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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 41 covering the period 9-15 October 1999
CONTENTS:
SIERRA LEONE: Sankoh, Koroma brief their followers on DDR SIERRA LEONE: Security problems in north hinder aid effort SIERRA LEONE: Port Loko demobilisation centre ready to open SIERRA LEONE: Food - Shortages in north SIERRA LEONE: WFP helicopter to run until February 2000 SIERRA LEONE: Forty cholera-related deaths in Port Loko SIERRA LEONE: Bloody diarrhoea increasing SIERRA LEONE: US gives $34.2 million in aid in 1999 SIERRA LEONE: World's worst maternal mortality rate SIERRA LEONE: Over 3,000 refugees return to Kailahun SIERRA LEONE: Agricultural newsletter started SIERRA LEONE: Ex-rebels detain polio vaccinators LIBERIA: Border with Sierra Leone reopened LIBERIA: Refugee relocation from Lofa continues LIBERIA: Commission to reintegrate ex-fighters into society LIBERIA: Suspected dissidents say they were tortured LIBERIA: Telefood campaign launched LIBERIA: Monrovia plans to improve water LIBERIA: Government to review forestry regulations LIBERIA: Government collects elusive tax dollars GUINEA-BISSAU: Government asks Portugal to extradite Vieira GUINEA-BISSAU: Mass Grave GUINEA-BISSAU: Refugees ready to return home from Guinea GUINEA-BISSAU: EU grants US $5 million NIGERIA: Abacha's son, three others arraigned NIGERIA: State government seeks help to resettle flood victims GHANA: Public food sales banned as cholera strikes Kumasi WEST AFRICA: US urged to back justice in Sierra Leone, Nigeria WEST AFRICA: Even rainfall reported in the Sahel
SIERRA LEONE: Sankoh, Koroma brief their followers on DDR
Former rebel leaders travelled on Wednesday to the northern town of Port Loko to brief their followers on Sierra Leone's disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme, Presidential Adviser Septimus Kaikai told IRIN on Thursday.
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh and Johnny Paul Koroma, head of the former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) were accompanied by staff of the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone and troops from ECOMOG, the West African peacekeeping force that fought the RUF/AFRC during the rebel war.
SIERRA LEONE: Security problems in north hinder aid effort
The fragile security situation in parts of Northern Province has hampered the implementation of humanitarian programmes, the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) reported in its weekly update for 3-9 October.
In the area between Magburaka and Matatoka, villagers are forced to give food to the paramount chief who then passes it on to the ex-rebels, the report said.
In Kambia District, near the border with Guinea, HACU received persistent reports of armed groups seizing property, demanding money and beating civilians.
In Port Loko District, HACU cites an aid agency as saying that groups of the AFRC were harassing civilians.
SIERRA LEONE: Port Loko demobilisation centre ready to open
One of two demobilisation centres in the northern town of Port Loko is now "ready and due to open imminently", a UNOMSIL official in Freetown told IRIN.
As at 24 September, there were 869 ex-combatants at the only fully operational demobilisation centre, located in Lungi, near the international airport.
Centres in Kenema and Daru in the east are scheduled to open in mid-October, according to the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU).
SIERRA LEONE: Food shortages in north
Food shortages continue to be reported in many areas of the north, such as Fadugu and Kabala, 70 and 100 km north of Makeni, HACU said.
In Makeni town the food situation is reportedly deteriorating even though food was recently distributed there, and some agencies are recommending a second distribution, HACU reported.
CARE, WFP and CRS provided 3,946 mt of food aid to 276,190 displaced and war-affected people in September, according to HACU. Distribution figures of the other main food supply agency, World Vision, were not available at the time of the HACU report.
SIERRA LEONE: WFP helicopter to run until February 2000
The World Food Programme (WFP) has received new funding to operate its emergency humanitarian aid helicopter until the end of February 2000.
