| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
CONTENTS:
MALI: New party created SENEGAL: New gas turbine opened MAURITANIA: US $11.9 million for poverty alleviation NIGER: 17 political parties support Tandja
MALI: New party created
Mali's Minister of Mines and Energy, Professor Yoro Diakite, has set up a new party called Bloc des Alternatives pour le Renouveau Africain (BARA), local radio reported on Monday. "Our ambition remains the building of a democratic society that would be fair and with a sense of solidarity," Diakite said on local radio.
MAURITANIA: US $11.9 million for poverty alleviation
Mauritania's government announced on Monday that it would earmark three billion ouguiyas (US $11.9 million) for poverty alleviation in its budget for the year 2000, AFP reported. This is double the amount provided last year, AFP said.
NIGER: Political parties support Tandja
Seventeen parties have pledged support for the front runner Mamadou Tandja for the 24 November presidential runoff.
The pledge came in a joint statement read out on Friday by Mahamane Ousmane, leader of the Convention democratique et sociale (CDS), on the state-run Voix du Sahel radio.
Tandja, of the Mouvement National de la societe de developpement, won 32.3 percent of the 1.9 million valid votes cast in the first round of elections, held on 17 October. His rival in the runoff, former prime minister Mahamadou Issoufou of the Parti pour la Democratie et le Socialisme (PNDS), won 22.8 % of the vote in the first round.
SENEGAL: New gas turbine opened
A 35-megawatt gas turbine at Senegal's state-owned power-generating plant, SENELEC, was opened on Monday by visiting Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, AFP reported.
The turbine cost 9.4 billion CFA francs (15.7 million dollars) and is expected to bring an end to the chronic energy shortfalls which have plagued Senegal in recent months. Hydro-Quebec International/Elyo, the Canadian consortium which supplied and installed it, had acquired a 34-percent stake in SENELEC for 50 million dollars, according to AFP.
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Item: irin-english-1941
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
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Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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