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 44 29 October - 3 November 2000
CONTENTS: SIERRA LEONE: UN Secretary-General appeals for troop contributions SIERRA LEONE: Port Loko hospital gets facelift SIERRA LEONE: British military supplies begin arriving SIERRA LEONE: RUF engaging Guinea COTE D'IVOIRE: National reconciliation committee formed COTE D'IVOIRE: Unity government GUINEA-BISSAU: Energy shortage GUINEA-BISSAU: Official expels 50 Casamance guerrillas THE GAMBIA: Repatriation of Senegalese refugees on hold THE GAMBIA: Call for quota system for women GABON: Ban polygamy, rights committee says GABON: Warehouse for humanitarian evacuations NIGERIA: Vigilante group to enforce Sharia NIGERIA: Widespread vandalisation of pipelines NIGERIA: Curfew lifted in Lagos district NIGER: 13 nationals killed in ethnic clashes in Nigeria CHAD: Claims and counter-claims of fighting in the Tibesti CHAD: Torture victims file charges against ex-president MAURITANIA: Protests mount against government WESTERN SAHARA: Security Council extends mission SIERRA LEONE: UN Secretary-General appeals for troop contributions UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged countries to contribute soldiers to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), warning that a continued lack of support could adversely affect peace efforts in the country, UN News reported. In a report issued on Wednesday, Annan warned that recent offers of troop contributions will "barely be enough" to compensate for the withdrawal of the Jordanian and Indian contingents, announced by their governments. Meanwhile, Annan informed the Security Council that he had nominated Kenyan Lt-Gen Daniel Opande as UNAMSIL's Force Commander, replacing Maj-Gen Vijay Jetley of India. SIERRA LEONE: Port Loko hospital gets facelift The rehabilitation of the Port Loko District Hospital is now due for completion in mid-December - ahead of schedule - the country director of the German NGO, Terra Tech, in Sierra Leone told IRIN. "We have already finished the male ward, annexe, and sixty percent of the electrical system is in place," Hassan Basma said on Tuesday. The 85-bed referral service is the only one in Port Loko District, some 60 km northeast of Freetown. It is being re-equipped with beds, laboratory and surgical equipment, a surgery unit, maternity and children wards and a roof. The kitchen, dental surgery section and morgue are also due for remodeling. SIERRA LEONE: British military supplies begin arriving Extra equipment and ammunition for the Sierra Leone Army started to arrive in Freetown last weekend and subsequent shipments will include troops transport, a spokesman for the British military forces in the country said on Radio France International. Britain has committed instructors for basic training to the Sierra Leonean army, as well as a naval task force with 500 Royal Marine Commandos and helicopters to support UN peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone. The British instructors are to train another 3,000 men to help bring the Sierra Leone army's strength to some 8,500. British Defence Minister Baroness Symons had announced increased British aid to Sierra Leone on 10 October. She told the House of Lords that if necessary, Britain was ready to deploy up to a brigade (5,000 personnel) from its Joint Rapid Reaction Force. SIERRA LEONE: RUF engaging Guinea Close to half the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters in Sierra Leone's eastern area of Tongo have moved north and are "fully engaged" in military operations in Guinea, OCHA said in its situation report for 3-27 October. However, OCHA said the Guinean army had over the past two weeks successfully countered the rebel attacks. It also said Guinean troops bombed RUF positions in Kambia District. Meanwhile, on 13 October, civilians from Kortimaw Island (48 km north of Freetown) reported that 21 RUF fighters from mainland locations looted a village and raped two women. In Mile 91, east of Freetown, it was pro-government Civil Defence Forces who were reported to have harassed civilians. COTE D'IVOIRE: National reconciliation committee formed State Mediator Mathieu Ekra, co-author of Cote d'Ivoire's national anthem, announced on Wednesday the formation of a Committee of Mediation for National Reconciliation following post-election violence that claimed many lives in Cote d'Ivoire last week. The committee's 23 members include priests, imams, military officers, academics, NGO personalities and journalists. Its aims include creating a framework for dialogue so as to achieve a climate of mutual understanding and trust, understanding the causes of the clashes, assessing their impact and proposing solutions. The committee's brief further includes helping the security forces to show greater indulgence in ensuring law and order. Last week's violence began on Tuesday when security forces shot and killed demonstrators who protested against a claim by General Robert Guei that he had won the 22 October presidential election. The protesters toppled Guei, but supporters of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR), whose leader, Alassane Ouattara, was one of 14 disqualified candidates, marched on Wednesday and Thursday to call for new elections. They clashed on Thursday with supporters of the Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI), whose candidate Laurent Gbagbo won the election. Scores of people were killed: the official death toll stands at about 170 while the Mouvement ivoirien des droits humains (MIDH) said that according to police sources and reports from various parts of the country, up to 500 people had been killed. Various witnesses said the gendarmes (militarised police) backed the FPI supporters and attacked people who were either Dioula (Ouattara's ethnic group) or RDR members or both. Fifty-seven bodies were found in a field in the low-income area of Youpougon: a survivor of that massacre told the media they had been detained and then killed by the gendarmes. