UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 35-1999 [19990904]

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 35-1999 [19990904]


WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 35 covering the period 28 August - 3 September 1999

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@ocha.unon.org

NIGERIA: 2,000 troops pulling out

Nigeria's first 500 troops in ECOMOG returned home on Tuesday, marking the start of a staged withdrawal from Sierra Leone, Nigerian defence spokesman Colonel Godwin Ugbo told IRIN.

Speaking from Lagos, he said up to 2,000 troops would have arrived in Nigeria by the end of the week. Before the withdrawals began, he said, Nigeria had between 10,000 and 11,000 troops in the ECOWAS Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG ) in Sierra Leone estimated at between 12,000 and 15,000 men.

Nigeria, which plays a pivotal role in the West African force, had said it would withdraw its troops in a cost-cutting effort but without endangering Sierra Leone.

>From Freetown, ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade told IRIN that the Lome agreement, in July, allowed for the gradual withdrawal of the troops and that the pullout of Nigerian units would "not jeopardize the peace process or the security of Sierra Leone".

SIERRA LEONE: Humanitarian bodies to re-evaluate security

Sierra Leone's humanitarian community will re-evaluate the security situation for the resumption of relief operations in up-country sites following the abduction of two RUF commanders on Monday, the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (HACU) in Freetown said.

HACU said the incident forced the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners to postpone food convoys that had been planned for Tuesday to Makeni, 140 km northeast of Freetown.

Concern over security resurfaced when 30 armed men arrested a team of RUF/Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) and ECOMOG officials on their way back from Makeni, HACU said. The assailants, thought to be disgruntled members of the AFRC, robbed their victims of personal clothing, radio handsets, satellite phones and bullet-proof jackets.

Four UNOMSIL military observers and two members of ECOMOG, the West African peacekeeping force, were released later. However, the RUF members "were stripped naked and mistreated", HACU said. The detained RUF commanders are Mike Lamin and Denis Mingo. AFRC officer Idrissa Kamara escaped.

Erstwhile allies divided

ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade said Lamin and Mingo were held because of a rift between the RUF and the ex-SLA -- soldiers loyal to the (AFRC) that overthrew President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997. ECOMOG described the abductions as "an unacceptable violation" of the cease-fire and Lome peace agreement signed by the RUF/AFRC alliance and the government of Sierra Leone.

The two groups became allies when the AFRC invited the RUF to join it in Freetown following the 1997 coup. After ECOMOG troops drove the AFRC out of Freetown in February 1998, the RUF/ex-SLA took to the bush, where they remained until July's peace pact.

However, tension has been high between the two allies because of claims by ex-SLA that they were excluded from the peace pact.

Registration in Makeni

The abductions occurred as representatives of some 20 aid agencies were in Makeni registering and preparing to feed the town's hungry residents. The aid workers included two from the World Food Programme (WFP) and 18 from international NGOs. They had gone to Makeni on Friday and had registered 97,000 people in the town and nearby villages by last weekend, according to HACU.

Plans finalised for Sankoh's return

Despite final plans for the return to Freetown of the RUF and AFRC leaders, Foday Sankoh and Johnny Paul Koroma, both men had still not arrived in the capital early on Friday.

Sankoh, who arrived in Burkina Faso on Thursday, said from Togo on Monday he would not return to Freetown until cleared by his security evaluation detail, already in the city.

However, ECOMOG said that details on accommodation, security communication and transportation for Sankoh, Koroma and their aides were worked out on 27 August at a meeting chaired by the ranking ECOMOG and Sierra Leone security officers.

Sankoh, who was condemned for treason before the peace accord, is to due to assume his position as chairman of a commission for the management of strategic resources, national reconstruction and development, with vice presidential status.

Otunnu discusses war-affected children

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, arrived in Freetown on Monday for a meeting with Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and officials of all ministries, ECOMOG, national NGOs and humanitarian agencies.

Their discussion centred on issues related to war-affected children, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday. Otunnu visited projects for street children, an amputee rehabilitation centre and a family home care centre for former child soldiers in the Freetown area.

His agenda also included visits to a camp for internally displaced people and a training programme for children in the inland towns of Bo and Kenema respectively. He left on Friday to visit a camp for Sierra Leonean refugees in the Guinean border town of Guekedou.

Sierra Leoneans in Guinea-Bissau desperate

Sierra Leone's 516 refugees in Guinea-Bissau - in desperate need of shelter, money and jobs - are asking for urgent help, according to an appeal sent out on their behalf by Andrew Lawday, a humanitarian consultant in London.

In the appeal on Tuesday for the Association of Sierra Leonean Refugees in Guinea-Bissau, Lawday said the refugees wanted projects funded to enable them become productive members of their host country. They needed a food-for-work project, he said, open to refugees of all nationalities and Guinea-Bissau citizens.

Three identified projects needing donor aid would provide high school education and skills training, and refurbish a building to be used as a social centre for refugees. The high school programme would cater for 50-100 teenagers and professional skills training would be provided for youths and adults.

MALI: Last two POW's return home

Two Malian soldiers captured on 7 May by the RUF while defending Port Loko - 60 northeast of Freetown - as part of an ECOMOG unit returned home following their release on Sunday, Radio Mali announced on Tuesday. Mali withdrew the last of its peacekeepers, which numbered 428 at deployment, on 18 August at the end of their six-month tour of duty.

