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Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
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IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 5 of Main Events for West Africa covering the period 29 January to 4 February 1999
GUINEA BISSAU: ECOMOG troops ashore in Bissau
Some 300 ECOMOG soldiers from Benin and Niger landed in Bissau on Thursday after being held up for four days by fighting between loyalist and mutinous troops in the Guinea Bissau capital, AFP reported.
The troops disembarked off a French warship, after the Togolese defence and foreign ministers brokered a ceasefire on Wednesday between rivals President Joao Bernardo Vieira and military junta leader Ansumane Mane. It still remains unclear who started the fighting, the first major violent incident since a peace accord on 1 November 1998 between the two rivals.
The troops, to be joined by Gambian and additional Togolese units, will oversee the implementation of the security aspects of a peace accord signed on 1 November 1998 by the belligerents and pave the way for the withdrawal of Senegalese and Guinean troops supporting Vieira.
Throughout the fighting, Guinea Bissau Prime Minister-designate Francisco Fadul accused the French navy of shelling anti-government forces in Bissau, a charge denied repeatedly by the French government.
WFP worried about recent IDP returnees
A spokesman for WFP regional office in Abidjan told IRIN on Monday the UN food aid agency was worried about the 300,000 displaced people who recently started returning to their homes before the outbreak of fighting on Sunday. The IDPs, most of whom first fled the capital at the start of the hostilities in June 1998, had little money to buy readily available food, the official said.
SIERRA LEONE: "Massive recruitment" under way, army chief says
Sierra Leone army chief-of-staff Brigadier General Maxwell Khobe announced on Wednesday a recruitment drive for some 5,000 men to replace the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, whose Nigerian contingent is expected to leave towards the end of May, news reports said. Khobe, who was leading a military delegation to Nigeria, warned that a hasty withdrawal of the Nigerians from Sierra Leone would make it possible for the rebels to continue destabilising the country, to do likewise in Guinea "and possibly Nigeria". Nigeria provides the bulk of the 15,000-20,000 ECOMOG troops in Sierra Leone.
Commonwealth chief stresses urgent need for solution
Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku told IRIN on Wednesday he hoped his appeal for international intervention in Sierra Leone would lead to genuine negotiations for peace. He said there were two main areas where aid should be given, namely to help the West African intervention force ECOMOG in its peacekeeping activities and assist the Sierra Leone government cope with the consequences of the brutal war. In a news release on Tuesday, the Secretary-General called for "firm and unequivocal action" from the international community to stop Sierra Leone sliding into a "Dark Age".
He told IRIN he was concerned over the planned withdrawal of Nigerian peacekeepers in May, saying Sierra Leone's record pointed to the fact there would be "no end of atrocities" unless a solution were found. With the Nigerian pullout it was hoped contributing countries could be persuaded to stay on to oversee peace in Sierra Leone, thus reducing the financial burden on ECOMOG. International community urged to intervene
Italy - intending to follow Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States in providing aid - is the latest country to pledge help to ECOMOG in Sierra Leone, a UN deputy spokesman said in New York last Friday.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media at UN headquarters, Sierra Leonean Finance Minister James Jonah said the Security Council and the international community should deal with the "external agressors" who are fueling the conflict in his country. He said the Freetown government was ready to undertake a diplomatic initiative to "to deal with the involvement of both Liberia and Burkina Faso and perhaps with Ukraine, about Ukrainian mercenaries". All three countries have repeatedly denied involvement in the crisis.
UN official says 3,000 dead "conservative"
A "conservative estimate" puts the number of dead in Freetown at 3,000 people since the start of a rebel offensive on 6 January on the capital, a senior UN official said on Monday. Kevin Kennedy, chief of OCHA's Emergency Liaison Branch, told reporters that the humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone was "very serious" and could deteriorate if the current military and political situation continued. Kennedy was reporting on a UN mission to Sierra Leone in January. He said aid agencies only had access to about a third of the country and there was little information about the northern two-thirds. Humanitarian efforts were focusing on Freetown, he said, because of a "deliberate campaign by rebels to terrorise the population through forced amputations, shootings, house burnings and rape".
