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 22 40 4440 Fax: +225 22 40 4435 e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ciWEST AFRICA IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 14 1-7 April 2000
CONTENTS: NIGERIA: US offers $12.6 million in military aid NIGERIA: South-South governors call for true federalism NIGERIA: Thousands of pilgrims stranded NIGERIA: OPC leader released NIGERIA: Crack police unit uncovers arms cache SIERRA LEONE: IDPs in Port Loko live in peace SIERRA LEONE: Refugees return to Kenema SIERRA LEONE: UN force in place by July SIERRA LEONE: Symbolic arms destruction planned SIERRA LEONE: Air Afrique Abidjan, Freetown LIBERIA: No full alert on border, government says NIGER: Meningitis kills 250 COTE D'IVOIRE: Rights league accuses military government COTE D'IVOIRE: Former ranking state employee released GUINEA-BISSAU: Government suspends official foreign travel SENEGAL: President Wade inaugurated SAHEL: Overall crop situation good NIGERIA: US offers $12.6 million in military aid US Defence Secretary William Cohen promised on 1 April US some $12.6 million to reshape the Nigerian military and bring it under civilian control, according to news reports. The package provides for the training of military personnel in the US and a $2-million computer simulation centre in Nigeria to teach troops peacekeeping skills, PANA reported. A 10-member team from the US defence contractor firm, MPRI, will work with Nigerians for at least one year to create a civilian defence structure that would control the budgets, payrolls, personnel issues and promotion systems, AFP reported quoting US defence officials. Cohen's visit to Nigeria, the first by a US defence secretary, came two weeks after that of his energy counterpart, Bill Richardson. NIGERIA: South-South governors call for true federalism Governors of six South-South states said on 1 April they could only commit themselves to a united Nigeria if true federalism was practiced and where fairness, justice and equality existed, 'The Guardian' reported. In a final communique issued at the end of their meeting the governors said many of Nigeria's problems were due to "the departure from the practice of true federalism". The governors' restatement of their support for the present political make-up of Nigeria follows demands by other governors in the oil-rich south for a confederal rather than the existing federation. NIGERIA: Thousands of pilgrims stranded Thousands of Nigerian pilgrims are stranded in Saudi Arabia after their flights home were cancelled at the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, according to news reports. The pilgrims, who are camped near Jeddah airport, have been waiting for transport for nearly two weeks; causing growing concern over their welfare, the BBC reported on Wednesday. At least 50,000 Nigerians are believed to have travelled to Mecca and those who have returned say that many left behind have been forced to sell their possessions to buy food or resort to begging, the BBC said. The governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, chartered two planes to repatriate some of the pilgrims, AFP quoted his office as saying on Wednesday. According to the BBC, the airlines chartered to transport the pilgrims have run into unexpected operational costs - some say due to the, sudden sharp rise in fuel - which have resulted in delays and cancelled flights. NIGERIA: OPC leader released Nigeria's State Security Service released the leader of a militant Yoruba group campaigning for greater autonomy in the country, on Thursday. Frederick Fasehun, voice of the moderate tendency within the Oodua Peoples Congress, was arrested on Wednesday by members of the State Security Service, news reports said. At a meeting of the pro-democracy National Democratic Coalition in the city, Fasehun said he was questioned about his group's activities during his six-hour detention in Lagos. Agents also interrogated him on his knowledge of the illegal circulation of guns in the city. The executive director of Human Rights Monitor, an NGO in the northern city of Kaduna, Festus Okoye, told IRIN on Thursday that the arrest - among others recently of leaders demanding constitutional changes - was prompted by government's nervousness "about the new openness we have in Nigeria". This nervousness, he said, most likely resulted from the recent religious riots in the country, which government blamed on antidemocratic forces. NIGERIA: Crack police unit uncovers arms cache A crack police unit uncovered an arms cache in the outskirts of Lagos on Monday, described as the largest "shock find of modern weaponry" in Nigeria, `The Guardian' newspaper reported. Quoting Police Commissioner Mike Okiro, the city daily said police seized a submachine gun, four automatic barretta rifles, a G-3 military assault rifle, other guns and over 63 rounds of ammunition. "The weapons, it was believed might have been used by criminals who have lately been terrorising areas like FESTAC, Satellite Town and Isolo," the paper said. FESTAC was the village specially built for the 1977 African Festival of Arts and Culture. SIERRA LEONE: IDPs in Port Loko live in peace A high profile delegation of UN humanitarian agencies that visited Port Loko, 50 km northeast of Freetown, on Wednesday discovered an atmosphere of peace and security in