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 26 24 to 30 June 2000
CONTENTS: SIERRA LEONE: RUF releases 21 peacekeepers SIERRA LEONE: SLRCS health clinic for Mile 91 IDPs SIERRA LEONE: Aid agencies worried about security SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL head visits scene of reported clashes SIERRA LEONE: Rapid intervention programme SIERRA LEONE: Pro-government militiamen leave Freetown SIERRA LEONE: Exhumation team visits Rogberi WEST AFRICA: Diamond representatives want openness GUINEA: Five die in post-election violence MALI: Improving rural infrastructure MALI/MAURITANIA: US $2.9 million needed to demarcate border MAURITANIA: EU to help malnourished children SENEGAL: MFDC denies attacking Guinea-Bissau GAMBIA: Detentions by security forces GAMBIA: Human rights umbrella formed WEST AFRICA: Regional airline cleared for takeoff COTE D'IVOIRE: 4.88 million on voters' register BENIN: Peace academy named after late UN mediator NIGERIA: Former Senate president in court NIGERIA: Strike closes schools and hospitals in Lagos NIGERIA: Clerics call for harmony NIGER: Media report president as saying "No" to Sharia WESTERN SAHARA: Polisario, Morocco talks inconclusive CAMEROON: Opposition trains anti-rigging squad EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Amnesty calls for release of detainees EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Senior army officer under house arrest SIERRA LEONE: RUF releases 21 peacekeepers UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday welcomed the release by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of 21 UN peacekeepers it had detained in Pendembu, eastern Sierra Leone, and said he hoped the rebels would free all other UN detainees. About 233 UN peacekeepers and military observers are blocked by the RUF in Kailahun, also in eastern Sierra Leone. SIERRA LEONE: SLRCS health clinic for Mile 91 IDPs The Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS) is to operate a clinic for children under the age of five and run an expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) in Mile 91, east of Freetown, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported. The decision followed an ICRC/SLRCS health-needs assessment in the area on 23-24 June. SIERRA LEONE: Aid agencies worried about security Insecurity still poses a major problem for aid agencies trying to reach populations in need outside the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its humanitarian situation update for 16-25 June. Security remains poor past the Waterloo area, on the Freetown peninsula, due to tension between pro-government forces and the latter's harassment of civilian travellers, OCHA said. It also said that the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) has sent reinforcements to improve security for some 50,000 internally displaced people IDPs) in Mile 91, east of Freetown. In the south, Civil Defence Forces (CDF, pro-government militias) have reportedly been beefing up their presence in the area between Joru and Zimmi near the border with Liberia. SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL head visits scene of reported clashes The force commander of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, Major General Vijay Jetley, travelled on Wednesday to Mile 91 to assess the situation in the area, situated east of Freetown, following reports of clashes there, UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida said in New York. According to news reports, Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and pro-government forces had clashed on Monday near the town. SIERRA LEONE: Rapid intervention programme The Sierra Leone government and humanitarian agencies are launching a rapid intervention programme to cater for internally displaced persons (IDPs) who manage to reach safer locations after being forced from their homes by insecurity. The programme aims to provide some 240,000 people with food, non-food items, shelter, access to water and sanitation and health facilities, OCHA reported this week. It requires the mobilisation of additional resources to ensure effective delivery, OCHA said. The areas covered include Bo in the south, Kenema in the east, the Western Area, Port Loko in the north and Tonkolili in the centre. SIERRA LEONE: Pro-government militiamen leave Freetown Pro-government Kamajor militiamen have started to leave Freetown as government agents enforce a weapons ban in the capital, Information Minister Julius Spencer told IRIN on Tuesday. Only regular army, police and UN peacekeeping forces are allowed to carry weapons in the city. The ban, announced by state radio some two weeks ago, is aimed at improving security in the capital. Spencer said the Civil Defence Forces (CDF), the pro-government militia that includes the Kamajors, were now leaving Freetown for areas where there was fighting. SIERRA LEONE: Exhumation team visits Rogberi An exhumation team travelled this week to Rogberi Junction, some 68 km northeast of Freetown, to examine the remains of UN peacekeepers killed during fighting in May, the UN reported. WEST AFRICA: Diamond representatives want openness Representatives of leading diamond import and marketing states and the international diamond industry agreed in London on Wednesday to work