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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 42 covering the period 16-22 October 1999
CONTENTS:
SIERRA LEONE: RUF expels AFRC from northern town SIERRA LEONE: Relief programmes in the north threatened SIERRA LEONE: Ex-rebels get cabinet posts in unity government SIERRA LEONE: DDR programme launched SIERRA LEONE: Local organisation designs spoon for amputees SIERRA LEONE: Albright promises help if peace prevails LIBERIA: UN Secretary-General welcomes weapons disposal LIBERIA: UNOL's mandate extended LIBERIA: Government invites donors for assessment mission GUINEA-BISSAU: Supreme Court approves presidential candidates GUINEA-BISSAU: Elections on track, diplomats say GUINEA-BISSAU: World Bank support for education NIGERIA: Ogoni refugees not inclined to return home CHAD: Repatriation of refugees to begin soon, UNHCR says BENIN: Refugee centre inaugurated BENIN: Helping to improve access to reproductive health services MALI: Many reported killed in ethnic clashes CAMEROON: Article 19 accuses government of systematic abuses WEST AFRICA: Floods cause homelessness and destroy farmland WEST AFRICA: EU aid for Mauritanian, Senegalese flood victims WEST AFRICA: WFP short of food for key operations WEST AFRICA: Tripartite discussions on Ghanaian refugees in Togo WEST AFRICA: French development aid for Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana
SIERRA LEONE: RUF expels AFRC from northern town
RUF rebels have occupied the northern town of Makeni expelling members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) who were previously based there, according to the director of CARITAS in Makeni, Ibrahim Sesay.
Fighting between the RUF and the AFRC started on 15 October after the arrival of a group of RUF from Kailahun in eastern Sierra Leone and a group from Magburaka, some 20 km south of Makeni, Sesay said.
ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade told IRIN on Wednesday that the situation in Makeni had returned to normal. He said Johnny Paul Koroma, head of the AFRC, and RUF leader Foday Sankoh had told President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and ECOMOG Force Commander General Gabriel Kpamber at a meeting on Tuesday that the situation there would not deteriorate.
SIERRA LEONE: Relief programmes in the north threatened
The fighting in Makeni has severely compromised the ability of relief agencies to deliver assistance to vulnerable civilians, according to aid agencies working in Sierra Leone.
They said there had been looting of vehicles, equipment and supplies in Makeni and that many Freetown-headquartered organisations have had difficulty communicating with their staff in the northern town, raising concern for their safety and hampering their ability to deliver aid to the vulnerable.
On 20 October Action Contre la Faim (ACF) said 142 of
its staff members were "unaccounted for"
in Makeni. ACF said it "feared the worst"
for 550 children under the age of five who on Sunday
fled its feeding centre in Makeni, where they were
being treated for severe malnutrition.
Makeni is the gateway to northern and north-eastern
parts of the country, which have suffered from a lack
of access to commercial and humanitarian assistance
for much of the year. "If relief agencies are
unable to access Makeni town activities over a far
larger area will have to be curtailed," a humanitarian
source told IRIN on Tuesday.
SIERRA LEONE: Ex-rebels get cabinet 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).
The Lome Peace agreement signed in July by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and RUF leader Foday Sankoh says: "The Government of Sierra Leone shall give ministerial positions to the RUF in a moderately expanded cabinet of 18 ... as follows: one of the senior cabinet appointments such as finance, foreign affairs and justice."
"It has been determined that the Ministry of Trade and Industry is a senior ministry," Kaikai said. However, Sankoh told AFP that he did not consider Trade and Industry a senior portfolio and that he would raise the issue with Kabbah.
SIERRA LEONE: DDR programme launched
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 at the ceremony, including the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the pro-government Civil Defence Force (CDF).
SIERRA LEONE: Albright promises help if peace prevails
Sierra Leone can expect a US $55-million windfall in US aid to help resettle displaced persons and reintegrate ex-combatants into society if July's Lome peace agreement is implemented, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Monday.
Albright also told reporters that the US would forgive $65 million in debt if Sierra Leone reached agreement with the International Monetary Fund and would continue to be the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to Freetown, USIA reported.
Albright said more money was envisaged for the proposed UN peacekeeping mission that would field some 6,000 troops in Sierra Leone. The West African Peace Monitoring Group, ECOMOG, will get an additional US $11 million in US aid on top of the US $15 million already received, she said.