CHAD: WFP to provide food for Sudanese refugees, Chadians

The World Food Programme (WFP) is to provide aid to nearly 30,000 people in eastern Chad under an agreement with the government of the Central African country, WFP reported.

The US $2.6-million deal, signed on 27 August (last Friday), provides for 2,590 mt of cereals, beans and oil to be distributed by the UNHCR to 23,000 Sudanese refugees and 6,500 Chadians.

"The refugees, mostly women and children, have fled conflict between the Arab and black African communities in Sudan's western region of Darfur," the WFP said. Refugees arrived in several waves, the first of which was in January 1998.

WFP to provide food for 53,000 people in the south

In another development, the WFP has launched an operation to provide food for 53,000 people affected by poor harvests during the last agricultural season in the southern Chadian prefectures of Tandjile, Mayo Kebbi, Logone Oriental and Logone Occidental.

Under an agreement signed on 1 September between Chad and the UN agency, the beneficiaries will get rations of sorghum and niebe - a local bean - for 45 days. Most will be female heads of households with children, widows living alone, elderly people without children of working age and handicapped persons.

The aid, valued at over US $1.2 million, is part of a US $23-million WFP project to provide people threatened by food shortages in Chad, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal.

CAMEROON: Floods claim about 20 lives

Heavy rains battered northern Cameroon last weekend, causing floods and leading to some 20 deaths, news organisations and relief workers reported. A humanitarian source in Yaounde told IRIN that rivers burst their banks, while some mud houses were swept away and others caved in on their inhabitants.

AFP reported official sources as saying that about 20 people drowned in the floods which affected the provinces of Nord (North) and Extreme Nord. The humanitarian source said there was a possibility of other catastrophes arising as a result of the floods since cholera usually breaks out in the area when there is much water around.

LIBERIA: UNHCR recommends relocation of Lofa refugees

Following a humanitarian mission last weekend, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recommended the relocation of some 5,000 Sierra Leonean refugees registered in the Targbe area of Liberia's lower Lofa County. The refugees fled to Targbe in recent weeks because of fighting in upper Lofa between Liberian government troops and insurgents.

The executive director of the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), Alexander Kulue, told IRIN plans were underway to relocate the Sierra Leoneans from Lower Lofa to Camp Sinje - in Cape Mount County - which already hosts 8,000 refugees.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) has begun distributing emergency food aid to more than 25,000 Liberians displaced by the fighting in upper Lofa, according to a WFP news release.

Disabled ex-fighters want help to resettle

In addition, Liberia's disabled former fighters say they wanted the international community to help them resettle in their regions. The chairman of the Ex-combatant Alliance of Liberia, Eric Myers, told IRIN. their members wanted medical care, housing and education. The alliance includes people from across Liberia who fought with different warring factions during the country's civil war.

Mulbah promises to clean up police

Liberian civil society and human rights bodies have given a cautious welcome to a ledge by the new police chief, Paul Mulbah, to stamp out crime and tighten gun control within his department.

"The development has been well received," one Liberian political observer told IRIN on Tuesday.

The source said that after censuring criminals within the police, Mulbah would need to make a comprehensive review of all police files to weed those with criminal pasts.

Civil liberty bodies say 60-70 percent of the members of a special police unit created since the end of the civil war were criminals or former faction fighters and that they had been committing crimes and abusing people's rights with impunity. The pre-war regular police, one source said, are unarmed and have been restricted to traffic duties.

The national director for the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC), Steve Wilson, said he expected Mulbah to ensure that the police end their culture of brutality and impunity. He said the CJPC, a local human rights and legal aid body, would want Mulbah to introduce human rights training in the police academy.

"He should try to turn the tables so the public can begin to have some confidence in the police to protect their lives and property," Wilson told IRIN.

BENIN: Tutsi detainees flown in from the DRC

Some 180 ethnic Tutsis held under "protective custody" in Kinshasa for the past year were on Monday flown to Cotonou, Benin, as part of an operation arranged by the US government and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), an OCHA official in Kinshasa told IRIN on Tuesday.

The Tutsis will remain in Benin for "a month or two" during which they will be helped by UNHCR and will undergo US immigration formalities. Another 180 detained Tutsis are scheduled to be flown from Kinshasa to Benin in the next few days, he said.

The latest OCHA monthly situation report says a number of persons of Tutsi origin who had remained in hiding since August 1998 had been encouraged by recent developments to come out of concealment. Some, it says, had started to arrive at "protective custody centres" in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, where about 1,500 Congolese Tutsis were currently registered.

NIGER: Twenty-nine prisoners die by suffocation, news reports say

Twenty-nine prisoners suffocated to death on 26 August in a cell into which they were forced by guards after a riot at the main prison in Niger's capital, Niamey, news organisations reported on Tuesday.

They were among a group of between 50 and 72 inmates whom guards had forced into the windowless cell after they protested against their conditions of detention, according to news reports. Reuters quoted a prison official as saying that they died from lack of air.

SENEGAL: US $5 million BOAD loan for water project

Senegal is to receive a loan of three-billion francs CFA (US $4.8 million) from the Banque Ouest Africaine de Development (BOAD) for a water supply project, the bank said. This project will bring water to 400 hectares of land and also entails the construction of two drinking water supply systems. When completed, it will enable its beneficiaries to produce an additional 2,600 mt of rice and 3,800 mt of vegetables each year, according to the BOAD.

Abidjan, 3 September 1999; 19:21 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-1545

[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 or free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or fax: +254 2 622129 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

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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