"We have received US $702,000 from the United States and US $250,000 from the Netherlands," Wagdi Othman, regional information officer for WFP in Abidjan, told IRIN.
WFP leased the MIL-M18 helicopter at the end of February to airlift humanitarian personnel and emergency food and medical supplies to vulnerable populations in parts of Sierra Leone which were then inaccessible to aid agencies.
SIERRA LEONE: Forty cholera-related deaths in Port Loko
Forty cholera-related deaths occurred in Port Loko District in September,the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) quotes the district medical officer as saying. An additional 400 cases are currently being treated. In the Freetown area, reported cholera cases amounted to 927, with nine deaths as at 9 October, HACU said.
SIERRA LEONE: Bloody diarrhoea increasing
Bloody diarrhoea (dysentery) is increasing in many areas of Sierra Leone, WHO in Freetown reports. Bacteriological studies are currently underway to identify the causative agent, presumed by WHO to be shigella dysenteriae Type I, and the antibiotic sensitivity pattern.
SIERRA LEONE: US gives $34.2 million in aid in 1999
The United States earmarked US $34.2 million in humanitarian assistance for Sierra Leone in fiscal 1999, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said in its most recent fact sheet.
SIERRA LEONE: World's worst maternal mortality rate
Sierra Leone has the world's highest maternal mortality rate - 1,800 per 100,000 live births -, UNFPA reports in its State of the World Population 1999 report, released on Tuesday.
The rates for other West African nations are: Nigeria (1,000); Burkina Faso (930); Guinea-Bissau (910); Chad (900); Guinea (880); Mauritania (800); Ghana (740); Togo (640); Cote d'Ivoire(600); Niger (593); Mali (580); Senegal (510) and Benin (500). Cameroon's rate is 550 per 100,000 live births and Gabon's 500.
SIERRA LEONE: Over 3,000 refugees return to Kailahun
Over 3,000 refugees have returned from Liberia to Kailahun district in eastern Sierra Leone, the UNHCR representative in Freetown, Kingsley Amaning, told IRIN on Friday.
"UNHCR is currently making further investigations to clarify the extent of return," Amaning said.
He added that most of the returnees were in "relatively good condition" because they had been able to cultivate land near the refugee camps in Vahun from where they had come. However, most had not returned to their original villages in Kailahun.
SIERRA LEONE: Agricultural newsletter started
The first edition of a monthly newsletter to highlight agricultural relief and rehabilitation activities in Sierra Leone by the government, UN agencies, international organisations and NGOs has been distributed.
"This newsletter is expected to serve as a medium of information exchange for agricultural agencies and to improve coordination in this sector," Zein Muzamil, FAO Emergency Coordinator in Freetown told IRIN.
He said the report was produced jointly by the FAO and the ministries of agriculture, forestry and environment, and fisheries and marine resources.
SIERRA LEONE: Ex-rebels detain polio vaccinators
Three polio vaccinators have been detained by former rebels in Segebwema, eastern Sierra Leone, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official in Freetown told IRIN on Thursday.
They had gone to Segebwema, located in Kailahun district, to implement a five-day polio vaccination campaign launched on Saturday by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and aimed at vaccinating 800,000 children under five years throughout the country.
LIBERIA: Border with Sierra Leone reopened
Liberia's main border with Sierra Leone was officially reopened this week -after a nine-month closure- at a ceremony held on Monday at Bo Waterside, some 100 km northwest of Monrovia, news organisations reported.
LIBERIA: Refugee relocation from Lofa continues
The transfer of Sierra Leonean refugees driven out of camps in northern Liberia by insecurity, continued on Monday with another 552 people relocated from the village of Tarvey (in lower Lofa county) to Sinje camp in neighbouring Grand Cape Mount county.
"In the past three weeks, UNHCR has moved more than three thousand Sierra Leoneans to Sinje," Kris Janowski, UNHCR's spokesman in Geneva, said on Tuesday. The relocation had been suspended on 5 October due to difficult road conditions and dangerous bridges, UNHCR said.
