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 Roundup 38 16 to 22 September 2000
CONTENTS: SIERRA LEONE: India to withdraw troops from UNAMSIL SIERRA LEONE: Government troops take West Side Boys stronghold SIERRA LEONE: Over 200 rebels turn in weapons SIERRA LEONE: Fewer abuses under new RUF leader, group says SIERRA LEONE: Influx of refugees would strain health facilities GUINEA: One UNHCR staffer killed, another abducted in border attack GUINEA: CRS provides assistance to Liberian, Sierra Leone refugees LIBERIA: Women march for peace LIBERIA: Ruling party to meet on police harassment LIBERIA: European Commission helps with vaccines THE GAMBIA: Children's rights charter ratified THE GAMBIA: Malaria vaccine THE GAMBIA: Life expectancy reported to have increased NIGERIA: Floods swamp Lagos after heavy downpour NIGERIA: Prison overcrowding to be addressed NIGERIA: Women protest against poverty COTE D'IVOIRE: Media protest abuses by the military COTE D'IVOIRE: Attack on president's home MALI: radio station improved with German assistance SIERRA LEONE: India to withdraw troops from UNAMSIL India's government has told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan it intends to withdraw its 3,059 soldiers from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), but is still prepared to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, other UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York on Thursday. Jordan has also said it is reconsidering its contribution to UNAMSIL, in which it has about 2,000 troops. SIERRA LEONE: Government troops take West Side Boys stronghold Government troops in Sierra Leone have taken over the villages of Masumana, Naia and Magbeni, formerly occupied by the West Side Boys, Information Minister Julius Spencer told IRIN on Thursday. From these positions, the West Side Boys - renegade army troops and criminals - posed a constant threat to traffic between Freetown and Masiaka. The area is now secure, Spencer said. SIERRA LEONE: Over 200 rebels turn in weapons UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said 226 West Side Boys gave themselves up to Nigerian UN troops on Sunday and Tuesday. Since November 1999, at least 17,800 former fighters of various armed factions have turned in their guns, he added. The UN Mission in Sierra Leone, whose mandate was this week extended by three months to 31 December, has described the security situation in Sierra Leone as calm. SIERRA LEONE: Fewer abuses under new RUF leader, group says Urban residents of northern Sierra Leone say there have been far fewer human rights abuses in their towns since Issa Sesay took command of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a member of a local NGO told IRIN. Tabib Jalloh, administrative director of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDHR), said on Tuesday that, according to residents of towns such as Makeni and Magburaka, Sesay, who recently replaced Foday Sankoh as head of the RUF, was "very stringent with rebels who mistreat civilians". SIERRA LEONE: Influx of refugees would strain health facilities The return of large numbers of refugees from Guinea would put medical services in Sierra Leone under "intense pressure" because they are already burdened with caring for the internally displaced, The World Health Organisation said on Monday. Some of the 330,000 Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea have been returning home after being detained temporarily by the security forces and attacked by Guinean youths following recent rebel attacks on Guinea from Sierra Leone. The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the Forum of Conscience (FOC), a Sierra Leone human rights group, said on Tuesday that villages had been set ablaze, properties looted, and scores of civilians raped and killed. "Fleeing refugees continue to stress that all these atrocities are carried out with the knowledge of the Guinean government," they said GUINEA: One UNHCR staffer killed, another abducted in border attack Armed men shot dead the head of the UNHCR office in Macenta, Mensah Kpognon, burned his home and abducted another UNHCR employee, during an attack on Sunday on the Guinean border town, located 475 km southeast of Conakry. Following the attack, UNHCR recalled its international staff from border locations to Conakry, while the US-based relief agency, CARE, withdrew its international workers from Gueckedou, 75km west of Macenta. CARE said people were fleeing from Macenta towards Guekedou. It said that aside from insecurity caused by the cross-border attacks, Guinean vigilantes - some armed with guns or machetes - had set up numerous roadblocks in Guekedou, making movement difficult and dangerous. Sunday's attack came one day after defence ministers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone agreed in Bamako to have the Economic Community of West African States deploy a team of military observers along their common borders. Meanwhile, Assistant UN High Commissioner for Refugees Soren Jessen-Petersen was to arrive in West Africa on Friday to meet regional leaders and help obtain the release the kidnapped UNHCR worker, Sapeu Laurence Djeya. Jessen-Petersen was scheduled to go to Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia on his five-day mission. A memorial service for Kpognon was held on Thursday at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and in Abidjan, where UNHCR's regional office for West Africa is located. UNHCR also led a protest march in Geneva to demand better protection and security for all humanitarian personnel working in difficult conditions worldwide. GUINEA: CRS provides assistance to Liberian, Sierra Leonean refugees Catholic Relief Services (CRS) announced on Thursday that it was providing assistance to Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees, who have been facing rising hostility in Guinea. "Our immediate concern is to monitor the crisis and coordinate the use and distribution of resources to the most severely affected refugees," CRS Executive Director Ken Hackett said. Guinea hosts about 125,000 Liberian and 330,000 Sierra Leonean refugees. LIBERIA: Women march for peace Hundreds of Liberian women marched through the streets of Monrovia on Thursday to show their concern about growing tension between the Mano River Union (MRU) countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, PANA reported. The demonstration was organised by the MRU Women Network for Peace, which urged the leaders of the three countries to exercise patience and restraint in handling the crisis in the sub-region, PANA