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 24 10 to 16 June 2000
CONTENTS: SIERRA LEONE: Nigerian peacekeepers repel RUF rebels SIERRA LEONE: UN Jordanian troops repel RUF rebels SIERRA LEONE: Government forces repel attack on Lunsar SIERRA LEONE: Calaba Town residents get help with shelter SIERRA LEONE: Government holding 120 political detainees SIERRA LEONE: IDPs now number over 105,000 SIERRA LEONE: Local aid for Kenema District SIERRA LEONE: Amnesty catalogues Sierra Leone rights abuses SIERRA LEONE: Aid agencies worried about civilians' safety SIERRA LEONE: Israel bans "conflict" gems SIERRA LEONE: OAU appoints envoy SIERRA LEONE: Pro-government militia hands over ex-child fighters LIBERIA: EU suspends aid LIBERIA: Dissidents planning to attack from Sierra Leone, government says LIBERIA: EU-funded generator brings water to city residents NIGER: Premier says army calm despite arrests NIGERIA: Labour calls off strike NIGERIA: US debt support conditioned on economic reforms NIGERIA: Anti-corruption law NIGERIA: Governors in southeast agree on joint investment NIGERIA: Floods wash away 50 homes, hundreds homeless WEST AFRICA: Child protection seminar for military trainers COTE D'IVOIRE: IFAD support for small-farmer project COTE D'IVOIRE: Main parties support draft constitution GHANA: HIV affects more than 400,000 people MAURITANIA: Nouakchott rescinds expulsion order EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Seat of government to be moved WORLD: Greed for loot fuels civil wars, World Bank says SIERRA LEONE: Nigerian peacekeepers repel RUF rebels Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels attacked UN peacekeepers from Nigeria on Thursday in Port Loko, northeast of Freetown, but retreated into the bush after an exchange of fire lasting some 45 minutes, UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said. The attack coincided with the withdrawal of the last British troops sent in May to Sierra Leone. UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) Spokesman David Wimhurst said the withdrawal would not adversely affect the security situation in the country. However, a humanitarian source told IRIN: "The vacuum created by the departure of the British troops will be filled by the RUF unless something is done." Other, newly arrived, British troops on Thursday began training the 1000 recruits who will form the core of Sierra Leone’s new army. SIERRA LEONE: UN Jordanian troops repel RUF rebels Jordanian UN peacekeepers at Rokel Bridge, some 63 km northeast of Freetown, repulsed three attempts by some 200 RUF fighters to cross the Rokel creek by canoe toward their unit, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard reported on Monday. The Jordanians came under fire but suffered no casualties. Jordan is one of at least nine countries that have contributed troops to the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, which now numbers over 12,000, including some military observers. SIERRA LEONE: Government forces repel attack on Lunsar Pro-government forces repelled a recent rebel attack on Lunsar, some 85 km northeast of Freetown, Information Minister Julius Spencer told IRIN on Tuesday. He had no further details of the clash. Fighting continued for about three hours before Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels withdrew, AP reported Lieutenant Edmond Bangura as saying. Meanwhile, a government helicopter attacked RUF rebels near Kabata Junction, some 7 km from the northern town of Port Loko, the Missionary News Agency (MISNA) reported on Monday. Three rebel trucks were destroyed and at least 100 rebels, including several children, were killed, the agency said. A fourth truck escaped, reportedly taking survivors and the wounded to Kambia, near the border with Guinea. SIERRA LEONE: Calaba Town residents get help with shelter The Catholic Relief Service (CRS) and Caritas, both NGOs, said they would continue an emergency home-building project in Calaba Town which has so far rehoused some 13,000 Freetown city residents. CRS said 613 of the 720 homes it has been supporting in the town - some 10 km southeast of downtown Freetown - have already been occupied. The NGO said it had raised another 159 homes to roof level. SIERRA LEONE: Government holding 120 political detainees Sierra Leone's government said on Tuesday it was holding 120 political detainees, including three ministers from the Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP - formed after the Lome Peace Agreement), 102 other civilians, two RUF "colonels" and 11 ex-SLA soldiers. The detainees include Trade and Industry Minister Mike Lamin, Energy and Works Minister Pallo Bangura, Lands and Environment Minister Peter Vandy, RUFP spokesman Eldred Collins and RUFP Secretary-General Momoh Rogers, Sierra Leone Web reported. Also being held is a former fighter of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, once headed by Liberian President Charles Taylor. SIERRA LEONE: IDPs now number over 105,000 The number of civilians displaced since early May has reached at least 105,000 and at least half were displaced between 1 and 10 June, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York. At least 22,000 newly displaced people from the Makeni-Magburaka area in the north of the country have been registered in the town of Mile 91 and are awaiting food distribution, he added. SIERRA LEONE: Local aid for Kenema District Six localities in the eastern district of Kenema will benefit from a grant of three million leones (US $16,216) from Sierra Leone's National Commission for Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Reintegration. The money is to be used to rebuild and remodel primary schools and health centres, and improve food crop and poultry production, the national news agency, SLENA, reported on Tuesday. SIERRA LEONE: Amnesty catalogues Sierra Leone rights abuses Some of the worst