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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 17 covering the period 23-30 April 1999
NIGERIA: Commonwealth invites Nigeria back to fold
Commonwealth foreign ministers this week invited Nigeria to rejoin the 54-nation club when the democratically elected civilian government of President-elect Olusegun Obasanjo is sworn in on 29 May.
Diplomats told IRIN the decision meant an end to three-and-a-half years isolation following the country's suspension from the Commonwealth in the wake of the execution of the author and minority rights campaigner, Ken Saro-Wiwa. He was executed with eight companions in 1995 under the hardline military regime of the late General Sani Abacha.
Abacha died in June last year and was succeeded by General Abdulsalami Abubakar who paved the way for general elections and a return to democracy after 15 years of military rule.
The decision was taken by the eight-nation Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) established to investigate human rights abuses in member countries.
CMAG chairman, Zimbabwe Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge, said in announcement after a meeting in London: "CMAG decided to immediately recommend to Commonwealth heads of government that Nigeria's suspension from membership of the association be lifted."
The Nigerian foreign ministry welcomed the decision in a statement saying it was "a vindication of the efforts of the government to make Nigeria take its rightful place in the international community."
General strike call
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has called on private sector workers to down tools next week in support of civil service employees who went on strike earlier this month in 24 of the country's 36 states demanding that the government pay them an agreed minimum wage.
The new monthly minimum wage of 3,000 naira (US $33) was agreed in March: "We are committed to ensuring the full implementation of this agreement" before 29 May when the new civilian government is sworn in, said NLC president, Adams Oshiomhole. He told journalists he expected private sector workers to join the strike on 6 May.
Trade unionists said the 26 states had agreed to the minimum wage while 10 were still uncommitted. Support for the strike, which has been varied, gained momentum on Monday when the Nigerian teachers union closed schools around the country.
Oil production cut by 148,000 bpd in March
On the economic front this week, Nigeria announced a cut in crude oil production of 148,000 barrels per day in March to bring output in line with a new OPEC quota of 1.89 million bpd.
On a related issue, Nigeria is to continue importing finished petroleum products to meet rising local demand, the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Alhaji Dalhatu Bayero, announced this week.
Nigeria has resorted to imports because its three refineries need repairs and are producing at 60 percent of capacity.
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG captures strategic town
The West African peace monitoring force, ECOMOG, this
week seized the Strategic Sierra Leonean town of Masiaka
in a move expected to pave the way for humanitarian
access to the interior after months of fighting with
rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
"With the capture, our vision of opening the road
linking Bo, Kenema and Freetown is more certain,"
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade told IRIN after
the town was retaken on Thursday . Masiaka lies on
the junction of a major highway leading to the large
provincial towns.
The fighting involved artillery, heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. As mopping up operations were underway, Western diplomats told IRIN the town's capture would enable ECOMOG make a push on the highway east so that humanitarian assistance could be trucked to Bo and Kenema which are held by pro-government forces.
The announcement was made as RUF leaders met all week in the Togolese capital, Lome, to devise a strategy for peace talks with the democratically elected government of President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Officials said they expected the talks to continue in coming days.
Other fighting
Fighting was also underway this week in Yele, about 150 km northeast of the capital Freetown, news reports and witnesses said on Thursday.
The rebel attack at Yele on Tuesday sent residents fleeing to the nearby town of Bo. Residents said the rebels burnt homes and shot at people fleeing, among them women and children.
Government buys combat helicopters
In a related development, President Kabbah this week announced the purchase from Ukraine of two new helicopter gunships designed to confront "internal and potential external aggression".
Kabbah made the announcement at a ceremony marking the country's 38th independence anniversary on Tuesday in which he said the helicopters would be used in the country's war against rebels and "to warn those interfering in the sovereignty of our country that we are now preparing for any external aggressors".
The helicopters, which military analysts identified as Ukrainian-built Mi-24 gunships, would be used "to ensure the security and stability" of Sierra Leone, presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN.
