UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup 44, 98.4.17

IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup 44, 98.4.17


U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

Tel: +225 21-73-54 Fax: +225 21-63-35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci

IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup of Main Events 44 in West Africa covering the period (Friday-Thursday) 10-16 April 1998

SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG advance meets fierce resistance

Troops from the Nigerian-led West African intervention force, ECOMOG, continued to meet fierce resistance this week from members of Sierra Leone's ousted Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) as they advanced on the former military government's last strongholds in the east of the country, media reports said. ECOMOG commander Major General Timothy Shelpidi told IRIN on Tuesday the assault was a final effort to clear Kono and Kailahun districts of all major resistance. However, Shelpidi said ECOMOG could not guarantee AFRC remnants would not use guerrilla tactics to destabilise rural areas.

ECOMOG searches for AFRC

ECOMOG troops in east Sierra Leone searching for AFRC and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) members started to check refugees crossing the border with neighbouring Liberia this week, Shelpidi told IRIN on Tuesday. Shelpidi said AFRC and RUF members mixing with genuine refugees might attempt to cross into Liberia.

Parliament approves cabinet

Parliament approved President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's nomination of five ministers to Sierra Leone's new cabinet late on Tuesday, AFP reported. The ministers approved by parliament were: Sama Banya (foreign affairs), Alhaji Mohamed Deen (mineral resources), Charles Margai (internal affairs), Charles Spencer (information), and Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh (health). Sierra Leone's former UN ambassador, James Jonah, named minister of finance, development and planning was expected to be approved by parliament on his return from a trip abroad. Kabbah also appointed the Nigerian ECOMOG commander in Sierra Leone, Colonel Maxwell Khobe, to take charge of Sierra Leone's national security system.

Former head of state charged with treason

Some 14 people, including former president Saidu Momoh, appeared in court, charged with treason in connection with last year's AFRC coup, media reports said on Wednesday.

LIBERIA: Liberia training RUF

Nigeria's defence spokesman Colonel Godwin Ugbo accused the Liberian government on Wednesday of training some 3,000 Sierra Leonean Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters in northern Liberia, AFP reported. Earlier this week, the Liberian government rejected accusations by ECOMOG commanders in Liberia that it was training the ousted rebels. It said an international delegation visiting Camp Naama military base in northern Nimba County had found no evidence of illicit training programmes.

Police chief defends record

Liberia's police director, Joe Tate, said a recent US government call for his removal because of his alleged poor record on human rights was "irresponsible", independent Star Radio reported on Wednesday. According to the radio, a US delegation at last week's donor conference in Paris made Tate's removal a pre-condition for US government assistance to the Liberian police department.

Mandingo discrimination claims investigated

Security forces were investigating complaints of discrimination against the Mandingo ethnic group in northern Liberia, Star Radio reported a Justice Ministry official as saying on Sunday. The Inter-Faith Council of Liberia appealed to all ethnic groups in Lofa and Nimba counties to exercise restraint and tolerance while efforts were being made to resolve the matter.

Pavarotti plans benefit concert

World-famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti announced last Thursday that he would join other stars in a June benefit concert for a children's charity in Liberia, Reuters reported. The third annual "Pavarotti & Friends" concert will be held in Pavarotti's hometown, Modena, in Italy on 9 June.

NIGERIA: Opposition clashes with police

At least three people were killed and several injured on Wednesday in clashes between opposition supporters and security forces in Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria, media reports said. According to the BBC, police were reported to have fired shots and used teargas to disperse demonstrators, who had gathered outside a stadium, where supporters of Nigerian head of state General Sani Abacha were holding a rally. The BBC correspondent in Nigeria said the demonstrators were angered by the authorities' decision to allow the pro-government rally to go ahead in Ibadan, where permission to hold an earlier anti-Abacha rally had allegedly been refused.

UN Human Rights report

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' special rapporteur on Nigeria, Soli Jehangir Sorbjee, said on Wednesday the Nigerian government regularly suppressed, harassed and detained critics, AFP reported. In a report described by the news agency as "damning", Sorbjee said Nigeria had ceased to be governed by rule of law. Nigerian foreign minister Chief Tom Ikimi rejected the report's findings, saying denunciation of human rights was now used as "an instrument of oppression in the hands of a few powerful nations", AFP reported.