the town and its environs, a UN and government report says. The joint delegation, including representatives from UNICEF, UNHCR and WFP, report that some 2,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are living in makeshift shelter they built themselves. However, the construction of about 25 booths comprising some 200 rooms is in progress. Wells are being dug to provide inmates clean water. UNAMSIL and ECOMOG troops patrol volatile outskirts of the town every hour to ensure security, the report says. However, the 'Concord Times' reported on Wednesday that rebels were looting civilian property and were a threat to security in Maforki chiefdom, Port Loko District. But Sierra Leonean Information Minister Julius Spencer told IRIN that this had been occurring for some time in areas not patrolled by ECOMOG and UNAMSIL. Life difficult in Kambia In a similar visit to northern Kambia District on Wednesday, the delegation found extensive damage to infrastructure, which has made the return of IDP's difficult. Much of the district, north of Port Loko, is under Revolutionary United Front (RUF) control. Unlike Port Loko, schools in Kambia are not functioning in the sparsely populated town whose medical facilities are provided by MSF. The document was prepared by the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR) and the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). SIERRA LEONE: Refugees return to Kenema An estimated 2,500 refugees returned to eastern Sierra Leone between January and March and were registered by the UNHCR's office in Kenema, the refugee agency said on Tuesday. The majority of the returnees entered the country from Liberia through the Mano River/Zimmi highway but moved to Kenema to join their relatives. A total of 1,785 returnees were registered in the southern district of Pujehun in January. As part of preparations for its repatriation and reintegration of Sierra Leone refugees, UNHCR officials travelled by road in March to northern Kambia District on an assessment visit. There were no security incidents during the trip, UNHCR said. There are some 485,000 Sierra Leonean refugees in neighbouring countries mainly in Guinea (370,000), Liberia (98,000), Gambia (12,000) and elsewhere in the region, UNHCR reported. SIERRA LEONE: UN force in place by July UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday that the entire 11,000-strong UN peacekeeping force should be in Sierra Leone by the end of July. Annan told reporters, following the presentation of his millennium report to the UN General Assembly, that efforts were being made to have the Revolutionary United Front and its leader, Foday Sankoh, understand their responsibilities under the Lome Peace Accord signed in July 1999. Contrary to news reports citing ECOMOG's withdrawal, the West African peacekeeping force said its pullout was still suspended, to allow UNAMSIL more time to deploy. Orders for the resumption to the pullout will come from Nigeria, ECOMOG spokesman Chris Olukolade told IRIN on Wednesday. SIERRA LEONE: Symbolic arms destruction planned A four-member delegation from the regional centre for peace and disarmament in Lome, Togo, visited Sierra Leone from 29 March to 3 April to advise on the destruction of weapons due later this month in Freetown. The team, from the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, visited Freetown following a government request for technical advice; Napoleon Abdulai, Disarmament Officer for the centre, told IRIN. Logistical and environmental issues of the planned operation were discussed during the visit. The leader of the delegation, Abubakar Multi-Kamara, said the mission was in response to ongoing consultations with the UN, the ECOWAS Secretariat and the government of Sierra Leone on the moves to enhance peace and security along with the disarmament programme. SIERRA LEONE: Air Afrique Abidjan, Freetown An Air Afrique Airbus began a direct weekly flight on 1 April between Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, a company representative told IRIN on Wednesday. The carrier is the first international airline to resume flights to the war torn country, suspended after the 1997 military coup, AFP quoted the company as saying on Wednesday. LIBERIA: No full alert on border, government says Liberian Information Minister Joe Mulbah, told IRIN on Thursday that news accounts that it had put its troops on high alert on the border with Sierra Leone, following an attempt by insurgents to attack their homeland, were untrue. ECOMOG and Sierra Leone security agents arrested a group of suspected Liberian dissidents on 22 March in Sierra Leone. The BBC reported that two other attempts by alleged armed dissidents to cross the border into Liberia had also failed. NIGER: Meningitis kills 250 Meningitis has killed 250 people in Niger this year and another 2,800 have been diagnosed as infected, AFP reported citing latest figures released by the Health Ministry. The World Health Organisation's office in Abidjan, which is well informed of the situation in Niger, said as at 3 April there had been 2,794 recorded cases and 229 deaths. An epidemiologist at the WHO office in Abidjan, Mamadou Kone, told IRIN on Wednesday. the worst affected areas were the capital, Niamey, and Birne-Konne, some 350 km due east. WHO says it has provided US $20,000 worth of vaccines and chloramphenicol, used