SIERRA LEONE: Local organisation designs spoon for amputees
An umbrella organisation for the disabled in Sierra
Leone is appealing for funds for the production of
a spoon it has designed to enable people who lost both
hands in the civil war to feed themselves.
The spoon can be attached to the stumps of amputees, enabling them to eat and drink unaided, Foday Kalako, executive director of the Organisation for the Homeless, Disabled and Rural Development (OHDRAD), told IRIN.
Kalako said OHDRAD had already produced three prototypes of the spoons and was working on another device which would enable double amputees to write.
LIBERIA: UN Secretary-General welcomes weapons disposal
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has welcomed the completion of a weapon-destruction programme in Liberia that began on 25 July and ended on Monday.
The programme involved the destruction of over 19,000 small and heavy-calibre weapons and more than three million rounds of ammunition collected by the United Nations and Economic Community of West African States' Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) during a 1996-1997 disarmament exercise.
The weapons were left over from a civil war that started in 1989 and ended officially in 1997.
Meanwhile, the last Nigerians serving in ECOMOG in Liberia arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday, ending Nigeria's 9-year military presence in that country.
LIBERIA: UNOL's mandate extended
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to extend the mandate of the UN Peace-Building Support Office in Liberia (UNOL)until December 2000.
The decision came after the Liberian government said UNOL was making "catalytic contributions" to the country's post-conflict peace-building efforts.
UNOL, set up in 1997, has been supporting the government's efforts to consolidate peace, promote national reconciliation and strengthen democratic institutions, Annan said.
LIBERIA: Government invites donors for assessment mission
The Liberian government has invited international financial
experts to the country next month for a multi-donor
assessment, Star radio reported. The purpose of the
mission will be to review Liberia's financial status
with a view to assisting with reconstruction programmes.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Supreme Court approves presidential candidates
Guinea-Bissau's Supreme Court on Wednesday approved the applications of 12 candidates to run for president in elections to be held on 28 November, a humanitarian source told IRIN on Thursday.
The source added that the Court began examining the applications of some 2,600 candidates for seats in parliament on Wednesday. 13 parties are vying for the 120 seats in the National Assembly.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Elections on track, diplomats say
There is no reason to delay Guinea-Bissau's elections, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Nana-Sinkam, told journalists in Bissau on Tuesday.
A humanitarian source in Bissau told IRIN that Tuesday's news conference was held against the background of rumours that some members of the Military Junta that overthrew then president Joao Bernardo Vieira in May were against the holding of the polls. However, Nana-Sinkam dispelled the rumours.
EU Delegate Miguel Amado said the EU had already provided US $5.5 million for the first and second rounds of the election. The Netherlands has pledged US $500,000 and, according to news organisations, Japan has promised to provide US $5 million.
According to the Comissao Nacional de Eleicoes (National Election Commission) 499,152 persons - 90.6 percent of the estimated electorate - had registered by 28 September, OCHA reported.
GUINEA-BISSAU: World Bank support for education
The World Bank is providing US $15 million for a primary education programme in Guinea-Bissau, OCHA reported.
The programme will focus on three areas, including improving access to education by building and repairing schools and upgrading the quality of education by producing school books, training teachers and supporting innovative teaching methods.
It will also seek to improve management by producing a database and raising teacher salaries, OCHA said.
NIGERIA: Ogoni refugees not inclined to return home
Ogoni refugees who fled the southeast of the country have opted not to return home, the UNHCR said in its mid-term report for 1999.
UNHCR said it had received at least 270 new asylum requests from Ogonis and that 300 of about 860 Ogoni refugees had been accepted for resettlement in third countries.
"The overwhelming majority wanted to go to the US, Canada or South Africa," a UNHCR official told IRIN on Tuesday.
CHAD: Repatriation of refugees to begin soon, UNHCR says
The repatriation of some 25,000 Chadian refugees from Cameroon, Central African Republic and Sudan is set to resume by the end of October after experiencing delays, UNHCR reported in its mid-term report for 1999.
The returnees will be able to join some 10,000 other former refugees in cooperatives set up to ease their reintegration into society, according to UNHCR, which said it would open two new offices and send more staff to Chad to support the process.
The report also said an influx of Sudanese refugees into Chad in January following ethnic clashes in the Southern Darfur Province had brought to 28,000 the number being helped by UNHCR.
BENIN: Refugee centre inaugurated
The Beninese government and the UNHCR on Friday inaugurated a refugee centre in Kpomasse, some 40 km outside Cotonou, the commercial capital of Benin.