towards greater openness and standardisation in the import and export of rough diamonds. A statement issued after the meeting said participants agreed that national customs authorities and the industry should come up with practical measures to better identify the origins of diamonds. They also agreed that international and national trade bodies should encourage their members to ensure that no 'conflict diamonds' are traded and to explore with other interested parties the feasibility of a global certification scheme for rough diamonds. [See also separate item titled 'IRIN Focus on conflict diamonds' of 28 June' and the Global Witness report "Conflict Diamonds" at http://www.oneworld.org/globalwitness/] GUINEA: Five die in post-election violence Five persons died this week in Guinea during opposition demonstrations against delays in the proclamation of the results of local government elections held on 25 June, AFP reported on Thursday, citing an official source. Three people died in the central town of Mamou, and one each in Fria, in the north, and Boke in the northwest. The election, from which many Guineans stayed away, was marred by the harassment and detention of opposition activists, media sources reported. Eight of the 46 approved political parties presented candidates, AFP said. MALI: Improving rural infrastructure The World Bank has agreed to lend Mali's government US $115.1 million for a 10-year National Rural Infrastructure Project designed to improve irrigation, rehabilitate roads, and supply clean water and sanitation services to rural areas, the World Bank reported. It said the governments of Mali and the Netherlands, along with the beneficiaries, will contribute US $22.7 million to the project, which also aims to increase food security through higher, sustainable and more reliable farm production. [More information is available at: www.worldbank.org/developmentnews] MALI/MAURITANIA: US $2.9 million needed to demarcate border The interior ministers of Mauritania, Dah ould Abdel Jelil, and Mali, Ousmane Sy, said on Monday that their countries were seeking funding for a US $2.9-million project to demarcate their common border, AFP reported. The project is due to start in 2001. The ministers also expressed satisfaction at the improved security along their border, where armed bands had been a constant danger to communities. However, they noted the existence of "permanent" pockets of insecurity in the extreme north, near their borders with Algeria, where roaming armed bands of Tuareg still operate. MAURITANIA: EU to help malnourished children The European Commission has decided to earmark 365,000 euro (about US $345,000) for more than 2,500 infants suffering from malnutrition as a result of drought in northern Mauritania, along with their mothers, the EC Humanitarian Office (ECHO) reported this week. SENEGAL: MFDC denies attacking Guinea-Bissau A pro-independence group in southern Senegal, the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), denied on Tuesday media reports that it tried to free its comrades held by police in the northern Guinea-Bissau town of Sao Domingo. The French news agency, AFP, reported on Monday that 20 MFDC members had ransacked the Sao Domingo police station on Thursday in a bid to free their colleagues. MFDC spokesman Alexandre Djiba told IRIN on Tuesday from The Gambia that the report, citing "informed sources", was untrue. He said that 19 Casamance residents arrested on Sunday by the Guinea-Bissau authorities had been freed. Djiba also said their detention was most likely "in retaliation" for the arrest in Senegal of three Guinea-Bissau farmers, two of whom had since been released, while the third was receiving treatment for bullet wounds in a hospital in the eastern Senegalese town of Tambacounda. GAMBIA: Detentions by security forces Five people in Gambia were arrested at their homes last weekend, including two of President Yahya Jammeh's bodyguards, the BBC reported on Wednesday. According to a local media report, the five were being held in connection with a suspected conspiracy, BBC added. GAMBIA: Human rights umbrella formed Human rights NGOs in Gambia have formed an umbrella organisation, 'The Independent' newspaper reported. Its role is to create a hotline for free flow of information for the NGOs and general public and to organise educational fora on human rights issues, according to its coordinator, Mohammed Silla, who is secretary-general of Amnesty International in Gambia. WEST AFRICA: Regional airline cleared for takeoff The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has approved the creation of a subregional airline with an initial capital outlay of US $25 million, the coordinator of the project told reporters in Lagos on Thursday. The airline, to be known as ECOAIR, will involve governments and private firms in the 16-member community, Nigerian newspapers reported project coordinator Yemisi Olusola as saying. Nigeria will hold the largest share in ECOAIR - 32 percent - followed by Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal with 13, 12.9 and 5.4 percent respectively. COTE D'IVOIRE: 4.88 million on voters' register Some 4.88 million voters have been registered for a constitutional referendum due on 23 July in Cote d'Ivoire, the Ivoirian electoral