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IRIN-WA Update 92-97 of Events in West Africa, (Thursday) 27 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.]
SIERRA LEONE: AFRC talks open in Freetown
United Nations (UN) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) officials opened talks with Sierra Leone's ruling Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) on Thursday. According to AFP, the talks took place at Grafton, 20 km east of the capital Freetown. In his first visit to Sierra Leone as UN Special Envoy, Francis Okello stressed all sides to the conflict in Sierra Leone must adhere to the peace plan. Accords signed in Conakry in October provide for the restoration of ousted president Alhaji Tejan Kabbah on 11 April. "Implementing the plan requires frankness, mutual trust and confidence," Okello said. The UN envoy also called for a "visible commitment" by the AFRC to the peace process. Relations between the mainly Nigerian peacekeeping force ECOMOG and the AFRC have been strained by mutual accusations of troop reinforcements around the capital this week, according to media sources.
AFRC Secretary-General Colonel Abdul Sesay told reporters that the AFRC fully supported the peace plan. "We want happiness for the people," Sesay said. According to AFP, the international delegation will negotiate conditions for re-opening the Nigerian-controlled international airport at Lungi as well as assessing the political situation. The delegation was expected to leave Freetown later on Thursday.
NIGER: President appoints new government
Niger president General Ibrahim Bare Mainassara appointed a former foreign minister to head his new government, state radio in Niamey said on Thursday. Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki was the former ruling party campaign chief in the 1996 presidential election. After a period in opposition following Mainassara's 1996 military coup, Mayaki then teamed up with the general.Mainassara dismissed the former government on Monday accusing it of incompetence in handling Niger's economic, social and ethnic tensions. Some 17,000 secondary school teachers added to Niger's problems by starting a new 72-hour strike on Thursday. Teachers are claiming pay arrears for September and August, according to Radio France Internationale.
MAURITANIA: Presidential election campaign starts
Mauritania's presidential campaign started officially on Wednesday. Five candidates are standing in elections scheduled for 12 December. According to AFP, the process is already in crisis because of a boycott by opposition parties. Party leaders claim a transparent vote is impossible while there is no "viable" civil state capable of preventing vote rigging and other fraud. Outgoing president Maaouyia Ould Taya is considered favourite to stay in power. Other candidates are Mohamed Mahmoud ould Mah, an unsuccessful challenger in 1992 elections, and three less well-known politicians including the first ever black presidential candidate, Kane Mamadou Moctar. Ould Taya is basing his campaign around a new political programme promising "a Mauritania anchored in its ancestral values and open to the realities of the third millennium." Other candidates have not announced their campaigns, but are likely to criticise the outgoing president's record on poverty and economic restructuring, according to AFP.
CAMEROON: Police arrest three Chad rebels
Police put on display three Chad rebels from the Forces Armees Pour la Republique Federale (FARF) on Wednesday, according to the Yaounde 'Generation'. Michel Nguinamba Yebarde, younger brother of FARF leader Laokein Barde is reportedly among those detained. State controlled media made no mention of any arrests. In early November, 42 people were killed in fighting between FARF and Chad government soldiers at Moundou close to the Cameroon border. According to AFP, FARF is protesting conditions set out for its reintegration into the official Chad army as stipulated by peace accords signed with the Chad government in April.
WEST AFRICA: Sub-Saharan Africa may account for half of all world HIV cases
Sub-Saharan Africa may account for half of the world's HIV infected cases. According to a UN AIDS Programme (UNAIDS) and WHO report released in Paris on Wednesday, an alarming 7.4 percent of all 15 to 49-year-olds in the region are now thought to be infected with AIDS. Southern Africa is the worst affected. UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot claimed, according to PANA, that HIV transmission rates in sub-Saharan Africa have been "grossly underestimated." A major report finding was that nine out of ten people who are HIV positive do not know they are infected because of inadequate voluntary testing and counselling facilities. According to the BBC on Thursday, ignorance, lack of contraceptives, and sexual abuse have also hit Africa particularly hard. Mali is typical of countries struggling to cope with the disease. The BBC said poverty has driven thousands of girls as young as eight to leave their villages and work as live-in domestic helpers in towns. Here they contract HIV because they are obliged to have unprotected sex with their employers. The theme of Monday's 1997 World AIDS Day is children living in a world with AIDS.
Abidjan, 27 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: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 18:52:12 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-WA Update 92-97 of Events in West Africa, (Thursday) 27Nov , 1997 97.11.27 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.971127184945.15203A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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