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Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 11 covering the period 13-19 March 1999
AFRICA: OAU extraordinary summit postponed
An extraordinary summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on conflicts in Africa has been postponed indefinitely for a lack of a quorum, the office of OAU Chairman Blaise Compaore said on Wednesday.
Last week Compaore, president of Burkina Faso, announced that rebels in Angola and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) would be invited. This drew a strong criticism from Angola which urged other African countries to boycott the summit because Angolan UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi had been invited, PANA reported. Savimbi and his movement are under UN Security Council sanctions preventing him from travelling to and being received in any country.
GUINEA BISSAU: Guinea, Senegal complete troop pullout
Guinean and Senegalese troops completed their withdrawal from neighbouring Guinea Bissau by the Tuesday deadline agreed to by all warring parties. The pullout was in line with the Abuja peace accord that ended an eight-month military rebellion against President Joao Bernardo Vieira and enabled the deployment of West African peacekeepers from Benin, The Gambia, Niger and Togo. Mali is expected to send troops, RTM radio in Bamako, the Malian capital, announced.last week. Guinea and Senegal deployed between 2,500 and 3,000 troops in Guinea Bissau after a section of the army revolted in June 1998.
CPLP evaluates post-war aid needs
Meanwhile, a team from the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) has been in Guinea Bissau evaluating post-war aid needs, the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported on Monday. The seven-nation community, of which Guinea Bissau is a member, is to be part of a wider aid roundtable for the West African country, involving international bodies and billed for April or May, Lusa said.
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG Concerned over plight of IDP's
The West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, told the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) on Monday it was concerned about the plight of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in parts of Sierra Leone not serviced by humanitarian agencies, according to a HACU report received by IRIN. HACU said there were 3.000 IDPs in Bumbuna, northwest of Makeni, and 5,000 on Banana Island near Freetown. At least 20,000 IDPs, it added, were said to be in a "desperate condition" after recent rebel raids on Kambia town and Pamelap in the northwest, where most aid agencies had based their operations.
Measles continues to pose threat
A measles outbreak in the east of the country continues to pose serious danger, the report said. By 13 March, the number of cases between Blama and Kenema had increased to 644. About 94 of these cases originated from Kailahun, which has not been accessible to humanitarian organisations for nearly 10 years, the report said. Since the outbreak in mid-February, up to 50 deaths have been recorded in the district. UNICEF, supported by health NGOs, has immunised over 34,000 children in Bo, Kenema, Blama and the surrounding villages, HACU reported.
IRC says demobilised soldiers in urgent need of food and shelter
Approximately 1,220 surrendered Sierra Leonean Army soldiers camped at the Mammy Yoko Heliport are in a "deplorable" condition, according to the Sierra Leone's Inter-Religious Council (IRC). Following a visit to the camp, the council said there was little or no provision there for shelter, food, non-food items or health services, HACU reported.
NIGERIA: US $580-million investment for Niger Delta
The Nigerian authorities on Wednesday announced plans for a multi-million-dollar programme to develop the troubled Niger Delta area, according to news reports.
The presidential Committee on Development Options for the Niger Delta recommended an immediate launch of the 20-year regional master plan, `The Post Express' newspaper of Lagos said on Thursday. The 22-member committee recommended 15.3 billion naira (US $175 million) for infrastructural development this year, in addition to other spending plans. According to AFP, the Federal Ministry of Transport has agreed to invest 30.4 billion naira (US $350 million) in infrastructure this year and the Communications Ministry, 19.7 billion naira (US $230 million).
NIGERIA: Obasanjo says he ready to work with IMF - If ...
Nigerian president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo told visiting International Monetary Fund Managing Director Michel Camdessus on Friday he was ready to work with the Fund as long as the agency helped Abuja achieve its goals, Reuters reported. However, according to the news agency, Obasanjo did not specifically state his commitment to an IMF-monitored programmed agreed in January by the outgoing military administration.
AFP reported Camdessus as telling the international business community on Thursday in Abuja that the Fund was ready to help the Nigerian government if it "implements the plan it submitted" for an IMF staff-monitored programme for agreed economic policies.
Military leader General Abdulsalami Abubakar said yesterday he hoped to sign a three-year IMF deal before leaving office on 29 May. Nigeria has a foreign debt of US $28.8 billion.