commission, COSUR, announced last weekend. The state-owned 'Fraternite Matin' quoted COSUR Chairman Honore Guie as saying that another 47,995 persons were disqualified because they were not Ivorians. BENIN: Peace academy named after late UN mediator A peace academy named after late Malian diplomat Alioune Blondin Beye has been officially opened in Cotonou, PANA reported on Tuesday. Beye was the UN mediator in Angola when he died on 26 June 1998 in a plane crash just short of Felix Houphouet-Boigny International Airport, Abidjan. The Alioune Badara Beye Peace Academy was set up on 11 June 1999 by Christophe Kougniazond, a political science professor at the University of Benin. The facility is to serve as "a centre of endogenous reflections and actions aimed at curbing all forms of violence" in Africa, PANA reported. NIGERIA: Former Senate president in court Ousted Senate president Evan Enwerem has asked an Abuja high court to declare illegal his removal from office seven months ago, AFP reported on Thursday, quoting court officials. Enwerem was voted out on 18 November 1998 by 90 of the 109 senators for "gross incompetence and weak leadership". He was immediately replaced by Chuba Okadigbo, his rival for the job last year, AFP said. NIGERIA: Strike closes schools and hospitals in Lagos A wage strike by public sector workers demanding an increase in the minimum wage in Lagos State has closed schools and hospitals and left mounds of uncollected refuse on the streets of Lagos. The strikers, who began their protest last week were offered a minimum wage of 5,500 naira (US $55) a month by the state, but demanded the federal minimum wage of 7,500 naira (US $75). NIGERIA: Clerics call for harmony Christian and Muslim leaders say the implementation of Sharia anywhere in Nigeria should not violate the freedom and legitimate interests of non-Muslims as guaranteed by the constitution, 'The Guardian' newspaper reported on Wednesday. The recommendation came at the end of a recent two-day seminar on Sharia by the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC). NIREC noted in a communique that Muslims have the right to practise Sharia in accordance with the demands of their religion and within the provisions of the Constitution. However, it said it also appreciated fears by non-Muslims about the application of Islamic law, especially its provisions on apostasy and capital punishment. NIGER: Media report president as saying "No" to Sharia President Mamadou Tandja said on Wednesday that his government would not institutionalise Islamic law in Niger because it is a secular state, AFP reported. Tandja said in Zinder, the country's second largest town, that Niger's 1999 constitution aimed to "respect and protect all believers" and it stipulated that "no religion could assume political power or involve itself in the affairs of state". Muslims make up 80 percent of Niger's population. WESTERN SAHARA: Polisario, Morocco talks inconclusive A five-hour meeting on Wednesday between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front on the future of Western Sahara ended inconclusively in London, news reports said. "We had detailed discussions but there was no substantial progress," AFP quoted Brahim Ghali Moustapha, a Polisario representative, as saying. A UN spokesman in New York described the talks, chaired by former US secretary of state James Baker III, as "full and frank". CAMEROON: Opposition trains anti-rigging squad The Social Democratic Front (SDF), considered Cameroon's main opposition party, has trained 150 of its activists in election monitoring ahead of legislative and municipal polls due in 2001, AFP reported on Friday. The 150, whose three-day course was organised by the SDF with support from the Fondation Jean Jaures of France, will train another 2500 SDF supporters to observe elections. EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Amnesty calls for release of detainees Amnesty International has called for the release of three people detained in Equatorial Guinea: Mariano Oyono Ndong, arrested in May 1999 and accused of possessing a 1998 Amnesty International document, army sergeant Antonio Engonga Bibang and Carmelo Biko Ngua. Amnesty said they appear to have been arrested for being members of the opposition Fuerza Demócrata Republicana (Democratic Republican Force), a party that has been refused official recognition. The international watchdog also called on the government to end arbitrary arrests, torture, ill-treatment and unfair trials. EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Senior army officer under house arrest The director general of logistics in the ministry of defence, Jaime Obama Owono, has been under house arrest since mid-May, AFP quoted an unidentified source at the ministry as saying. Citing `La Opinion', an independent newspaper, AFP said that after an argument outside a discotheque Owono had ordered police to arrest and beat up one of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema's Moroccan bodyguards. On 18 May, a "mini council of war" in the capital, Malabo, sentenced General Owono to a jail term of six months, which was later commuted to house arrest, AFP said. Abidjan, 30 June 2000; 18:05 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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