Some 1,030 refugees, 730 from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 200 from Nigeria and some 100 Togolese, are accomodated at the centre which was built at a cost of over US $1.5 million.
Over the years, Benin has hosted thousands of refugees, most of them from Togo. During a political crisis in Togo in 1992-1993, some 150,000 Togolese fled to the neighbouring country. The vast majority went back voluntarily with the UNHCR's help in 1997, but some 1,350 remain in Benin and do not want to return home for security reasons, according to UNHCR.
BENIN: Helping to improve access to reproductive health services
Helping to improve women's access to reproductive health care services is the thrust of the first project to be carried out in Benin by the international relief and development organisation CARE, which on Thursday announced the start of its operations in the West African nation.
About 500 out of every 100,000 women in Benin die each year as a result of complications during childbirth, according to the UNFPA. Infant mortality is also high.
CARE's three-year project will help Benin-Sante, a network of non-governmental organisations, and its 80 member organisations to strengthen their ability to improve the reproductive health of Beninese women.
MALI: Many reported killed in ethnic clashes
At least 30 people were killed and 10 others seriously
injured in communal clashes on Sunday between rival
Arab communities in northern Mali, AFP reported.
AFP said the fighting occurred in the desert between Gao and Kidal, lasted six hours and had to do with a conflict over territory and leadership in the area.
Malian troops were sent to the area to restore order and address grievances on both sides, according to AFP, which reported that fighting between the two groups in July left at least 27 dead.
CAMEROON: Article 19 accuses government of systematic abuses
An international human rights watchdog on Monday accused Cameroon's government of systematically perpetrating rights violations ranging from illegitimate detention to torture and deaths in custody. The accusation came in a report by the International Centre Against Censorship, Article 19, titled 'Hollow Promises, Freedom of Expression in Cameroon since 1995'.
WEST AFRICA: Floods cause homelessness and destroy farmland
Floods along the River Benue in northern Cameroon and in five districts in the Niger Delta in Nigeria have rendered many people homeless and destroyed farmland.
The floods in Cameroon were 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 that many bridges had collapsed. "We fear that, if this situation continues, the flood waters could reach as far as Nigeria," through which the Benue also runs, he said.
In the Niger Delta heavy rains have caused floods in the municipalities of Patani, Oshimili South, Ndokwa East, Burutu and Bomadi. Community leader Raymos Guanah told `The Guardian' daily in Lagos: "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."
Other West African states affected by floods in recent weeks include Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Mauritania.
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.
WEST AFRICA: WFP short of food for key operations
The World Food Programme (WFP) says it has severely cut back its emergency and post-war reconstruction assistance in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea because of lack of funding.
Donors have provided less than 20 percent of the US $106 million needed to feed 1.8 million refugees and internally displaced people in the three countries, WFP said in a news release issued in Abidjan on Saturday (16 October).
With no new contributions since July 1999, WFP has been unable to purchase sufficient food for its operations. This has also created planning difficulties for other humanitarian agencies, WFP said.
WEST AFRICA: Tripartite discussions on Ghanaian refugees in Togo
Ghana, Togo and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) held talks last week on a request by the Ghanaian government for UNHCR assistance in repatriating refugees from Togo, a UNHCR source told IRIN.
Ghana had asked the UNHCR for help in the voluntary repatriation of some 11,000 Ghanaian refugees successfully settled in northern Togo, where they are involved in micro-credit projects, according to the UNHCR source.
The refugees fled Ghana in 1994, following clashes between the Dagomba, Nanumba and Konkomba ethnic communities in the northern part of the country. The UNHCR official said very few wanted to return to Ghana. Most preferred to remain with their kinsmen in Togo, he explained.
WEST AFRICA: French development aid for Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana
Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana are among 11 developing countries to which the Agence francaise de developpement (ADF - French Development Agency) has awarded financial aid in October, the ADF reported.
The sum of 9.45 million euros will go to the rehabilitation of the Buyo hydroelectric dam in south-western Cote d'Ivoire, which accounts for 20 percent of the energy produced in the country and also supplies electricity to Ghana, Benin and Togo, the AFD reported on 13 October.
Ghana is to receive 11 million euros for the second phase of a project to improve drainage infrastructure in Accra.
(1 euro is equivalent to US $1.08.)
Abidjan, 22 October 1999; 19:42 GMT
[ENDS]
[ UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1839
[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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