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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 54
6-12 January 2001


CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: Coup fails 
COTE D'IVOIRE: West Africans threatened
BURKINA FASO: President concerned about Ivorian situation
BURKINA FASO: Suspect in journalist's murder dies in jail
BURKINA FASO: Detained reporters freed
GUINEA: UNHCR says situation fragile
GUINEA: UNHCR looks to help refugees, IDPs
GUINEA: Nigeria to send 700 troops
SIERRA LEONE: IOM takes over repatriation task
SIERRA LEONE: RUF orders roads reopened
SIERRA LEONE: ADB grants US $500,000 to fight malaria
SIERRA LEONE: British Frigate returns
LIBERIA: Government promises cooperation with ECOMOG
GUINEA-BISSAU: 22 dissidents killed in feud
NIGERIA: 20 hostages feared killed in clashes
NIGERIA: Reprieve from flogging sought for girl
CAMEROON: Experts to treat volcanic lakes
GHANA: New president forms government
TOGO: Opposition wants parliament dissolved

COTE D'IVOIRE: Coup fails

An attempt to topple President Laurent Gbagbo's government in Cote d'Ivoire
was thwarted on Monday. Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou said "rebel
forces" attacked the headquarters of the paramilitary gendarmerie and the
presidency on Sunday and occupied state radio and television. He did not
name the attackers but said they included foreign nationals.

Government spokesman Mamadou Koulibaly said in a nationwide broadcast of a
news conference on Monday that Abidjan would consider severing diplomatic
links with countries implicated in the putsch.

Two loyal gendarmes were killed and several wounded. The government gave no
casualty figures for the attackers but Boga Doudou said 31 had been
arrested. They included soldiers who in September 2000 attacked the home of
military leader General Robert Guei. He was later overthrown in a popular
uprising.

The opposition Rassemblement des republicains (RDR) denied the government's
allegation that it was involved in the failed coup, the pro-RDR daily, 'Le
Patriote' reported.

COTE D'IVOIRE: West Africans threatened

West African shop owners in central Abidjan pulled down shutters and fled on
Tuesday after receiving threats from Ivorian vigilantes, according to
witnesses and news reports.

They targeted mostly traders from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger.
Tuesday's mob action followed the Ivorian government's allegation that the
nationals of neighbouring countries took part in Sunday's botched coup
attempt.

ECOWAS ambassadors protest

On Wednesday, ambassadors of the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) demanded that the Ivorian government protect all foreign nationals
from mob attacks, the official 'Fraternite-Martin' reported.

The ambassadors, representing nine of the 15 West African states that make
up ECOWAS, conveyed their message to Foreign Affairs Minister Abou Sangare.
The delegation, while condemning the coup, said non-Ivorian university
students were chased out of their dormitories, families thrown out of their
homes and salesmen forced to close shops and flee. The consulate of Burkina
Faso was also attacked.

Sangare promised that government would take "every measure" to assure the
security of foreigners and their property.

BURKINA FASO: President concerned about Ivorian situation

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore expressed concern on Tuesday that his
country was being made a possible scapegoat for political instability in
neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire.

"We do not know what to say, today, concerning the situation in Cote
d'Ivoire without being involved in one way or another on either side," he
told reporters in Ouagadougou.

That reference was to a prevailing public feeling in part of Cote d'Ivoire
and an Ivorian court ruling last year that a major opposition political
figure in that country, Alassane Ouattara, did not qualify to run for
political office on grounds that he is not Ivorian. The government has
alluded to his being a Burkinabe who has represented the country in some
international organizations. Moreover, the Ivorian government said on Monday
that some foreigners - which is generally taken to mean Burkinabe - were
involved in Sunday's attempted coup.

BURKINA FASO: Suspect in journalist's murder dies in jail 

A presidential guard suspected of killing journalist Norbert Zongo has died
while serving a twenty-year jail term for another murder. Sergeant Edmond
Koama, 33, died on 4 January in a private clinic to which he had been
transferred from the Ouagadougou prison. A relative confirmed his death,
saying "he had been seriously ill" but did not give any details.

Last August, a military tribunal sentenced Koama along with the head of the
presidential security to 20 years in prison for torturing to death David
Ouedraogo, the chauffeur of President Blaise Compaore's brother, Francois. A
third bodyguard was sentenced to 10 years without parole. Zongo was
investigating Ouedraogo's death.

BURKINA FASO: Detained reporters freed

Two reporters of a Ouagadougou weekly arrested by Burkinabe gendarmes while
investigating the death of a 12-year-old schoolboy were released on Tuesday.

Newton Ahmed Barry and Germain Nama, reporters for 'L'Independent', were
investigating the death of Flavien Nebie. He was shot dead in a student
demonstration against what student unions said were the 'selective reforms'
at the University of Ouagadougou.