LIBERIA: Commission to reintegrate ex-fighters into society
President Charles Taylor has appointed a special 13-member commission to design and implement programmes to reintegrate thousands of ex-combatants into productive community life, independent Star radio reported on Wednesday. The commission is headed by first lady Jewel Taylor and former interim president Amos Sawyer. Some 20,000 former fighters are still to be returned to normal civilian life.
LIBERIA: Suspected dissidents say they were tortured
Nine suspected dissidents recently released by the security authorities in Bong County, north-central Liberia, have complained that they were tortured, according to Star radio. The men had been detained at the training base of the Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) in Bong, which is just southeast of Lofa County, the scene of fighting in August and September between the security forces and armed dissidents.
LIBERIA: Telefood campaign launched
A Telefood campaign launched on Saturday in Liberia by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Star radio has received contributions of about 12,000 to 15,000 Liberian dollars a day, FAO's country representative in Liberia, Kasa Kimoto, told IRIN on Tuesday.
(One US dollar is equivalent to 43 Liberian dollars).
Telefood programmes use television - and in Liberia's case, radio - to increase public awareness and raise funds in the fight against global hunger. The present campaign ends on 16 October.
LIBERIA: Monrovia plans to improve water
The Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) is working with a presidential task force to repair the Monrovia water supply system, Star radio reported.
Most residents of the Liberian capital do not receive piped water but have to buy it from reservoirs filled by trucks or pump it by hand from poorly-treated wells.
LWSC said on Sunday that it had awarded contracts to local companies to implement the rehabilitation programme, which currently focuses on the repair of a treatment plant and a pipeline.
LIBERIA: Government to review forestry regulations
President Charles Taylor said on Sunday that his government would review all of Liberia's forestry regulations to ensure that they conform with international legislation on forests, Star Radio reported on Monday. Taylor said Liberian forests were being destroyed under the present regulations and that no new forestry agreements would be allowed until the new regulations were enacted.
LIBERIA: Government collects elusive tax dollars
Liberia's Finance Ministry has collected more than US$600,000 in tax arrears in four days from 132 businesses, bringing the total amount obtained this year to nearly US $48 million, Star Radio reports Deputy Minister Juanita Neal as saying. Neal said the tax collection drive would continue until the equivalent of this year's budget of US $64 million is collected.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Government asks Portugal to extradite Vieira
Guinea-Bissau has asked Portugal to consider its request for the extradition of ousted president Joao Nino Vieira, Portuguese Renascenca radio reported on Wednesday. Guinea-Bissau Attorney General Amine Saad, who arrived in Lisbon on Tuesday, handed documents to his Portuguese counterpart, Cunha Rodrigues, concerning a court case against Vieira in Bissau.
Vieira, who was allowed out of the country to seek medical treatment in France, is accused of torturing and executing opposition members following an alleged coup attempt in 1985, and of treason relating to the military uprising in 1998.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Mass Grave
At least 22 bodies, said to be those of people killed following an aborted coup in 1985, have been found in a mass grave in Mansoa, 65 km northeast of the capital, after a search ordered by Attorney General Amine Saad, various sources reported.
According to Lusa, two of the bodies were those of former Justice Minister and Vice President Paulo Correia, and Viriato Pam, a former attorney general, both of whom disappeared after being sentenced to death by a military tribunal in 1986.
In September, another mass grave containing 14 bodies was found in Bissau. Police said the victims, whose bodies had been tied up, may have been political prisoners executed before Vieira's overthrow.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Refugees ready to return home from Guinea
For the first time since they fled their country in 1998, Guinea-Bissau refugees in neighbouring Guinea (Conakry) have told the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that they want to go home, UNHCR reported on 8 October.
UNHCR staff who surveyed the group of 1,800 refugees during a mission to the border town of Boke, 200 km north of Conakry, registered 600 volunteers for repatriation, UNHCR said. The first repatriations from Boke are expected to take place later this month.
