday arrests of journalists in Sierra Leone in an open letter to AFRC Chairman Major Johnny Paul Koroma.

SENEGAL: Clash kills twenty-eight in Casamance

Twenty-seven rebels and one soldier were killed in dawn clashes between Casamance separatists and the army on Tuesday. According to Dakar officials, fighting between Senegalese troops and the Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de la Casamance (MFDC) broke out when separatists tried to recapture an area 15km south-east from the regional capital Ziguinchor considered strategically vital by the separatists. Eighteen soldiers and 80 rebels were killed in the same area at the end of October, according to AFP. There has been a significant resurgence in violence in the troubled southern province of Senegal since August when the Senegalese army launched a massive offensive against rebel bases after 25 Senegalese troops were killed in an ambush south of Ziguinchor. The MFDC claims the central Dakar government neglects Casamance, which is cut off from the rest of Senegal by The Gambia.

Human Rights group calls for inquiry into summary executions

The President of the International Federation of Human Rights, Patrick Baudouin, called for an international commission of inquiry into alleged summary executions in Casamance. Speaking on Monday to a two-day congress of the group in Dakar, Baudouin did not say who were the targets for the squads, but claimed soldiers and paramilitary gendarmes were allegedly involved in extra-judicial killings. NIGER: President sacks government

Niger's president sacked the year-old government of Prime Minister Cisse Amadou on Monday. According to President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, the government was not able to deal with threats of famine, security problems, classroom unrest, civil servants' pay and the actions of opposition parties. Laying the blame at the door of the government, the president told radio listeners "the government itself confuses many people, with its wait-and-see attitudes." Niger has been troubled by strikes by state workers, government claims of cereal shortages, and renewed clashes with Tuareg and Toubou rebels following the breakdown of a 1995 ceasefire in September. Niger plans to outline its problems to donors in a meeting in Geneva 22-23 January. Relations with the United States have been strained since Mainassara scrapped a national elections commission during the July 1996 presidential race. Mainassara was declared president by a rival commission.

BENIN: Public sector unions call strike

Two main public sector unions called a 48-hour strike to protest Benin's 1998 budget on Tuesday. The unions say the proposed budget now being read in parliament, fails to take into account union members' claims for salary arrears. Strikers have also demanded a merit-based promotion scheme removed from government proposals. The strike will effect national radio and television, schools, tax offices and some post offices, according to AFP.

Abidjan, 25 November 1997, 18.30GMT

[ends]

[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:01:42 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-WA Update 90-97 of Events in West Africa, (Tuesday) 25Nov , 1997 97.11.25 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.971125185640.2164A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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