Coup trial still in progress, spokesman says

The trial of 26 alleged coup plotters, including the Nigerian leader's former deputy, General Oladipo Diya, before a special military tribunal was still in progress, the Nigerian defence ministry told a press briefing on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The ministry blamed the tribunal's failure to submit its findings by the original 30 March deadline on the tribunal's need to "do a thorough job, taking in consideration that human lives were involved", the report said.

Meningitis kills 52

An outbreak of Meningitis has killed 52 people in northeastern Nigeria so far this year, the official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported last Saturday. Some 13 people died last week in one village alone, NAN said. 200,000 doses of vaccine had been distributed in the area, but would cover only 20 percent of Adamawa state's population, NAN said.

SENEGAL: Clashes between Mauritanian refugees and Senegalese

Authorities in Senegal said seven people had been killed in clashes between Mauritanian refugees and locals in the Kidira border area between Senegal and Mauritania, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Officials said four refugees, accused of cattle rustling and failing to leave the region by a deadline set by the local people, were killed on Sunday. The refugees were reported to have retaliated by attacking a bus on Monday, killing three villagers. AFP reported security reinforcements had been sent to the area.

Seven civilians killed in Casamance attack

Seven civilians were killed and two policemen injured in an attack last Thursday night by suspected Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) rebels in the Casamance village of Samine, AFP reported, quoting an official source. The attack on a police post in Samine, 70 km east of the regional capital, Ziguinchor, was repelled but seven civilians were killed and several houses looted, the report said.

Also in Casamance, one gendarme was fatally shot and another seriously wounded during a sting operation against cannabis traffickers, AFP reported on Sunday. Senegal's government issued a report earlier this week claiming the MFDC lived on revenue from armed robberies, and arms and drugs trafficking, Reuters reported.

Election watchdog demands access to voter list

Senegal's election monitoring body, the Observatoire National des Elections (ONEL), said it had been denied access to the national voter roll since 6 April, AFP reported on Wednesday. ONEL's president, General Mamadou Niang, was quoted as saying ONEL's computer had been blocked from accessing a central register file held at the Ministry of the Interior, effectively stopping all election monitoring work. Interior Minister General Lamine Cisse had not reacted to Niang's accusations, AFP reported.

NIGER: Six injured in clashes

Several people were injured in Tahoua, northern Niger, in clashes between opposition parties and security forces on Monday, news organisations reported. AFP quoted an opposition spokesman as telling a private Niamey radio station there were "several serious injuries and many arrests".

National strikes

Niger's 40,000 civil servants went on a two-day strike again on Tuesday over five to seven months' unpaid wages, AFP reported. State health workers also started their own two-day strike on Thursday to protest delays in paying allowances agreed with the government in a 1997 pay accord. Students in Niger were also reported to have given authorities a two-day ultimatum for payment of up to 20 months' grants. Meanwhile, the national teachers union encouraged its members on Tuesday to go on indefinite strike until salaries for January and February this year were paid.

MALI: Opposition accepts Carter reconciliation plan

Mali's opposition parties accepted a plan proposed last week by former US president Jimmy Carter, which would see them re-join Mali's political process, AFP reported on Thursday. An opposition umbrella group was quoted by the news agency as saying it would accept the Carter plan but that issues stemming from last year's disputed presidential and legislative elections could not be considered a closed matter until they were appropriately discussed.

GUINEA: Mutiny trial re-opens

The trial of 96 Guinean soldiers charged with plotting a February 1996 coup attempt re-opened in the capital, Conakry, on Tuesday, AFP reported. According to the news agency, no official reason was given for suspending the trial some three weeks ago. Media reports at the time said defence lawyers had complained of insufficient access to defendants to prepare a case.

GHANA: Food shortages

Ghana's government announced it would buy five billion cedis (US$ 2.1 million) of food to avert a deficit crisis in three northern regions, PANA reported on Wednesday. According to PANA, erratic rainfall in northern Ghana for the past two years has caused food crops to fail resulting in severe food shortages. WFP told IRIN on Wednesday that it was expanding its current special feeding programme in Ghana's Upper East region to cover 30,000 beneficiaries from vulnerable groups.

Peacekeeping force withdrawn

Ghanaian foreign minister Victor Gbeho told AFP on Tuesday "financial strain" was behind Tuesday's last-minute decision to withdraw 1,350 troops from the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic.