human rights abuses in Africa over the past year have been perpetrated in Sierra Leone, where rebels routinely amputated the limbs of civilians, even children just months old, in a bid to seize power through terror, Amnesty International said on Wednesday in its annual report on the rights situation in countries across the world. "Rape remained systematic in areas under the control of rebel forces," Amnesty said. SIERRA LEONE: Aid agencies worried about civilians' safety A major concern for aid agencies as Sierra Leone's conflict continues to widen is how to make sure civilians are safe, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its situation report for 6-10 June. In the north of the country and some parts of the east where neither government nor UN forces have fully deployed, security cannot be guaranteed for civilians, OCHA said. SIERRA LEONE: Israel bans "conflict" gems The Israeli Diamond Exchange said on Monday that it would ban any member that knowingly trades in "conflict diamonds" from rebels in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Congo, news organisations reported. It also urged all other diamond exchanges to take a similar stand to stop the illicit diamond trade, news reports said. Any trader it expels is automatically excluded from the other 23 diamond exchanges around the world. SIERRA LEONE: OAU appoints envoy The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) announced on Monday that it was sending Jeremiah Mamabolo to represent the OAU secretary-general in Sierra Leone. Mamabolo is South Africa's ambassador to Ethiopia and the OAU. SIERRA LEONE: Pro-government militia hands over ex-child fighters Pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF) handed over some 138 former child fighters aged 8 to 16 to the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) on Monday in Masiaka, some 55 km east of Freetown, Information Minister Julius Spencer told IRIN. Asked if they were working alongside government or rebel forces, Spencer replied: "I think they were a mixture although the majority had been with the Revolutionary United Front." LIBERIA: EU aid suspended EU foreign ministers agreed on Tuesday to a British proposal to suspend just over US $50 million in development aid to Liberia because, Britain claimed, Liberia was helping Sierra Leone's rebels, including by selling them guns for diamonds. Liberian Deputy Information Minister Milton Teahjay told IRIN on Thursday the EU move was "precipitated by bits and pieces of information orchestrated by some EU partners" and said his government hoped to set the record straight with the EU. LIBERIA: Dissidents planning to attack from Sierra Leone, government says Liberian dissidents in Sierra Leone are planning to attack their country because of the support Monrovia is alleged to be giving to RUF rebels in Sierra Leone, Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea told reporters on Monday. He was reacting to a statement by Sierra Leone's deputy minister of defence, Hinga Norman that continued Liberian support for the RUF could lead to confrontation between the two countries. Chea said the leaders of two former Liberian rebel factions, ULIMO-K and ULIMO-J, were planning the attack. LIBERIA: EU-funded generator brings water to city residents A 300-HP engine funded by the European Union has begun pumping some 8.2 million litres of water a day to residents of Monrovia's Bushrod Island and adjacent neighbourhoods, the Liberian news agency, LINA, reported. Citing an unnamed project manager, LINA said a second EU generator would arrive by the end of June to ensure safe drinking water to residents "in and out of Monrovia". NIGER: Premier says army calm despite arrests Niger’s government announced on Tuesday that 10 military officers had been arrested on suspicion of organizing the kidnapping on Saturday of Major Djibrilla Hamidou Hima, a member of the former military government of Major Daouda Mallam Wanke, AFP reported. In Paris, visiting Niger Prime Minister Hama Amadou dismissed reports on Tuesday that a split in the army had led to the kidnapping. He told reporters the army was "calm and there has been no disturbance in Niamey and in military bases elsewhere in the country". NIGERIA: Labour calls off strike An agreement between the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the government on the reduction of a 50-per cent fuel price hike imposed on 1 June led to the lifting on Tuesday of a week-long strike called by the NLC. Under the agreement, the price of gasolene was reduced from 30 to 22 naira per litre and diesel from 29 to 21 naira. Kerosene was reduced from 27 naira to its pre-hike price of 17 naira per litre. Labour called the strike on 6 June, saying the hike hurt most Nigerians. President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday described the agreement as a victory for democracy in Nigeria. However, he could have a harder time mending relations with the legislature, which had also opposed the price hike along with other measures he has taken in the past months. [See separate item titled 'NIGERIA: IRIN Focus on Obasanjo's changing political fortunes'] NIGERIA: US debt support conditioned on economic reforms US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers promised on Monday, at the start of an African tour, to support international debt relief for Nigeria, which owes some US $30 billion, if Abuja makes "significant progress" in economic and financial reform, the BBC reported. The proposed reforms include the increased privatisation of state-owned firms and the removal of government subsidies, which led Nigeria to raise oil prices last week, sparking a crippling nationwide strike. NIGERIA: Anti-corruption law Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has signed into law a new bill that allows for the creation of a special council to investigate corruption charges against