Camdessus arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday for three days of talks on debt relief and reforms. News reports quoted him as saying he was in the country for a first-hand knowledge and an error-proof opinion of Nigeria's problems and its appeal for debt relief.
Falae files suit
Defeated presidential candidate Olu Falae filed suit on Monday in the Federal Court of Appeal in Abuja, challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)'s declaration of Olusegun Obasanjo as winner of the poll.
Falae claimed the election was marred by fraud and bribery, and that Obasanjo, who polled 63 percent of the vote, was unfit to rule because he was convicted of treason and was a member of the Ogboni secret society, BBC reported. Obasanjo's Campaign Office in Lagos told IRIN on Tuesday there was "no truth to Falae's claims" and that the party would defend itself in court.
AFRICA: Commission's woes unlikely to affect emergency work, EC says
The collective resignation of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, will not affect current or future humanitarian aid programmes, the EU said in an official statement to IRIN on Wednesday. The 20 commissioners resigned en masse on Tuesday after a group of independent experts accused them of neglecting evidence of fraud and favouritism and of losing control of the massive bureaucracy in Brussels, news reports said.
HEALTH: Governments urged to strengthen health care framework
Delegates from 43 African and other developing countries have urged governments to "develop a strong national framework for providing basic health services..." This framework, they said, should include "an essential package of care adapted to the current priorities, particularly HIV/AIDS, maternal and neonatal mortality, malaria, malnutrition, tuberculosis." The delegates at 8-12 March meeting in Bamnako, Mali, were reviewing implementation of the Bamako Initiative.
Under the Initiative, lauched 12 years ago to improve the quality of and access to health care in developing nations, health centres have been provided for an additional 60 million people in Africa, according to a news release from the meeting, co-sponsored by UNICEF, WHO and the Malian government.
WEST AFRICA: WFP to provide emergency food for a million people
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has approved a US $23-million emergency food aid programme for people facing severe food shortages in Cape Verde, The Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal.
The six-month operation will provide 40,000 mt of food for more than one million people living in areas affected by drought and consecutive below-average harvests, the UN food distribution agency said on Monday.
Much of Cape Verde, The Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal is arid and climatic conditions varying greatly each year. Natural disasters such as drought and locusts often damage agricultural production in the region. Major droughts occurred in the Sahel from 1973-1974 and from 1984-85, affecting 8.4 million and 11.9 million people respectively.
Tension in the Central Sahara
Insurgents in Niger have denied a charge that they have been aiding a new rebel group in northern Chad. Molimi Barkai, representative in Niamey of the Front arme revolutionnaire du Sahara (FARS) said in a radio interview that his group had been surprised by the claim, made last week by Chad's government.
The Chadian government had reported on 11 March that
it had wiped out a unit of Niger rebels that had crossed
over into northern Chad to help the Mouvement pour
la Democratie et la Justice au Tchad (MDJT) led by
former Chadian government minister Youssouf Togoimi.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Ruling party's landslide disputed
The ruling Partido democratico de Guinea Equatorial
(PDGE) won all but five of the 80-seat parliament at
the 7 March election in Equatorial Guinea, final poll
results released on Monday by the electoral commission
show.
Four seats went to Union Popular (UP) and one to Convergencia
para la Democracia Social (CPDS). However, the opposition
has disputed the result, threatening to boycott parliament,
the BBC reported on Tuesday.
Government denies detaining politicians
In a related development, Equatorial Guinea's information minister denied on Monday that 12 opposition politicians reportedly arrested on election day, 7 March, were in detention. "There is no one in detention in connection with the elections," Lucas Nguema, the minister, told IRIN. He was reacting to a statement by Amnesty International last Friday saying that the 12 were being detained and calling for their release.
GUINEA: Thirteen opposition leaders freed
The Guinea government freed 13 opposition politicians on Tuesday, four of them parliamentarians. They had served close to three of the four months in prison to which they had been sentenced for threatening public order, an opposition politician told IRIN. Sekou Coumbassa, a member of the Central Committee of the Rassemblement du peuple de Guinee (RPG) said the freed politicians, all RPG members, were arrested on 16 December after demonstrations against the detention of party leader Alpha Conde, who remains in prison and is now on hunger strike.
Abidjan, 19 February 1999, 19:00 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 19:02:15 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 11-1999 [19990320]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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