reported. They also criticised MRU states for providing safe havens for each others' dissidents. This, they said, could only lead to destruction and insecurity. LIBERIA: Ruling party to meet on police harassment Liberia's ruling National Patriotic Front (NPF) said it would convene a meeting to decide on measures to be taken if police continued to harass its members. NPF spokesman Ambrose Gbormie told the party's organ 'Pepperhind' that, in one such incident, an assistant minister and NPF executive member was flogged publicly, handcuffed and hit with a gun butt for violating traffic rules. LIBERIA: European Commission helps with vaccines The European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) said on Monday that it was providing support for an immunisation campaign against yellow fever in Liberia, where more than 110 suspected cases have been reported since July and at least four people have died. Liberia's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has launched an immunisation campaign with 200,000 doses of vaccines from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Sixty-eight teams have been mobilised and more than 60 percent of the target population have been vaccinated. THE GAMBIA: Children's rights charter ratified The Centre for Children's Rights in The Gambia said it was pleased that the country's National Assembly had ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. It said, however, that the ratification was "not an end in itself but rather a start of a process which calls for political will and commitment in the implementation stage", MISNA reported on Thursday. The centre emphasised that Gambian girls, in particular, were deprived of their constitutional right to basic education and were often forced into traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and early marriages. THE GAMBIA: Malaria vaccine Clinical malaria vaccine trials are set to begin in The Gambia in an effort to find a way to defeat the illness that claims at least 1.5 million lives a year worldwide. Dr. Tumani Corrah, director of clinical services at the Medical Research Council in Banjul, told IRIN the tests could start on Monday. The research on the vaccine is being carried out by scientists from The Gambia and Oxford University. THE GAMBIA: Life expectancy reported to have increased Life expectancy in The Gambia has increased from 42 to 55 years, due to improved primary health care, the 'Daily Observer' newspaper reported on Monday. The paper quoted Abdoulie Sallah, secretary of state for health, as saying that immunisation for children under five years had increased from 27 percent in 1987 to 73 percent in 1999. He said the child mortality rate had fallen from 213 per 1,000 in 1960 to 80 per 1,000. The maternal mortality rate was reduced from 2,000 per 100,000 to 1,050 per 100,000 in the 1990s, Sallah said. NIGERIA: Floods swamp Lagos after heavy downpour Most of Lagos was submerged on Wednesday following torrential rain that lasted for several hours. Economic activity came to a halt as most people could not reach their offices or places of business. Some were trapped at home. Others were caught for hours in traffic jams as vehicles stalled on flooded roads. No deaths were reported. NIGERIA: Prison overcrowding to be addressed Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has directed the Ministry of Justice to create a committee to tackle overcrowding in the country's prisons, 'The Guardian' newspaper of Lagos reported on Tuesday. One-third of the 44,000 people awaiting trial in Nigeria are in jail, the paper quoted Mohammed Shata, minister of state for internal affairs, as saying. Shata said 9,707 officers in the prison service had been promoted to enhance productivity. NIGERIA: Women protest against poverty About 4,000 women marched on Nigeria's national assembly and presidency in Abuja on Thursday to protest against poverty and the denial of women and family rights, 'The Guardian' reported. The demonstrators, who were from various NGOs, called for adequate housing and primary health care, equal opportunities for women and an end to corruption. COTE D'IVOIRE: Media protest abuses by the military Cote d'Ivoire's media observed a news blackout and a march this week to protest abuses against journalists by members of the military. Newspapers were not published on Thursday, state television limited its half-hour news broadcasts to 10 minutes, and the blackout was also followed by radio stations. On Friday, associations representing journalists and publishers marched in downtown Abidjan before going to the Presidential palace to meet Ivoirian leader General Robert Guei. They decided to protest after soldiers beat a journalist who had been called to the presidency in connection with an article he had written. The journalist was hospitalised for days. COTE D'IVOIRE: Attack on president's home Armed men in civilian clothing attacked the home of Ivoirian leader General Robert Guei on Monday. Two members of the presidential guard were killed in the attack. A score of suspects, mostly presidential guards and other soldiers, were detained, while the military and gendarmes conducted searches in various areas. An arms cache was found in the office of a presidential guard, state media reported. The organ of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) said the party's office in the neighbourhood of Adjame, just outside the central administrative district, was ransacked by security forces. The home of General Lanssana Palenfo, viewed as the number two man in the ruling Conseil National de Salut Publique (CNSP), was searched by gendarmes. Following the attack, the CNSP suspended all political rallies until the official start of campaigning for presidential polls to be held on 22 October. The campaign is due to open two weeks before the election. On Thursday, Guei accused politicians of trying to manipulate sections of the armed forces. MALI: Radio station improved with German assistance RTM, Mali's state radio, now has a new building and four new studios with modern digital equipment under a project financed by the German government. The project, begun in February 1999, cost more than 2.8 billion CFA francs (US $4 million), RTM reported. The new building was commissioned on Thursday by Prime Minister Mande Sidibe. Abidjan, 22 September 2000; 16:00 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 "africa-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. Reposting by commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.] 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