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 25 17 to 23 June 2000.
CONTENTS: SIERRA LEONE: Some 30,000 IDPs receive food aid in Mile 91 SIERRA LEONE: WFP recalls Port Loko food convoy SIERRA LEONE: Minister refutes allegations of recruiting dissidents SIERRA LEONE: Government ratifies International Criminal Court treaty SIERRA LEONE: UN, ECOWAS call for justice COTE D'IVOIRE: False coup alert, military chief says GUINEA: Refugees continue to flee Sierra Leone GUINEA-BISSAU: Guinea-Bissau refugees returning home GUINEA-BISSAU: Union claims general strike 70% successful NIGERIA: Kano adopts Sharia NIGERIA: Lagos judge frees 64 detainees LIBERIA: Elite troops guard diplomatic quarter LIBERIA: Taylor advises British nationals to leave certain regions NIGER: Nearly 1,000 deaths from meningitis this year NIGER: Four soldiers released NIGER: Police arrest 560 drug traffickers this year GAMBIA: Indicted opposition leader to continue political campaign CHAD: Nation to use oil wealth wisely, says Deby GHANA: Former prime minister's assets released SIERRA LEONE: Some 30,000 IDPs receive food aid in Mile 91 Nearly 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have started receiving WFP food aid in the town of Mile 91, some 116 km east of Freetown, a UN humanitarian source told IRIN on Tuesday. Another 17,000 IDPs have been registered in the surrounding area and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that another 10,000 are awaiting registration. The humanitarian officer said "the most immediate need" now was for shelter because there was no IDP camp. However, humanitarian agencies are making plans to accommodate these people, many of whom have come from Makeni, Magburaka and Lunsar. They are served by two health clinics operated by Caritas and MSF Netherlands, the UN official said. SIERRA LEONE: WFP recalls Port Loko food convoy Concerned about the security situation, the World Food Progamme said on Tuesday it had recalled a food aid convoy destined for at least 14,000 displaced people in Port Loko, some 60 km northeast of Freetown. For the same reason, the UN agency said it also delayed food distribution on Thursday to over 16,000 displaced in Lungi, just north of the capital. Over the past six weeks WFP and its partners have registered over 85,000 displaced people in and around Freetown, Lungi, Port Loko and Mile 91, most of whom have fled their homes in the northern towns of Lunsar, Makeni and Magburaka due to recent fighting. WFP also said it was deeply concerned for the thousands of displaced people stranded in non-government held areas and isolated rural regions where food is lacking. The fighting has erupted in the May-September rainy season, known locally as the "hunger season". SIERRA LEONE: Minister refutes allegations of recruiting dissidents Deputy Defence Minister Hinga Norman has refuted news reports that Sierra Leone is recruiting dissident fighters of the former Liberian faction, ULIMO, to attack their country, PANA reported on Tuesday. The allegations were attributed to the Liberian defence minister. Sierra Leone, Norman added, harboured no intention of attacking Liberia but warned that his country would meet any threat from across the border where Monrovia has deployed troops. SIERRA LEONE: Government ratifies International Criminal Court treaty Sierra Leone has ratified the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court which will have powers to put individuals on trial for the most heinous offences, the UN said. Sierra Leone informed a Preparatory Committee, finalising the operational details of the court's statute, of its ratification of the treaty on 23 May. The Committee has until 30 June to complete work on two aspects of the Court's statute that are essential to its eventual functioning: the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, and Elements of Crimes. The Court, which is to be a permanent judicial body with jurisdiction over crimes committed by individuals, has now received 13 of the 60 ratifications necessary to bring it into force: Belize, Fiji, France, Ghana, Iceland, Italy, Norway, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela. SIERRA LEONE: UN, ECOWAS call for justice The UN Security Council and a six-member delegation from its equivalent in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have urged that those responsible for violating the Lome Peace Accord be brought to justice, the UN reported on Thursday. Following a meeting at UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday the two organisations issued a joint communique calling for the unconditional release of and freedom of movement for all UN personnel detained or surrounded in eastern Sierra Leone by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The Council and the ECOWAS delegation also called for an investigation into illicit diamond sales that the rebels have made to buy arms. Members of the ECOWAS council, led by Malian foreign minister Modibo Sidibe, are Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Togo. President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah - whose nation ratified the International Criminal Court Treaty on 20 May - has asked the UN to set up a tribunal similar to one being created for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, with a mix of local and foreign prosecutors and judges. "With the help of appropriate inquiries, those identified as responsible should be brought to justice," the Security Council and ECOWAS said in a joint statement. However, Amnesty International said on Thursday the tribunal should provide real and credible justice by also judging "those now associated with the government" who have also been responsible for "gross human rights abuses". COTE