to treat the disease. Niger has appealed for 5.5 million doses of vaccine but has received around 600,000 so far, Kone said. COTE D'IVOIRE: Rights league accuses military government Cote d'Ivoire's human rights league, LIDHO, condemned on Wednesday what it said was renewed intimidation of the family members of deposed Ivorian president Henri Konan Bedie. But a spokesman for the ruling military government, Desire Dakori, dismissed the accusations as "nonsense". In a statement released on Wednesday, LIDHO said soldiers had gone to the locality of Pepressou, some 250 km north of Abidjan, on 23 March and seized "all vehicles belonging to the Bedie family, considered to be state property". It added that four of the vehicles were returned on the orders of Ivorian military leader General Robert Guei. However Dakori, denying all of LIDHO's report which included accounts of theft and torture, told IRIN on Thursday that the soldiers had repossessed some 12 government-owned four wheel drive vehicles. None, he added, belonged to the Bedie family. COTE D'IVOIRE: Former ranking state employee released The former director general of the state daily newspaper, 'Fraternite Matin', was released last weekend after a brief detention and questioning by the military, the press attache at the ruling Conseil National de Salut Public (CNSP), Desire Dakori, told IRIN on Monday. Kouame and the former minister of defence, Bandama N'Gatta, were arrested on 31 March on arrival at Abidjan's Felix Houphouet Boigny International Airport from Togo and taken to Akuedo military barracks in the capital. Dakori said the two men fled Cote d'Ivoire following the 24 December 1999 coup which deposed Henri Konan Bedie. GUINEA-BISSAU: Government suspends official foreign travel In a move to curb public spending Prime Minister Caetano Intchama announced on Thursday the immediate suspension of foreign travel by government officials, Lusa reported. Necessary official travel will still have to be considered in terms of cost and benefits, the government said. SENEGAL: President Wade inaugurated President Abdoulaye Wade, speaking at his inaugural ceremony on 1 April, challenged Senegalese youth to be active in the development of the country, news reports. Heard in Dakar by at least 60,000 spectators present at the nation's largest sports stadium, he told the youth to master new information technologies and be more serious in the construction of a democratic society. Wade, who describes himself as a committed pan-Africanist, also said he backed South African President Thabo Mbeki's concept of the African Renaissance as well as the African Union mooted during the 1999 extraordinary summit of the Organisation of African Unity, in Syrte, Libya. SAHEL: Overall crop situation good Niger doubles off-season market garden production Preliminary harvest estimates by Niger's Ministry of Rural Development indicate a gross production of 1.3 million mt of food, the USAID says in its Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) bulletin of 31 March. It quotes the Niger Ministry of Rural Development as saying about 270,000 mt of this production will be in cereals. These figures, FEWS says, "doubles the disappointing 1998/99 production". BURKINA FASO: Food situation good Food security for consumers are assured as prices remain depressed in local markets because of adequate availability of fruits, vegetables, milk, meat and other products, FEWS says. It adds that available water for off-season gardening and fishing, as well as fodder for livestock, are providing rural homes with money to buy other food and non-food items. CHAD: Food stocks increase, prices low Harvests of recessional sorghum, know locally as berbere, in Chad's Sahelian zone has increased food in markets and kept prices low, FEWS says. These surpluses, it says, are expected to meet shortfalls in the prefectures such as Batha, Ouaddai, Guera, Biltine and Sarth. Lake Chad's water level have neared record levels for 1999, it adds, where fish catch stocks are expected to improve. MALI: Food aid not needed for second straight year For the second consecutive year, Mali's national early warning system has not recommended food aid deliveries but has said several districts must intensify cropping to avoid economic hardships, FEWS says. Some of these localities are the Bankass and Koro circles, in the region of Mopti, where crops were lost to flooding. Paradoxically, FEWS said, several other districts will experience economic difficulties due to two successive years of record cereal harvests. These gains, it said, had depressed local cereal prices - a position which has been sustained by the low demand for cereal by neighbouring countries. Abidjan, 7 April 2000; 15:15 GMT [IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 22-40-4440 Fax: +225 22-40-4435 e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci] [This item is delivered in the English service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org 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 2000 distributed by - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Volunteers in Technical Assistance Disaster Information Center lists: www.vita.org/listsub.htm sitreps nat-dsr web: www.vita.org fireline - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - West Africa - http://www.vita.org/humanitarian/wafrica