GUINEA-BISSAU: EU grants US $5 million
The European Union (EU) has provided Guinea-Bissau with US $5 million for its national reconstruction programme, a humanitarian source told IRIN. The aid is the first tranche of a package totalling US $11 million which the EU has decided to grant the country, according to AFP.
NIGERIA: Abacha's son, three others arraigned
The eldest surviving son of the late Nigerian military ruler, Sani Abacha, and three of Abacha's former aides, were arraigned before a Lagos court on Thursday in a trial linked to their involvement in death squads, a media source in Nigeria told IRIN.
Mohamed Sani Abacha, former major Hamza al-Mustapha, former army sergeant Barnabas Mshelia and Latif Sofala have been charged with murder. Their pleas were not taken and they were remanded in custody until 19 November.
NIGERIA: State government seeks help to resettle flood victims
The government of Niger state in northern Nigeria says it is seeking assistance to resettle and provide supplies for the victims of the worst flooding there in three decades.
The state government said the disaster - caused largely by the spillage of water from the Kainji hydroelectric dam on the Niger river - was more than it could handle and required federal and international assistance, a media source in Lagos told IRIN.
Tens of thousands of people in 15 of Niger state's 25 local government areas have been made homeless, and entire harvests - mostly millet, rice and wheat - have been wiped out, the source said. News organisations quoted Niger Governor Abdulkhadir Kure as saying about 100,000 hectares of farmland were under water.
GHANA: Public food sales banned as cholera strikes Kumasi
Ghana's second largest city, Kumasi, has banned the sale of cooked food and iced water by street vendors in a bid to halt the spread of cholera, media sources told IRIN on Tuesday.
"Food can only be sold after the Food and Drugs Board and the Ghana Standards Board have certified them," one source at the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said.
Ghana's Health Ministry said 387 persons were infected with cholera on 8-12 October in Ashanti, the region that includes Kumasi, and 32 of them died, GBC radio reported on Wednesday.
FOOD: Five West African nations lead way in reducing hunger
Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, The Gambia and Nigeria have achieved among the largest reductions in undernourishment worldwide during the 1990s, FAO reported in the first edition of 'The State of Food Insecurity in the World', issued on Thursday.
The number of undernourished people in the developing world fell from 830 million to 790 million between 1990/1992 and 1995/1997, the report said.
However, while the five West African countries along with 32 other nations realised reductions of 100 million, the number of people who are chronically undernourished in the rest of the developing world increased by almost 60 million, FAO says.
WEST AFRICA: US urged to back justice in Sierra Leone, Nigeria
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright should show the same commitment to justice in Sierra Leone that she has shown for victims of crimes against humanity in Kosovo and East Timor, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
HRW urged Albright, who visits Nigeria and Sierra Leone this month, to express strong support for a truth and reconciliation commission, a body envisaged in the Sierra Leone peace agreement but not yet established. The United States should also back the formation of a UN commission of inquiry into human rights violations in the eight-year civil war, it said.
In Nigeria, the United States should press for an independent judicial enquiry into past and current human rights violations in the Niger Delta, and for those responsible to be disciplined or prosecuted, according to HRW, which said it recently received disturbing reports of fresh disturbances and arrests in Ogoniland.
WEST AFRICA: Even rainfall in the Sahel
Rainfall was evenly distributed in September in most of the Sahel, the FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) said in its latest situation report.
Satellite photos for the first 10 days of October, FAO/GIEWS said, showed cloud cover over most producing areas of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Senegal. However, there were fewer clouds over north-eastern Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger.
"Overall, good harvests are anticipated in most countries," FAO/GIEWS reported.
ABIDJAN, 15 October 1999; 19:30 GMT
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Item: irin-english-1791
[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: jdiaz.hchr@unog.ch Keyword: IRIN-CEA Weekly
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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