Analysts interpreted the announcement as a "warning" to President Charles Taylor of neighbouring Liberia. Since the outset of the Sierra Leone conflict eight years ago, Liberia has been blamed by Freetown for supporting the rebels.
GUINEA BISSAU: New tension after brief but bloodless standoff
Calm returned to the Guinea Bissau capital, Bissau, just hours after a tense standoff at the weekend between forces loyal to President Joao Bernardo Vieira and supporters of last year's army rebellion.
The confrontation occurred after the government of national
unity dismissed Bissau Mayor Paulo Medina last week.
Media reports said supporters of the two sides gathered
at city hall after Medina refused to accept his dismissal.
Members of the ECOMOG peace monitoring force overseeing
a peace accord which ended eight months of fighting
last year, managed to disperse the crowds without violence,
according to news reports.
NIGER: Francophone group suspends cooperation
The organisation of francophone nations suspended its cooperation with Niger this week in protest against the assassination of President Bare Mainassara in a military coup on 9 April.
Boutros Boutros Ghali, president of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF), issued a statement in Paris "strongly" condemning the assassination and expressing his "deep concern at the coup d'etat in Niger".
Analysts said the suspension was a blow to Niger. Two weeks ago, Niger's main European partner, France, also suspended aid. Japan and the European Union have announced that they too would "review" cooperation with the impoverished West African nation.
Mainassara was gunned down by members of the presidential body guard, whose commander, Major Daouda Mallam Wanke, assumed the leadership of the country. Wanke has pledged a nine-month transition to general elections and civilian rule.
Wanke, has maintained that Mainassara died in "an accident" and that there was no need for an investigation into the circumstances of his death.
Wanke visits Nigeria
At the weekend, Wanke, briefly visited neighbouring Nigeria for talks with the outgoing military leader General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Official statements gave no details of the talks. Abubakar had earlier called Mainassara's killing a "sad event".
Rebels request demilitarised zone
Meanwhile, former Tuareg and Tubu rebels in Niger have called for the demilitarisation of the southeastern Manga region bordering Nigeria and Chad.
In a statement they also demanded an amnesty for rebel detainees and reported the discovery of a mass grave of 150 civilians whom the rebels said had been killed the previous month by Niger soldiers in the Bosso area near Lake Chad. The army has denied the allegations.
SENEGAL: Casamance separatists prepare for peace talks
Separatist leaders of southern Senegal's troubled Casmance area were meeting the Gambian capital Banjul this week to reach a joint consensus for talks with the government aimed at ending a conflict which started in 1982.
Abbe Diamacoune Senghor, leader of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casmance (MFDC), said the aim of the talks with other MFDC factions was to approach the government of President Abdou Diouf with a "united strategy".
The reports said he had already held a meeting at the weekend with Gambian President Yahya Jammeh who has repeatedly offered to help mediate in the conflict.
Diamacoune met Diouf in January, after both agreed that dialogue would be the only way to resolve the issue. No details of the talks have been disclosed.
Opposition boycotts parliament
On the domestic front, the main opposition party in Senegal, the Parti democratique senegalais (PDS), last Friday announced a boycott of the National Assembly to press demands for stronger measures against fraud in next year's presidential election.
News organisations said the party leader, Abdoulaye Wade, had called for experts from France and the United States to help draft a "reliable" register of voters.
CAMEROON: Former presidential doctor jailed
The Cameroon Court of Appeal this week upheld a 15-year jail sentence served in 1997 against the former personal doctor of President Paul Biya.
News reports from the Cameroon capital, Yaounde, said the doctor, Titus Edzoa, a former health minister, had been tried for embezzlement in 1997 after deciding to run against Biya in presidential elections.
The court upheld the convictions against Edzoa and an
assistant, Thierry Michel Atangana, for "joint
misappropriation of funds" arising out of a road
project they allegedly directed from the presidential
office. They were also ordered to pay a fine amounting
to US $580,000 to make up for the money allegedly embezzled.