D'IVOIRE: False coup alert, military chief says Chief of defence staff General Soumahia Diabagate made a nationwide radio appeal for calm on Thursday after soldiers entered the state television headquarters, sparking fears of an attempted coup. He gave no reason for the flurry of military activity at the national television station amidst reports that soldiers had forced civilian employees to leave the facility, after "an incident" between the two parties. Witnesses at the scene told IRIN that some armoured vehicles and troops had arrived at the building but left within the hour. Other soldiers on the street adjacent to the building have been on permanent guard since the coup in December 1999. Residents in the area said they heard no shots being fired on Thursday. The nearby gendarmerie training school showed no sign of unusual activity and traffic circulated around the city streets as usual, except near the television station. However, some people returned home early and some shops closed. Diabakhate denounced what he said was a campaign of "intoxication, rumour and disinformation" about an attempted coup. Appealing for calm he added, "be rest assured that that your security is guaranteed and nobody will have the chance to disturb this calm." GUINEA: Refugees continue to flee Sierra Leone Hundreds of Sierra Leoneans fleeing fighting between the government and rebels which resumed in their country early May continue to enter neighbouring Guinea, UNHCR Public Information Officer in Guinea Fatoumata Kaba told IRIN on Thursday. She said as of 20 June 4,183 refugees had arrived in the Guinea region of Forecariah. "There are approximately 200 people arriving every day at the moment and we expect more," Kaba said. The UNHCR has a camp able to house 15,000 people has been built at Kalako and eight more in the Forecariah region can together hold as many. Most of the arrivals - from Makeni and Kambia and Port Loko - are in good health but are tired after walking for over a week. GUINEA-BISSAU: Guinea-Bissau refugees returning home Over 300 Guinea-Bissau refugees who have been living in northern Guinea since June 1998 have returned home, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Abidjan told IRIN on Tuesday. The official said 102 refugees were flown on Monday from Kamsar, in the north of Guinea, to Bissau. This brings to 367 the number of voluntary returnees since the UNHCR operation began last week. Another 100 refugees have registered for repatriation and more are expected in the coming weeks. Thousands of civilians fled to Guinea and other nearby West African countries in 1998 during General Ansumane Mane's armed rebellion against the government of Joao Bernardo Vieira. GUINEA-BISSAU: Union claims general strike 70% successful A 10-day general strike for higher wages by Guinea-Bissau public sector employees that began on Wednesday was supported by 70 percent of the workforce, union secretary-general Desejado Lima da Costa told reporters in the capital, Bissau. The group of independent trade unions, which called the strike, is demanding a minimum wage of 55,000 francs CFA (US $80) from the current 14,000 francs ($20), Lusa reported. Citing figures for 1999, Lusa reported that the country, with a population of one million, has about 35,000 civil servants, including the military. NIGERIA: Kano adopts Sharia Over one million Muslims, mostly young men, chanting Islamic slogans gathered in the central square in the northern city of Kano on Wednesday to welcome the official proclamation of Sharia in the state. Although Islamic law has now been officially adopted by Kano, it will not be implemented until the beginning of Ramadan in early December because, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso said, the state lacked the courts and judges to enforce the law. The atmosphere in the prodominantly Christian and non-indigene area of Kano city known as Sabon Gari was "tense and quiet", the BBC reported. Shops were barricaded, businesses closed and people stayed at home. Despite assurances by state officials that Sharia will not apply to non-Muslims, many Christians have abandoned the city which has a history of religious violence, the BBC said. When Sharia was proposed in the northern state of Kaduna in February, some 1,000 people died when its sizable Christian minority took to the streets of Kaduna City in protest. Kano is the fourth state to declare Sharia and Jigawa State says it, too, will apply the law on 2 August. NIGERIA: Lagos judge frees 64 detainees Lagos State Chief Judge Christopher Segun freed some 64 detainees awaiting trial in Ikoyi and Kirikiri medium prisons on Tuesday as part of activities marking the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Law Week, 'The Guardian' reported. LIBERIA: Elite troops guard diplomatic quarter Units of Liberia's elite presidential guard, known as the Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU), threw a security blanket on Wednesday over the diplomatic enclave of Mamba Point, news organisations reported. Without going into detail, President Charles Taylor told reporters in Monrovia that the government had acted on intelligence reports. He said that his government had "access to western intelligence tracking international terrorists who may try to use Liberia as a breeding ground for their actions only to spoil the good name of our government". LIBERIA: Taylor advises British nationals to leave certain regions President Charles Taylor has advised British nationals and NGOs to stop working in lower Lofa and grand Cape Mount counties because of "some anti-British sentiments being harboured by some individuals", PANA reported him as saying on Wednesday. Taylor did not say why such sentiments were being expressed