| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Tel: +225 21 73 54 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci
WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 46 covering the period 13-19 November 1999
CONTENTS:
COTE D'IVOIRE: Number of displaced Burkinabes in Tabou and Grabo falls COTE D'IVOIRE: More opposition officials detained NIGERIA: Floods leave thousands homeless NIGERIA: Ijaw youths kill 10 soldiers SIERRA LEONE: Former rebel leaders on sensitization tours SIERRA LEONE: New peacekeeping force expected soon SIERRA LEONE: New Special Representative proposed NIGER: Military quell mutiny NIGER: Calm restored following feud between farmers and herdsmen GABON: Summit of Gulf of Guinea states GUINEA-BISSAU: Portuguese electoral material arrives GUINEA-BISSAU: Army proposes Magna Carta HEALTH: Not everyone feels leprosy can be licked by 2005 MALI: Toxic waters threaten thousands of Tuaregs AFRICA: US Pledges $100 million to UNHCR GUINEA: ICRC gains access to prisons
COTE D'IVOIRE: Number of displaced Burkinabes in Tabou and Grabo falls
Fewer Burkinabe migrants have fled from plantations
in south-western Cote d'Ivoire since Wednesday, the
acting secretary-general of the Ivorian Red Cross,
Boubacar Diabi, told IRIN.
Violence between the local ethnic Kru and Burkinabe
immigrant farmers erupted on 5 November following a
dispute over land rights, causing thousands of Burkinabes
to flee to the towns of Tabou and Grabo.
Diabi told IRIN on Friday that the midweek high of 7,000 displaced Burkinabes in Tabou, some 400 km west of Abidjan, had now dropped to 4,000. The numbers of displaced in Grabo, some 50 km north-west of Tabou, had fallen from 2,500 to 1,700, he said.
On Tuesday, Cote d'Ivoire Interior Minister Emile Constant Bombet visited Tabou and called for "an immediate end to the expulsion and harassment of foreigners", AFP reported.
"Since Wednesday we have noticed that fewer Burkinabes have left the plantations for the towns," Diabi told IRIN.
However, he added that the Burkinabe community continued to organise convoys to transport home for some of their people, although he could not confirm how many.
A Burkinabe diplomat told IRIN that "many have returned to Burkina Faso" but said that official figures had not yet been released. The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Burkina Faso had called on Cote d'Ivoire to do everything possible to protect Burkinabe citizens.
"We also call on Burkinabes in the area to do their part to keep the peace," the diplomat said.
The majority of these immigrants, some of whom arrived in the area more than 10 years ago, have been working on the cocoa plantations.
COTE D'IVOIRE: More opposition officials detained
Police have detained the local leadership of former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara's party in the northern town of Korhogo, a party official told IRIN on Wednesday.
Seven members of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) were arrested on 13 November for public order offences the previous day. News reports described a scene of damaged cars and at least one building burnt by town residents protesting against the conviction of 16 other RDR politicians.
The seven have been detained under a special law which holds the organisers of demonstrations responsible for the violence that accompanies them. Under the same law, 11 national leaders of the RDR were sentenced to two years imprisonment on 12 November.
Ouattara plans to challenge President Konan Bedie in next year's election, but the state charges that he is a national of Burkina Faso and thus ineligible. Ouattara is in France and has postponed his return to Cote d'Ivoire on the advice of his party, news organisations reported on Tuesday.
NIGERIA: Floods leave thousands homeless
Floods described as Nigeria's worst in 30 years, have left tens of thousands of people homeless in the Niger Delta, news reports said quoting local officials.
Reuters quoted Augustine Nwikinaka, a spokesman for the governor of Rivers State, as saying 68 communities had been made uninhabitable in one of four affected areas in the state. The official said crops had been destroyed leaving people without food and that there was fear of an epidemic.
Earlier in October, similar rain-fed floods in the north-western state of Niger forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and destroyed thousands of hectares of crops.
Floods have occurred in most other West African countries since July.
NIGERIA: Ijaw youths kill 10 soldiers
Angry Ijaw youths killed at least 10 soldiers guarding oil facilities in Nigeria's troubled Niger Delta, an official in the Nigerian Defence Ministry told IRIN on Monday.
The `Post Express' newspaper also quoted chief of army staff Major General Victor Malu as saying on 12 November that four of the victims were beheaded by Egbesu youths of Bayelsa State. Despite this, he said, the army would continued to defend oil installations.
The killings follow the murder the previous week of 12 policemen, triggered by ethnic clashes between young Ijaws and Yoruba youths in the Ajegunle slum area of Lagos city.
SIERRA LEONE: Former rebel leaders on sensitization tours
Former rebel leaders Foday Sankoh and Johnny Paul Koroma this week visited their former fiefdoms as part of a sensitization tour to persuade their fighters to register for a programme of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration now underway.
Sankoh, leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), inspected his troops in Daru and Segbwema in the east last week, and the northern town of Makeni on Monday, a humanitarian source told IRIN.
Meanwhile, the leader of the former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Johnny Paul Koroma, went to meet his commanders in the Occra Hills, UN sources said. It was Koroma's first visit to his former stronghold since his return to Freetown on 3 October.
Koroma was accompanied by the commander of the West African Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) and UNAMSIL's Chief Military Observer, Brigadier General Subash Joshi, the UN reported.
SIERRA LEONE: New peacekeeping force expected soon
The arrival and deployment of the 6,000-strong UN peacekeeping force is due to begin next week, UNAMSIL said on Tuesday. The force will be made up of one battalion each from Kenya and India, which will be followed by a battalion each from Ghana and Nigeria, with one company from Guinea already in Sierra Leone as part of ECOMOG, the UN said.
