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 22-41-9339 e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ciWEST AFRICA IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 23 3 to 9 June 2000
CONTENTS: SIERRA LEONE: Indian government team in Freetown SIERRA LEONE: More displaced as fighting extends northward SIERRA LEONE: One million people left without health care SIERRA LEONE: UN, British officials visit SIERRA LEONE: Taylor offer to provide troops irks Kabbah SIERRA LEONE: EC to fund emergency humanitarian assistance SIERRA LEONE: UN envoy talks of the challenges ahead SIERRA LEONE: Russia approves troop deployment SIERRA LEONE: Food distribution update LIBERIA: UNHCR calls for help to repatriate refugees LIBERIA: Government accused of aiding and abetting RUF LIBERIA: Taylor opposed to British military aid to Freetown LIBERIA: Cholera kills 3, another 150 infected LIBERIA: Measles outbreak COTE D'IVOIRE: Arrest warrant issued for ousted president GHANA: World Bank help for rural financial services GUINEA-BISSAU: Public sector union gives strike notice WEST AFRICA: Low life expectancy CHAD: World Bank approves pipeline funding NIGER: Disarmament of armed groups reaches final stage EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Ruling party sweeps local vote SENEGAL: Preparing for mass repatriation from Mauritania NIGERIA: Nigerians protest against fuel price hike TOGO: UN-OAU enquiry into extrajudicial killings GUINEA: Woman bags Foreign Ministry in cabinet reshuffle SIERRA LEONE: Indian government team in Freetown India says it has sent a team of defence and foreign ministry officials to Sierra Leone to monitor efforts to free 21 Indian UN troops surrounded by rebels in the eastern district of Pendembu, the Press Trust of India reported on Friday. SIERRA LEONE: More displaced as fighting extends northward UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone occupied the strategic crossroads of Rogberi Junction on 3 June while pro-government troops retook on Wednesday the northern town of Lunsar, which they had captured and then lost to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). As fighting between the rebels and pro-government forces extended northward, more and more people have been displaced. According to UN sources, some 64,000 people were forced to flee their homes in May. On Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the number of IDPs registered by aid agencies at 220,000 and said it was believed that many other IDPs had been unaccounted for because they could not be reached. On Monday, a humanitarian source told IRIN that some 4,000 people who had fled Makeni and Magburaka in the north had arrived in the Mile 91 area, some 115 km east of Freetown, and that there was concern that they might be headed for the capital, where facilities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) were overstretched. Another destination for northern IDPs was a camp at Port Loko, north of Freetown, whose population had swelled from 5000 a few weeks ago to 11,000 on Monday. Kabala, also in the north, received over 2,000 IDPs, but RUF rebels attacked government troops there on Tuesday night, causing thousands of people to flee the town, according to the UNAMSIL. Meanwhile, on Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported women from Makeni, Port Loko, Lunsar and the Yelibiuya Peninsula as tellings HRW researchers that RUF fighters had been raping women and girls as young as 10 years in the four northern locations. SIERRA LEONE: One million people left without health care Fighting in northern Sierra Leone between the army and rebels has resulted in the closure this week of the one remaining hospital in the region leaving up to a million people without access to medical facilities, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a news release on Thursday. The Kabala hospital had been the only functioning hospital in the entire northern district of Sierra Leone, according to MSF, which said more than six other hospitals and 250 health centres were already out of service. SIERRA LEONE: UN, British officials visit Sierra Leone played host this week to British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, as well as a UN assessment mission whose brief was to see what needed to be done to make sure the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) worked effectively. The UN team held various meetings with UN and Sierra Leone government officials, relief organisations and civil society. Cook's 24-hour visit ended on Thursday. He reaffirmed Britain's support for Sierra Leone and said his government's strategy in that country had three objectives - "to repel the rebels, to restore the peace process and to rebuild" the country. SIERRA LEONE: Taylor offer to provide troops irks Kabbah Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah told British Foreign Minister Robin Cook on Thursday that Liberian President Charles Taylor had insulted his country by offering to contribute troops to a proposed Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) force for Sierra Leone, a media source in Freetown told IRIN. News organisations reported that Taylor had offered two companies for the proposed force. Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore who, like Taylor, has been accused of backing the RUF, also said, on Gabon's Africa No. 1 radio, that his country was ready to provide troops. SIERRA LEONE: EC to fund emergency humanitarian assistance The European Commission (EC) is to commit a further 12 million Euro (US $10,776,588) for the funding of emergency humanitarian assistance in Sierra Leone, the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) said in a news release on Monday. The assistance, to be managed by ECHO, will target IDPs, resident populations affected by the conflict, and Sierra Leonean refugees in neighbouring Guinea and Liberia. SIERRA LEONE: UN envoy talks of the challenges ahead New challenges confront the United Nations in Sierra Leone following the resumption of hostilities there in early May. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sierra Leone, Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji, pinpointed some of the issues in an interview with IRIN in early June. [See separate item titled 'SIERRA LEONE: IRIN Interview with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji] SIERRA LEONE: Russia approves troop deployment Russia's upper house of parliament has approved a request by President Vladimir Putin to send some 115 troops and four Mi-24 combat helicopters to join the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone, the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported on Tuesday. The unit will provide security for UN personnel, and carry out search-and-rescue missions, patrols and reconnaissance flights, ITAR-TASS reported the Ministry of Defence as saying in May. SIERRA LEONE: Food distribution update WFP and its NGO partners on Sunday finished distributing some 200 mt of food aid to 25,000 newly displaced people in Kafu Bullom and Loko Masama in the Lungi area north of Freetown. The IDPs also received non-food items from the International Committee of the Red Cross, OCHA reported. Last weekend Catholic Relief Services (CRS) moved 24 mt of food to the northern town of Kabala. A CRS official told OCHA some 200 mt to 300 mt of food was needed to fully address the plight of civilians there. LIBERIA: UNHCR calls for help to repatriate refugees The UNHCR has urged the international community to pay for the repatriation of Liberian refugees in Guinea, some 32,000 of whom have registered this year with the UN agency to return home voluntarily. The UNHCR representative in Guinea, Chris Ache, said there were still another 130,000 Liberian refugees in Guinea. He said they strongly desired to return home after as many as 10 years in exile. LIBERIA: Government accused of aiding and abetting RUF "There is continuing evidence establishing close links between the rebels in Sierra Leone and supporters in Liberia," British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told parliament in London on Tuesday. "Liberians are profiting from illegal diamond smuggling," Cook said. Meawhile, Liberia's opposition New Deal Movement has called on the Taylor government to sever ties with Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), including its leader Foday Sankoh, and declare its officials and associates personae non grata, the Liberia News Agency (LINA) reported. LIBERIA: Taylor opposed to British military aid to Sierra Leone Radio Liberia International on Monday reported Taylor as saying he opposed Britain's arming the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) and calling on the UN and ECOWAS to ensure that only peacekeepers in the country carry arms. Britain announced in May that it would supply the SLA with arms and ammunition, following the resurgence of hostilities by the rebels. LIBERIA: Cholera kills 3, another 150 infected Liberian Health Minister Peter Coleman said on Wednesday that a cholera outbreak had killed three people and affected about 150 others in the southeastern county of Maryland, which borders on Cote d'Ivoire, PANA reported. Coleman told the news agency that most of the victims were aged 5-15 years. The outbreak, he said, was due to the unavailability of safe drinking water in the county, some 290 km southeast of Monrovia. LIBERIA: Measles outbreak The independent newspaper `The Inquirer' in Monrovia reported on Wednesday that measles had broken out in Nimba and Grand Kru counties in northeast and southeast Liberia respectively, PANA said. It said dozens of children had already died from the preventable disease, mainly because of a lack of medical supplies. COTE D'IVOIRE: Arrest warrant issued for ousted president Ivorian legal authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for ousted president Henri Konan Bedie and his former economy and finance minister, Niamien N'Goran, the state-owned `Fraternite Matin' reported on Wednesday. Both men are wanted for the theft of public funds. GHANA: World Bank help for rural financial services The World Bank approved on Thursday a US $5.13-million loan to help Ghana strengthen financial services in rural areas. The bank said approximately 80 percent of Ghana's 18.5 million people