any Nigerian, the president included, news organisations reported. Obasanjo said he hoped the anti-corruption law, which he first presented to parliament in June 1999, would substantially reduce the "menace and evil of corruption" in Nigeria, BBC reported. NIGERIA: Governors in southeast agree on joint investment Governors of Nigeria's southeastern states have set up a technical committee to advise them on a joint investment plan to foster inter-state development in their area, AFP reported. It said that in a statement after a meeting on 9 June in the eastern city of Enugu, the governors of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo and Rivers said they would cooperate in key economic sectors such as telecommunications, banking, power generation, agriculture and transport. NIGERIA: Floods wash away 50 homes, hundreds homeless Rain-induced floods in the northwest Nigerian city of Sokoto have destroyed 50 homes and left several hundred people homeless, AFP reported on Friday, quoting state-run Nigerian Television Authority. The floods, the first this year, inundated hundreds of hectares of farmland and washed away livestock. Similar floods across Nigeria last year rendered thousands homeless. WEST AFRICA: Child protection seminar for military trainers Twenty-six military officers from 14 West African countries on Monday began work on a training manual on protecting children in wars, to be used by the region's armies, at a seminar at the Zambakro Peacekeeping School in Cote D'Ivoire. The two-week seminar on child protection is being run by Save the Children-Sweden (SCF-Sweden) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The US $337,797 initiative is funded by Canada, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, UNHCR, UNICEF and the Roman Catholic church. [See separate item titled 'WEST AFRICA: Military trainers learn to protect children'] COTE D'IVOIRE: IFAD support for small-farmer project The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is to lend Cote d'Ivoire US $11.17 million for a project expected to benefit some 65,000 farmers whose plots range in size from 1 to 15 ha, IFAD reported. Under an agreement signed on 9 June in Rome by IFAD and Ivoirian representatives, IFAD will also give Cote d'Ivoire US $67,500 to facilitate project start-up. The Ivoirian government and the beneficiaries will contribute the rest of the US $14.02 million which the Small Horticultural Producer Support Project will cost. COTE D'IVOIRE: Main parties support draft constitution The three main political parties in Cote d’Ivoire have urged their supporters to vote "yes" at a referendum on 23 July on a draft constitution which, if approved, will disqualify any presidential candidate who has held another nationality. Under the draft, all candidates and their parents must be Ivorian. Last weekend, the Front populaire Ivorien of Laurent Gbagbo and the former ruling Parti democratique de Cote d'Ivoire came out in favour of the draft. The Rassemblement des Republicains was one of the first parties to call for a "yes" vote even though critics of its leader, former Prime Minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara, claim that he is Burkinabe and thus would not be eligible to run for president under the proposed constitution. GHANA: HIV affects more than 400,000 people About 400,000 Ghanaians have contracted HIV and another 37,296 have developed AIDS, the country's AIDS control coordinator, Dr. Kweku Yeboah, said. Indications were that an estimated 120,000 children in Ghana have been orphaned by the pandemic, `The Chronicle', an Accra daily, reported Yeboah as saying on Wednesday. Mother-to-child infection represents 15 percent of the cases. MAURITANIA: Nouakchott rescinds expulsion order Mauritanian Interior Minister Dah Ould Abdel Jelil announced on Saturday that the government had rescinded an order for the some 100,000 Senegalese living in Mauritania to leave within 15 days. Mauritanian police had ordered the Senegalese to leave after the Mauritanian government charged that Dakar was using water from the Senegal River, which separates the two nations, for irrigation, thus causing land to dry up on the Mauritanian side. Nouakchott's claim followed reports that Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade had announced plans to use the river for irrigation. EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Seat of government to be moved Equatorial Guinea is to transfer its administrative capital from Malabo to Bata, AFP reported on 10 June, quoting an announcement by government spokesman Antonio Fernando Nve, who said the transfer would be temporary and would help modernise public administration and infrastructure in the country's second city, Bata, located on the mainland. However, Malabo, on the island of Bioko, will remain the constitutionally recognised capital and will continue to host some ministries so as to ensure normal operations in the administration. Bioko is about 150 km from the Equatorial Guinea mainland. WORLD: Greed for loot fuels civil wars, World Bank says Civil wars are fuelled more often by rebel groups competing with governments for control of valuable commodities like diamonds and coffee rather than by political, ethnic or religious differences, according to a new World Bank report. The report,'Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and their Implications for Policy' looked at 47 civil wars from 1960-1999, the World Bank said in a news release on Thursday. It shows that countries which earn around a quarter of their yearly GDP from the export of unprocessed commodities, are much more likely to experience civil war than countries with more diversified economies. Abidjan, 16 June 2000; 16:19 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. 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. 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