but analysts believe that it could be linked to a recent suspension of just over US $50 million in EU development aid to Liberia. Britain had proposed such a suspension to EU foreign ministers because of Liberia's close links with the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone. During a day-long meeting with an ECOWAS delegation and the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday, Britain took a strong position against Liberia for its alleged role in the Sierra Leonean crisis. The United Kingdom's ambassador to the UN, Jeremy Greenstock, warned Liberia that it must do all in its power to stop the supply of arms to the rebels and the illegal trafficking in diamonds. "The current activities of Liberia were potentially or perhaps actually a major threat in what we were trying to do to put Sierra Leone together," Greenstock said. Liberia has always denied involvement in these activities but maintained that individual or groups of Liberian mercenaries might be working with the RUF. NIGER: Nearly 1,000 deaths from meningitis this year Thousands of people have contracted meningitis in Niger since the beginning of the year and over 7 percent of those have died, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman in the capital Niamey told IRIN on Wednesday. Some 13,231 cases of the disease have been registered between 1 January and 20 June, of whom 969 have died. With the arrival of the rainy season and vaccination campaigns, WHO added, much of the danger has passed. Outbreaks of meningitis are associated in the Sahel region with the harmattan winds that blow from the Sahara desert during the dry Sahel season. NIGER: Four soldiers released Four Niger soldiers allegedly involved in the failed kidnap of a member of the country's former junta last week were released last Saturday, AFP reported Defence Minister Sabiou Dadi Gao as saying. They were part of a group of between 12 and 14 soldiers arrested last week and accused of organising the 10 June kidnap of Major Djibrilla Hamidou Hima, spokesman for the military junta which ruled Niger from April to December 1999, news organisations said. One of the four released is Colonel Issaka Labo, the former deputy chief of army staff. NIGER: Police arrest 560 drug traffickers this year Niger Police have so far this year arrested at least 560 drug traffickers or users, the national anti-narcotics centre reported in Niamey on Thursday, according to PANA. Of the detainees 495 are locals, 55 Nigerian, four Ghanaian, three Burkinabe and one Malian. The centre said that locals dominated the racket, followed by Nigerians, Ghanaians and Beninese. GAMBIA: Indicted opposition leader to continue political campaign Gambia's leading opposition party leader, Ousainou Darboe, has said he would continue campaigning in municipal elections despite his murder indictment on Tuesday. The Supreme Court has released Darboe, who heads the United Democratic Party (UDP), and some of his supporters on bail, according to news reports. Darboe, who is a lawyer, and 24 other of his supporters were charged with the murder of Alieu Njie, an activist of the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction. Njie died on Saturday during fighting between UDP and APRC supporters in Jimira District, near the town of Basse, 256 km due east of Banjul, the Gambian capital. Darboe told the BBC government supporters attacked his party when they tried to dismantle a roadblock in Jimira, where he had been campaigning ahead of local elections in November. The magistrate at a court in Basse on Wednesday transferred the case to the Supreme Court in Banjul, he said, because he lacked the authority to make a ruling. The accused were then driven to Banjul where they were released on bond, on Thursday. CHAD: Nation to use oil wealth wisely, says Deby Chadian President Idriss Deby has asked residents of the oil rich Logone Oriental District to join him in developing the country and to shun war as a way of achieving their goals. State owned Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne reported on Tuesday that in a recent visit to the district, Deby outlined his vision for development of the country following the US $3.7-million World Bank loan approval this month to build the oil pipeline from Doba, in southern Chad, to the Cameroonian petrol terminal at Kribi. The project has met with strong resistance from Chadian opposition parties and insurgents, who come under the umbrella Coordination des mouvements armes et partis politiques de l'opposition. They fear possible government corruption in the project, embezzlement of public funds and drug trafficking. However, Deby has promised to manage oil proceeds transparently, build schools, hospitals and modernise agriculture and animal husbandry. Chad signed a deal on Thursday with the consortium that will build the pipeline 1,070 km pipeline. The consortium commprises ExxonMobil (40 percent), Petronas of Malaysia (35 percent) and Chevron (25 percent). The state owned Tcad Oil Transportation Company, or TOTCO, and the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company COTCO also own shares. GHANA: Former prime minister's assets released The assets of Ghana's late prime minister, Kofi Busia, confiscated by the state well over 20 years ago are to be returned to his family on humanitarian grounds, PANA reported on Wednesday. Busia, who was prime minister of the Progress Party during its term of office from 1969 to 1972, died in the late 1980s. Abidjan, 23 June 2000; 19:00 GMT [IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 22-40-4440; Fax (Admin): +225 22-40-4435; Fax (Editorial Desk): 225-22-41 [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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