GUINEA: UNHCR says situation fragile

Newly appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers,
described as fragile, the situation in Guinea where at least 500,000 people
have sought refuge from wars in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Lubbers, who briefed the UN Security Council on the situation, said at a
news conference on Tuesday that there were 375,000 Sierra Leonean and
155,000 Liberian refugees in the country, threatening its stability.

GUINEA: UNHCR looks to help refugees, IDPs

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the situation was still too
insecure to re-establish the UNHCR office in the southern Guinean town of
Guekedou. The office was burnt during a rebel attack in December, forcing
the agency to pull out.

A UNHCR security team reported that refugees in Nongow, Wendekenema and
Fangamadou camps - located in a part of Guinea that juts into Sierra Leone -
said they wanted to be taken back to Sierra Leone. "Some complained to UNHCR
that they had to give camp leaders money in order to be registered as new
arrivals," the agency reported.

Meanwhile, a local employee of the UNHCR in Guinea was still missing just
over a month after his abduction by insurgents in Guekedou, the agency said
on Wednesday. Joseph Loua, 51, a father of five, was taken on 6 December by
unidentified men toward the Liberian border.

GUINEA: Nigeria to send 700 troops

Nigeria will contribute 700 of the 1,676 West African troops due to be
deployed along Guinea's borders with Sierra Leone and Liberia for six
months, PANA reported on 5 January.

The troops will form the bulk of the Economic Community of West African
States Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), which will also include
contingents from Mali, Niger and Senegal. BBC reported that the force would
operate under a strong mandate that would empower troops to protect
civilians, refugees and humanitarian agencies in border areas. Guinea has
insisted that the force be given the authority to strike insurgents if
attacked.

Troop-contributing countries will pay for the deployment of their men for
the first three months but other ECOWAS states and donors such as Britain,
France, the United States, The Netherlands and Sweden are expected to
support the second half of the operation, the BBC reported.

SIERRA LEONE: IOM takes over repatriation task

Some 347 Sierra Leonean refugees arrived home on Friday, ending their recent
ordeal in Guinea at the hands of insurgents from their own country, the
International Organization for Migration spokesperson Niurka Pineiro, said.

They were the first among some 20,000 refugees that had asked to go home on
the MV Overbeck, which has a maximum capacity of 350 passengers. Some 3,500
refugees are at a crowded transit repatriation facility in the Guinean
capital awaiting their voyage home. The IOM, which took charge of the
operation on Wednesday, plans four repatriations runs weekly between Conakry
and Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital.

IOM has chartered a second vessel, the MV Fanta. With capacity for 500
passengers, the ship will begin rotations from Conakry to Freetown on
Tuesday. Using the two vessels, IOM will make daily trips from Conakry to
Freetown.
IOM is working closely with UNHCR, the International Medical Corps, Medecins
Sans Frontieres and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit
(GTZ).

SIERRA LEONE: RUF orders roads reopened

The anti-government Revolutionary United Front has reopened long-closed
roads to honour its undertaking on Wednesday to the Force Commander of the
UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), spokeswoman Hirut Befecadu told IRIN.
However, she said on Tuesday that UNAMSIL would have to inspect the highways
before declaring them safe for public traffic.

Among the major roads ordered opened is one from the northern town of Kabala
to Makeni, which connects south to Lunsar and Port Loko, some 6O km north of
Freetown. Others are the Kambia-Mange-Port Loko axis, the north-south
Bumbuna to Magburaka link in the middle of the country; and the Daru-Kenema
highway in the Eastern Region, closed by the RUF in May 2000 when it
detained hundreds of UN peacekeepers. 

SIERRA LEONE: ADB grants US $500,000 to fight malaria

The African Development Bank has agreed to a grant of US $500,000 for Sierra
Leone's anti-malaria programme, the state-owned news agency, SLENA,
reported.

Of this amount, $258,400 will be used to buy anti-malarial drugs, $110,000
for mosquito nets, $52,300 for insecticides, $58,800 for spraying equipment
and $5,000 for physical contingency. The agency did not say how the
remaining money would be used.

The grant agreement, which forms part of the bank's Humanitarian Emergency
Relief Support Project in post-conflict situations, was signed on Friday in
Abidjan. The bank supports a health care project in Sierra Leone's
Connaught, Princess Christian Maternity, and the Children's hospitals.

SIERRA LEONE: British frigate returns

Royal Navy frigate HMS Iron Duke has returned to Sierra Leonean territorial
waters, country's news agency, SLENA, reported on Wednesday. It quoted
British military spokeswoman Major Debbie Noble as saying the warship, with
a crew of 185 men and women, would remain in local waters for the
foreseeable future. The Type-23 frigate is the navy's patrol task ship for
the South Atlantic. 

LIBERIA: Government promises cooperation with ECOMOG

Liberia's government has pledged to cooperate with regional troops to be
deployed on the country's troubled borders with Guinea and Sierra Leone, the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has reported.