TOGO: President to stand again

Prime Minister Kwassi Klutse said President Gnassingbe Eyadema would stand for a second five-year mandate in June's election, AFP reported last Friday. Eyadema, who has ruled Togo for the past 31 years, was first elected in 1993 and is allowed to stand for another mandate. So far only one other candidate has come forward. Meanwhile, some eight opposition parties have called for February's revision of the voters' register to resume. They claim their involvement was inadequate and the population's interest was "very poor".

CAMEROON: Editor's sentence reduced

An appeal court Tuesday reduced an editor's prison sentence from two to one year in prison for "disseminating false news", AFP reported. In January, Pius Njawe, editor of 'Le Messager' newspaper, was sentenced and fined for having reported that President Paul Biya had suffered "a heart problem".

CHAD: World Bank asked to back oil project

Chad has asked the World Bank to back plans to produce oil early in the next century, Reuters reported last Thursday. Oil Minister Saleh Kebzabo said oil production would enable Chad to cut poverty significantly. He pledged oil revenues would be managed "in the greatest transparency" and fund schools, hospitals, farming, transport and communications. Rebels, some opposition politicians and environmentalists are hostile to the plan.

WEST AFRICA: Secretary-General reports on African conflicts

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report released on Thursday that African leaders, the international community and the UN had all failed the peoples of Africa by not avoiding colossal human tragedies in Africa in recent years. While Annan noted "foreign interests" continued to play a large role in sustaining some conflicts in the competition for oil and other resources, he also criticised African states for the role some played in "supporting and sometimes even in instigating conflicts in neighbouring countries".

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Six-nation peacekeeping exercise starts

A six-nation military exercise to train West African troops in peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance duties started on Wednesday in Burkina Faso, PANA reported. According to the news agency, some 4,000 troops from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Togo would take part in the seven-day manoeuvres. Another exercise exclusively for 700 Ghanaian troops and run by US and Belgian forces also opened near Accra this week, AFP reported on Thursday.

Child soldiers

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said on Tuesday any proposed United Nations International Criminal Court should regard the recruitment of child soldiers as a war crime, UN Central News reported. Bellamy said the court should give a clear signal atrocities against children would not go unpunished. The proposed court's mandate will be discussed at an international conference in Rome in June.

Benin, Togo to take energy crisis to UN

The presidents of power-short Benin and Togo said last Saturday they would appeal to the UN for help, AFP reported. The leaders will send a joint delegation to the UN to alert the international community to the magnitude of the energy crisis affecting the sub-region. Supply to the two countries from Ghana's Akosombo dam is only five per cent of the normal daily requirement. Depleted reservoirs similarly affect dams at Kpong (Ghana) and Nangbeto (Togo).

WEST AFRICA: CFA-euro peg beneficial, says Gabon

A Gabonese government report, released before last Friday's CFA Finance Ministers' meeting in Libreville, said France's switch to the euro would have medium-term benefits and no immediate adverse consequences for West Africa, PANA news agency reported. The report said exports and external payments of the 15 member countries of the African Financial Community (CFA) stood to benefit from a fixed peg to the European currency. This was because the euro was expected to be more stable than the US dollar, the ministry added.

Opening the meeting, French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn said "there is nothing to warrant any change" in the current conversion rate between the French and the CFA francs, AFP reported.

More qualify for debt relief

Mali and Guinea-Bissau were likely to benefit from a new debt relief programme and Togo, Mauritania and Chad might well be next, Reuters reported last Thursday, quoting a World Bank official. Within the next two months, Mali and Guinea-Bissau could win between US$ 800 million to 850 million in debt relief between them under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. HIPC provides for debt relief of up to, and sometimes exceeding, 80 per cent to governments committed to economic reform.

River blindness conference opens

Health experts from 11 West African countries met in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, to draw plans to continue the fight against river blindness disease, the BBC reported on Thursday. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) Africa Director, Ebrahim Samba, said a long-running programme to combat the disease had made gains, but he called for a fresh push to eliminate it entirely.

Abidjan, 17 April 1998 15:30 gmt

[end]

[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha..unon.org. Mailing list: irin-wa-weekly]

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 16:09:01 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup 44, 98.4.17 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980417160144.17906A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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