Their lawyer said he would lodge a further appeal.
Volcano disaster abates
The eruption of lava and molten rock from a volcano in southwest Cameroon which cut one of the nation's main trading routes with neighbouring Nigeria and damaged scores of homes in recent weeks had now abated and no longer posed a major threat, according to officials this week
Provincial authorities and an American volcano expert who visited Mount Cameroon, 350 km west of the capital, Yaounde, were now working to re-open the road cut on 14 April by a lava flow.
"The eruption of Mount Cameroon will never be explosive," AFP quoted the American expert, John Lockwood, as saying. After a visit to the area which included an inspection of the mountain by helicopter, he recommended that the government should try to tap subterranean gas in the area to prevent further disasters.
In 1986, 1,746 people died when a cloud of toxic gas belched from Lake Nyos, 250 km north of Mount Cameroon, and from Lake Monoun, 150 km further north.
Peter Acham Cho, the official who coordinated a local crisis committee, said: "The lava emissions have now dried up and the flow has stopped. The phenomenon now really appears to be over."
LIBERIA: ULIMO said to be operating training camps
Liberia's former civil war faction ULIMO, led by Alhaji Kromah was accused this week of allegedly operating two military training camps in Macenta, in the extreme southeast of neighbouring Guinea.
News reports quoting unidentified humanitarian sources,
said guerrillas had been seen training in the Guinean
forest. However, Guinea's communication minister, Ibrahima
Mongo Diallo, has denied his country's complicity in
the attack.
In March, Liberian President Charles Taylor accused
Kromah, his arch rival, of preparing another guerrilla
war in Liberia and of training his men in Guinea.
Roman Catholic Church to help press union
The Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) and the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) this week renewed a 1996 pact to promote social justice and democracy, 'Star Radio' reported at the weekend. JPC would provide free legal aid to PUL-accredited journalists. In turn, the union would cover human rights and democracy issues.
MALI: Guinea worm eradicated
Guinea worm, a debilitating disease, has been eradicated in 98 percent of Mali's most affected regions, PANA reported this week quoting details from a national eradication programme.
The areas most afflicted were Kayes, Mopti, Segou and Koulikoro.
The Guinea worm, Dracunculus medinensis, was closely monitored in 285 villages, PANA said. Mali has slashed Guinea worm infection from 1,499 cases in 1997, to 650 in 1998 in the regions of Mopti, Timbuktu, Gao and Koro prefecture.
The worm which burrows into the skin is common in Africa and India.
WEST AFRICA: FAO fears severe food shortages
The number of sub-Saharan African countries on the FAO's exceptional food emergency list has risen to 17 since the end of 1998, according to the Organization's latest report last week on the Food Supply Situation and Crop Prospects in sub-Saharan Africa.
The countries listed were: Angola, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
In West Africa, the report said the food outlook for 1999 was "generally favourable", particularly in the Sahel countries, thanks to above-average and record harvests, it said. The outlook for Angola it said was "particularly weak".
Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea seek "amicable" oil fields solution
Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea were seeking to resolve a maritime dispute over potentially oil-rich seas in the Gulf of Guinea "amicably", Nigeria's military ruler, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, said at the weekend.
In remarks carried by news reports after a visit to Malabo, the island capital of Equatorial Guinea, Abubakar said after talks with President Teodor Obiang Nguema, that the two nations had decided to "work towards strengthening bilateral relations and cooperation".
Donor aid
Guinea Bissau's caretaker prime minister, Francisco Fadul, said after a visit to Europe this week that he had received aid pledges amounting to 125 million euros (US $134 million) to help reconstruct the country in the wake of last year's military rebellion. The pledges were made by Portugal, France, Italy and Sweden.
Abidjan, 30 April, 1999 14:15 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 14:23:43 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 17 [19990501]
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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