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed shock on Monday at the killings. Interior Minister Boga Doudou said the state would investigate the massacre and would not oppose an international inquiry. However, a human rights organisation, the MIDH called for an inquiry into last week's violence as a whole and also into abuses committed since the overthrow of President Henri Konan Bedie in December 1999. Many of the people wounded last week were treated in makeshift structures set up outside Ouattara's home, while the Ivorian Red Cross opened a special clinic to treat the wounded. The European Commission has provided US $254,700) to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to pay for emergency medical supplies for hospitals, and transport for wounded people and medical personnel. COTE D'IVOIRE: Unity government Cote d'Ivoire's unity government, which comprises members of three parties, is to be reshuffled after legislative elections on 10 December, President Laurent Gbagbo announced on 27 October. Gbagbo's Front Populaire Ivoirien heads 18 of the 23 ministries. Three are led by the former ruling Parti Democratique de Cote d'Ivoire and two by the Parti Ivoirien du Travail. The Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) declined to enter the government. It said it would consider doing so after the legislative elections, scheduled for 10 December. The new cabinet includes five women. GUINEA-BISSAU: Energy shortage A fuel shortage in Guinea-Bissau is compounding an existing energy shortfall, a humanitarian source told IRIN on Thursday. Much of the electricity available in the capital, Bissau, comes from private generators since the water and power utility is unable to satisfy the town's needs, the source said. AFP reported that the company had lost its last generator, but this could not be immediately confirmed. The source said many institutions, hospitals included, depend on small fuel-driven generators. However, a dispute between the local oil dealers representing Shell, Elf and Petrogas and the state has led to a shortage of fuel. The companies want the state to decontrol fuel prices, saying that they have been selling at a loss. GUINEA-BISSAU: Official expels 50 Casamance guerrillas Fifty suspected members of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) were expelled from Guinea-Bissau on Monday by the prefect of the border town of Sao Domingo, AFP reported. "They behave like true gangsters in the town and we can no longer allow that," Prefect Jose Monteiro Nancai said. AFP reported that the men had taken part in violent clashes last week between opposing MFDC factions along the Guinea-Bissau/Senegal border. THE GAMBIA: Repatriation of Senegalese refugees on hold An assessment team that went last week to Casamance in southern Senegal to evaluate the situation in the troubled area has decided that it is not yet secure enough for the voluntary repatriation of refugees, a UNHCR official said. Marcellin Hepie, UNHCR senior regional operations manager, told IRIN the team found that the Senegalese government had no credible counterpart on the ground to discuss the implementation of a ceasefire signed last year with the Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), a group that wants independence for southern Senegal. The mission comprised representatives of UNHCR, IOM, Senegal's government and the French Embassy in Dakar. THE GAMBIA: Call for quota system for women Participants in a workshop in The Gambia on "building a better democracy" have called for a quota system of proportional representation of Gambian women in public office, especially in the national assembly. The African Centre, National Council for Civic Education, Independent Electoral Commission and The Gambia Press Union made the call in a 15-point declaration issued at the end of the workshop, the 'Daily Observer' reported on Tuesday. GABON: Ban polygamy, rights committee says The UN Human Rights Committee has recommended that Gabon prohibit polygamy to help advance the rights of women. The committee, which was to issue its final report after its three-week session ends on 3 November, said polygamy was incompatible with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Gabon is among the 148 states that are parties to the covenant. GABON: Warehouse for humanitarian evacuations A senior US defence official has held talks with Gabonese authorities about the construction of a humanitarian transit warehouse at the airport in the capital, Libreville. Maj-Gen Kenneth Hess, chief of staff of the 3rd US Air Force Command in Europe, visited Gabon last week. The planned warehouse would serve in emergency operations and humanitarian evacuations in sub-Saharan Africa, a US official in Libreville told IRIN on Monday. NIGERIA: Vigilante group to enforce Sharia Nigeria's northern state of Zamfara has formed a 2,000-strong vigilante group armed with swords, batons, knives and axes to enforce Islamic law, or Sharia, AFP reported on Wednesday. Zamfara was the first state in Nigeria to declare Sharia. Eight others have followed, and a group representing Christians in the nine states has complained of discrimination. The Tarayyor Mashihi-hiyawa organisation, meeting in