A BBC report on 5 January quoted Liberia's army chief, Lt-Gen Epingba Wa
Kodan, as saying that Liberian troops would withdraw from the border area
once ECOMOG troops of the Economic Community of West African States have
been deployed.

Areas near the borders between the three countries have recorded a series of
cross-border raids in recent years. The latest, in December, resulted in the
deaths of dozens of people in Guinea and the displacement of hundreds of
thousands, mainly Sierra Leonean refugees and Guineans.

GUINEA-BISSAU: 22 dissidents killed in feud

Some 20 guerrillas died and 33 were injured in the latest wave of fighting
between rival factions of Senegal's pro-independence Mouvement des forces
pour la democratie de Casamance (MFDC), AFP reported on Monday. 

AFP said six Guinea-Bissau soldiers were also killed during the action from
3-7 January, while the Panafrican News Agency reported 13 Guinea-Bissau
soldiers dead. They had been deployed to the border between the two
countries to prevent the fighting from spilling into Guinea-Bissau.

There have been persistent reports of a split in the movement between its
civilian and armed wings. Their differences reportedly lie in the conduct of
the pro-independence bid.

NIGERIA: 20 hostages feared killed in clashes

At least 20 people have been taken hostage and are feared dead following
clashes between neighbouring communities in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta
oil region, AFP reported on Tuesday.

The agency said a dispute over the location of a key oil company facility,
considered lucrative, had pitted the Ke and Krakrama communities on one side
against the neighbouring community of Bille on the other. This dispute led
to the hostage-taking by opposing sides, with a total of 20 people now
feared dead, the agency said.

"The situation is deteriorating on a daily basis. The waterways have been
blocked by armed youths, some of whom were wearing camouflage military
uniforms and using sophisticated weapons," a police official was quoted as
saying.

NIGERIA: Reprieve from flogging sought for girl

A Nigerian human rights group launched an appeal on Tuesday for legal aid to
obtain a reprieve for a 17-year-old girl sentenced to 180 strokes of the
cane in the northern state of Zamfara for having premarital sex.

In a statement sent to IRIN, Baobab for Women's Human Rights, said a team of
seven lawyers were filing an appeal for a stay of execution of the sentence
on Bariya Ibrahim Magazu due on 27 January. The lawyers are also seeking to
quash the September 2000 conviction of Magazu, who gave birth in
mid-December.

A second teen mother has also been sentenced to flogging by an Islamic court
in Katsina State for having premarital sex, AFP reported on Thursday.

The news agency said family members of 18-year-old Attine Tanko, residents
of Malumfashi town, said she was convicted on November 15 and given a
sentence of 100 strokes. Her boyfriend, Lawal Sada, got a similar sentence
which was carried out in public the same day.

CAMEROON: Experts to treat volcanic lakes

A team of 10 environmental experts have begun work to release toxic gas from
the volcanic lakes of Nyos and Monoun, AFP reported on Tuesday.

The scientists - from the United States, Japan and France - will build a
filtering device to release the carbon gases slowly into the atmosphere.

Over the next three to five years, the team will install a mechanism that
will eliminate all risks of future toxic gas accidents, AFP reported. A
build-up of toxic gas within the lakes was released into the atmosphere in
1984 and 1986. In the 1986 Lake Nyos incident 1,600 people were killed. The
lake lies 500 km west of Yaounde, the capital of 1.2 million residents.

GHANA: New president forms government

Ghanaian President John Kufuor, who took office on Sunday in the country's
first successful democratic change of government, has named his cabinet,
news reports said on Thursday.

Among 11 ministers appointed, Hackman Owusu-Agyermang takes over the Foreign
Ministry, while Yaw Osafo Maado is the new minister of finance, the BBC
reported. Other key positions named include the Defence Ministry, taken over
by Kwame Add-Kufuor, and the Interior Ministry to be headed by Malik
Alhassan.

Kufuor succeeded Jerry Rawlings, who stood down after 19 years, following
elections in which Vice President John Atta-Mills was defeated.

TOGO: Opposition wants parliament dissolved

Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), the main opposition party in Togo, has
called on President Gnassingbe Eyadema to fulfill a 1999 agreement with the
opposition by dissolving the National Assembly and holding elections in
March, the Panafrican News Agency reported.

"The process leading to the holding of transparent early legislative
elections can only start if the National Assembly, where the ruling Rally of
the Togolese People holds a majority, is dissolved," CAR leader Yawovi
Agboyibo was quoted in the report as saying at Wednesday's news conference.

The July 1999 agreement is also said to contain a pledge by Eyadema to
forego a run for the presidency, at the end of his current term in 2003.
Eyadema has led Togo since 1967.

Abidjan, 12 January 2001; 16:40 GMT


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