Some 150,000 people had been forced to flee the eastern suburbs where skirmishes continued. Althought the food crisis remained serious, he said, it was no longer acute as WFP and other agencies had begun a large distribution. However conditions in hospitals and clinics were "desperate" and medical, health and sanitation needs were acute. A UN security assessment team arrived in Freetown on Monday and will decide on arrangements for the resumption of humanitarian work.
Kennedy also expressed concern for some 12,000 Liberian refugees who, because of tensions between Sierra Leone and Liberia, might be targeted for alleged sympathies with the rebel forces.
MDM pulls out because of unethical local working practices
Dr Jacques Beres, a surgeon from Medecins du Monde (MDM), which recently withdrew from Freetown, told IRIN on Tuesday his team could no longer operate there as local medical staff were demanding payment for operations and medicine. Despite official government policy that medical aid should be free, he said, hospital staff at the city's Connaught hospital were not adhering to this. He said there was no shortage of medicine and medical equipment in the capital.
Government to investigate alleged sale of humanitarian aid
The Sierra Leone government on Wednesday said it was unaware of the alleged reselling of humanitarian aid, but would launch a full-scale investigation. Presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN the claims were very serious because humanitarian aid was free and should not be used for profit. He said he hoped the allegations were wrong.
Jailbreakers reportedly turning themselves in
Convicts from Freetown's Pademba Road Prison who escaped during the rebel attacks on the city have started turning themselves in, Star Radio reported on Thursday. Many of the inmates serving sentences for treason included former Sierra Leone president Joseph Momoh, who was who has not given himself up, neither have former parliamentarian Victor Foh and broadcaster Hilton Fyle, both of whom have been sentenced to death.
NIGERIA: Splits within APP over presidential candidate nomination
A split developed on Wednesday in Nigeria's second largest party, the All People's Party (APP), as two factions suspended the other's members in a row over plans for an electoral alliance with the Alliance for Democracy (AD) party, news reports said.
At the centre of the disagreement is who will be the alliance's joint candidate for presidential elections due on 27 February. Under the terms of the partnership, the two parties can only put forward one name. However, last week the AD nominated Olu Samuel Falae as its candidate.
At a news briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, a group of top APP politicians announced the removal of party Chairman Alhaji Mahmud Waziri, his deputy and the national secretary, AFP reported. Waziri responded by suspending the membership of five of the group, including former foreign minister Tom Ikimi for involvement in "anti-party" activities.
Miiltary agrees more power for the regions in new constitution
Nigeria's ruling military council has agreed that more powers will be given to state and local governments in the new constitution to be used when the army returns the country to civil rule in May, Reuters reported a government official as saying on Monday. After a meeting of the Provisional Ruling Council in Abuja, Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe, told reporters that the Council rejected a proposal that the presidency rotate among Nigeria's regions with multiple vice-presidents from other regions.
CHAD: Kabila reportedly ready to sign "immediate ceasefire"
Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent-Desire Kabila has expressed willingness to hold talks with all Congolese, including rebels of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) "inside or outside the country", AFP reported. In a joint statement with his Chadian counterpart, Idriss Deby, during a visit to N'djamena, Kabila said on Wednesday he was ready to "sign an immediate ceasefire and continue the process of democratisation ahead of general elections which would be both democratic and open". Both leaders urged the international community to support this peace initiative by sending a peacekeeping force under the auspices of the OAU and the UN. Chad has some 800 troops fighting alongside DRC government troops.
AFRICA: Sexual violence against refugee women
The UN foundation set up to distribute funds provided by media magnate Ted Turner has donated US $1.65 million to UNHCR for a project to combat sexual violence against refugee women and girls in Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania, UNHCR says. The agency says, in its project document, there is a "shocking escalation" in the use of rape as a weapon of war. The 18-month project is to benefit some 400,000 refugees. It will, support the training of police and other authorities in refugee areas to help prevent sexual violence. It will also train local health workers and counsellors to respond effectively and compassionately to survivors of sexual violence and will build the capacity of local legal communities to bring perpetrators of these crimes to trial, UNHCR says.
Abidjan, 5 February 1999, 14:30 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 14:39:17 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Round-up 5-99 for 1999.2.5
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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