Lagos in late October said Christians were denied land on which to build churches and bury their dead, and that their children were denied access to schools. The 13-year-old association has more than 10 million Christian Hausa, Kanuri and Fulani members. NIGERIA: Widespread vandalisation of pipelines The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has recorded up to 800 incidents of pipeline vandalisation in the country this year, the 'Post Express' newspaper of Lagos reported on Tuesday. The sabotage has caused loss of revenue, property and lives, the newspaper quoted Joe Odocha, NNPC community relations manager, as saying at a forum on Wednesday in Akwa, Anambra State. NIGERIA: Curfew lifted in Lagos district Authorities in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, have lifted a dusk-to-dawn curfew that was imposed on 16 October in a district of the city following clashes between the militant Yoruba Oodua People's Congress (OPC) and Hausas from the north in which more than 100 people died. Meanwhile, members of the Northern Youths for Democracy and Justice said Yoruba landlords provided shelter for Hausas and others during the clashes, 'The Guardian' of Lagos reported on Monday. NIGER: 13 nationals killed in October's ethnic clashes Thirteen nationals of Niger were among 100 people killed in mid-October clashes between Hausas and Yorubas in Lagos, AFP quoted Niger's state radio as saying. A news source in Niamey, the capital of Niger, told IRIN that the death toll was furnished to the government by the Niger Embassy in Nigeria. AFP said five other Niger nationals were seriously wounded and admitted to hospital. The Nigerian government blamed a now banned Yoruba vigilante group, the Oodua Peoples Congress, for starting the four days of violence on October 15 that also spread to other cities in Nigeria. CHAD: Claims and counter-claims of fighting in the Tibesti The rebel Mouvement pour la Democratie et la Justice au Tchad (MDJT) has denied reports that the brother of its leader died in weekend clashes in northern Chad's Tibesti region, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Thursday. Chadian military sources had said on Wednesday that there was fierce fighting on 29-31 October between the army and the MDJT in the rugged mountain region, AFP reported. The French news agency quoted Communication Minister Mahamat Louani as saying the fighting took place in an area called Pumou. The MDJT is led by one-time defence minister Youssouf Togoimi, who formed the group in late 1998 after falling out with President Idriss Deby. The government said his brother, Kali Togoi, was one of several people killed on both sides. Louani also said several MDJT vehicles were destroyed. However, the MDJT said the report of the "imaginary fighting" and of Kali Togoi's death was "a shameful and grotesque" fabrication meant to boost the morale of Ndjamena's troops. Obtaining independent confirmation of events in the Tibesti, a remote region, is usually difficult. CHAD: Torture victims file charges against ex-president People tortured during the regime of former Chadian ruler Hissene Habre filed 17 criminal suits on Monday at the Ndjamena District Court against his political police, the Documentation and Security Directorship (DDS), Human Rights Watch reported. "This is the first time that members of Habre's government have been brought to court in Chad," the rights body said. MAURITANIA: Protests mount against government Demonstrations against the Mauritanian government have mounted in the past week over the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and the banning of a popular Mauritanian opposition party. Mauritania, an Islamic state, established ties with Israel in 1999. The dual nature of recent demonstrations poses a complicated problem for the government of President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya. A protest last Friday by the banned Union des forces democratiques - Ere Nouvelle (UFD-EN) drew some 15,000 people into the streets of the coastal town of Nouadhibou, about 350 km north of the capital Nouakchott. The government on Saturday banned the UFD-EN, led by former presidential candidate Ahmed Ould Daddah. Officials said they banned the opposition party for fomenting violence and acting against the interests of the country. Demonstrations have also taken place in Nouakchott. Youths clashed with Mauritanian security forces on Wednesday and at least four people were detained. They were released on Thursday, Kamara said. WESTERN SAHARA: Security Council extends mission The UN Security Council has extended the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) by four months to allow time for talks between the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front. The talks are to continue under the auspices of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's personal envoy, James Baker III. MINURSO's mandate now ends on 28 February 2001. In his report to the Security Council, Annan said he recommended the extension because there had been no progress towards implementing a settlement plan for the former Spanish colony. The plan, which was approved by the Council in 1990, provided for MINURSO to organize a referendum that would allow the people of Western Sahara to choose independence or integration with Morocco. Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1976 after the departure of Spain. Abidjan, 3 November 2000; 16:05 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 "africa-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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