The UN Security Council has given the UN force a mandate to cooperate with the government in the implementation of the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration plan; in ensuring the security and freedom of movement of UN personnel, in the delivery of humanitarian aid and protection of civilians under threat of violence. UNAMSIL said it will cooperate with ECOMOG, which will retain responsibility for the security of Sierra Leone.
SIERRA LEONE: New Special Representative proposed
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to reassign his Special Representative, Francis Okelo, and replace him with Oluyemi Adeniji from Nigeria, currently UN Special Representative to the Central African Republic, UNAMSIL said. The proposal is subject to approval by the Security Council. Okelo has been in Sierra Leone since 1997.
NIGER: Military quell mutiny
Loyal government troops in Niger crushed on Sunday an army uprising in the Madawela garrison near the northern town of Arlit and at Agadez, some 800 km northeast of Niamey, an official spokesman told IRIN on Tuesday.
The spokesman of the ruling Conseil de reconciliation nationale, Major Djibrilla Hima, said the mutineers alleged that the army owed them bonuses so as to have a pretext for their action but "the bonuses had already been paid".
In Agadez, a group of soldiers tried to free two of their colleagues arrested by local paramilitary police on suspicion of rape. Hima said the Madawela garrison incident, which occurred on Thursday, was instigated by political parties opposed to the second round of presidential elections due on 24 November.
NIGER: Calm restored following feud between farmers and herdsmen
Gendarmes restored order on Sunday in a village in Kirtatchi Commune just east of Niamey following fighting between nomadic herdsmen and farmers in which five people died and 14 were hurt. Major Djibrilla Hima, spokesman of the ruling Conseil de reconciliation nationale, said an inquiry was underway.
Fights, often leading to deaths, are common among farmers and herdsmen in West Africa. The trouble often occurs when the herdsmen graze their animals on planted fields.
GABON: Summit of Gulf of Guinea states
A one-day summit of the Gulf of Guinea states ended in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, with the fragile ceasefires in the two Congos and the civil war in Angola were high on the agenda.
The meeting, initiated by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, was also called to discuss the attainment and maintenance of peace in the area. Other leaders present were host Omar Bongo, Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Republic of Congo's (ROC) Denis Sassou-Nguesso, and Sao Tome's Miguel Trovoada.
Democratic Republic of Congo's Laurent-Desire Kabila did not attending, AFP reported. Gabonese officials as saying on Wednesday that the Angola and Cameroon would be represented by their foreign ministers.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Portuguese electoral material arrives
Portuguese-supplied electoral material weighing 13 mt arrived in Bissau on Wednesday for Guinea-Bissau's presidential and legislative elections due on 28 November, information sources told IRIN on Thursday. The material, valued at US $400,000, includes ballots promised by the Portuguese at the international donors conference in May, Lusa reported.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Army proposes Magna Carta General Ansumane
Mane, the supreme commander of the self-styled Military
Junta that ousted Joao Bernardo Vieira from power,
has proposed a
"Magna Carta" that would oblige political
leaders to consult the Junta on key appointments to
the government, news reports and sources said.
The document, described by one local analyst as a pseudo-constitutional amendment, requires the president and parliament to consult the military before appointing the prime minister, secretaries of state, as well as cabinet members. The prime minister would have to inform the president and military on affairs dealing with internal and foreign affairs.
HEALTH: Not everyone feels leprosy can be licked by 2005
The Third International Conference on Elimination of Leprosy closed in Abidjan on Wednesday with less than unanimous acceptance of the year 2005 as target date for wiping out the disease, according to information from the meeting.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers leprosy eliminated in a given country if the number of cases falls below 1:10,000 persons.
Notes published from a roundtable discussion at the conference showed that some delegates did not accept the target date because they viewed it unrealistic. Some felt that activities such as rehabilitation needed to be continued after the year 2005 and that long-term fund-raising activities might be damaged by setting a target date.
MALI: Toxic waters threaten thousands of Tuaregs
An urgent clean up of pesticide contaminated wells in the northern Mali villages of Anefis, Tin-Essako and Aguelhoc is needed if thousands of Tuaregs are to be saved from ill-health, Refugees International, a US based NGO, said in its latest bulletin on 17 November.
The NGO said one of its inspection teams that visited the villages on 7 November found wells tainted with pesticides. The chemicals were left behind after the end of an internationally financed locust control programme over 20 years ago, it said. Some 160,000 litres of these chemicals stored in tanks and barrels, scattered over a wide area, are now leaking into local water sources through the soil.
AFRICA: US Pledges $100 million to UNHCR
Africa will get half of the US $100 million the US government has pledged to support UHNCR funded programmes operations worldwide in the year 2000, the US Mission to the UN said on Thursday, quoting one of its advisors, Laurie Shestack.
She told the General Assembly on Thursday that the pledge was subject to Congressional appropriation. The US contribution to UNHCR in fiscal year 1999 was at least US $278, the largest ever and Shestack said: "It is crucial for UNHCR to have strong donor support across the board to provide for the millions of refugees who depend on it for their protection."
GUINEA: ICRC gains access to prisons
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been granted access to prisons in Guinea under an agreement it signed with the Guinean government on 9 November. The ICRC representative in Guinea, Marc Bouvier, told IRIN this week his organisation would now be able to assess the conditions of all detainees.
Abidjan, 19 November 1999; 19:04 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-2004
[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
| Previous Menu | Home Page | What's New | Search | Country Specific |