lived in rural areas. GUINEA-BISSAU: Public sector union gives strike notice The National Union of Guinea-Bissau Workers has notified the government of its intention to begin a three-day general strike on Monday unless minimum wages are raised. Union spokesman Sebastiao Gomes Correia said on Tuesday that the government must take a final decision on a new salary scale setting the monthly minimum wage at 45,000 francs CFA (about US $64) instead of the equivalent of about US $21. WEST AFRICA: Low life expectancy Sierra Leone, Niger and Mali rank among the 10 countries worldwide with the lowest life expectancy, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a report published on Sunday. Babies born in 1999 can expect to live healthy lives of no longer than 25.9 years in Sierra Leone, 29.1 years in Niger and 33.1 years in Mali. Where previously malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases were the leading killers, AIDS has now taken the lead in sub-Saharan Africa, WHO says. [The WHO LIFE EXPECTANCY INDEX can CHAD: World Bank approves pipeline funding The board of the World Bank Group has agreed to support the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project despite opposition to it within both Chad and Cameroon. The World Bank on Tuesday called the project "an unprecedented framework to transform oil wealth into direct benefits for the poor, the vulnerable and the environment." It will develop the oil fields at Doba in southern Chad and construct a 1,070-km pipeline to off-shore loading facilities on Cameroon's Atlantic coast, the news release said. Chadian opposition parties and insurgents condemned the World Bank's decision to fund the project in the face of government corruption and drug trafficking, AFP reported on Wednesday. NIGER: Disarmament of armed groups reaches final stage Niger began on Tuesday the final stage of disarming and integrating into society various anti-government forces that had fought for greater autonomy for - if not the separation of - their northern homelands from the rest of the country, state-owned Niger Radio announced. The ceremony took place near the town of Agadez, some 750 km northeast of Niamey. EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Ruling party sweeps local vote Equatorial Guinea's ruling Partido Democratico de Guinea Ecuatorial (PDGE) swept all 30 councils in last month's municipal elections, boycotted by most of the opposition, AFP reported. National Electoral Commission head Clemente Engonga Nguema announced on Monday that the PDGE had won 230 seats out of a total of 244 in the vote on 28 May. SENEGAL: Preparing for mass repatriation from Mauritania Officials in Dakar told IRIN that Senegal has activated plans for the repatriation of its nationals from Mauritania, whose police on Monday gave Senegalese 15 days to leave the country following a dispute over the use of the border river between the two governments. Between 60,000 and 100,000 Senegalese lived in Mauritania. By Wednesday evening, some 2,500 had fled across the river to the town of Rosso Senegal, a Dakar newspaper reported on Thursday. [See item titled 'SENEGAL: IRIN Focus on renewed tension with Mauritania'] NIGERIA: Nigerians protest against fuel price hike Nigerians staged a stay-at-home strike on Thursday and Friday in answer to a call from the umbrella Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to protest against a 50-percent increase in fuel prices announced a week ago by the government. News organisations reported that all private businesses were closed and transport vehicles were off the streets after the talks between the government and the NLC proved inconclusive. Union leaders rejected a government offer to scale down the price increase. TOGO: UN-OAU enquiry into extra-judicial killings The secretaries-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim, announced on Wednesday the establishment of a joint UN-OAU commission of inquiry into allegations that Togo's authorities killed hundreds of people in 1998. The three-member commission was created at the request of Togo's government following claims in a 1999 Amnesty International report that the bodies of victims of extrajudicial executions in Togo had been washed up on Togolese and Beninese shores after being dumped into the Atlantic. GUINEA: Woman bags Foreign Ministry in cabinet reshuffle M'mah Hawa Bangoura has become the first woman foreign minister of Guinea following a cabinet reshuffle, AFP reported on Thursday, quoting state-run television. Bangoura, who was Guinea's representative at the United Nations, succeeds Zainoul Abidine Sanoussi. Wednesday's reshuffle, in which the portfolios of Security, and Planning and Cooperation were scrapped - thus reducing the number of ministries from 21 to 19, was the second this year, coming just five months after President Lansana Conte fired five ministers in January. Abidjan, 9 June 2000; 17:00 GMT [IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 22-40-4440; Fax (Admin): +225 22-40-4435; Fax (Editorial Desk): 225-22-41-9339; 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. 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