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.ci


WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 69
21 to 27 April 2001


LIBERIA: Fighting reported to be worsening in Lofa
SIERRA LEONE: UN team visits rebel-held Kono
CÔTE D'IVOIRE: Parliament moves to hinterland capital
GUINEA-BISSAU: WFP provides food
WEST AFRICA: International Federation of the Red Cross helps fight 
             meningitis
GHANA: Water bodies to be monitored
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Government bans logging on Bioko island
NIGERIA: State-owned hotel in Kano bans Christian activities
CHAD: RSF protests against ban on politics on private radio


LIBERIA: Fighting reported to be worsening in Lofa

Fighting between Liberian forces and dissidents in the northern county of
Lofa has been worsening according to various sources, including former
information minister Paul Mulbah. Mulbah, who now heads an association set
up to mobilise defenders of Lofa, his home county, told BBC on Friday that
the fighting had spread to five of its six districts.

A humanitarian source in Monrovia told IRIN that people from Lofa have
been reportedly seeking refuge in Bomi County, whose main towns are about
half an hour's drive from the capital. The source said some reports were
quoting up to 10,000 IDPs between Lofa and Bomi. There have also been
reports from credible sources that students from Cuttington University
just outside Gbarnga, capital of Bong County, have been leaving for
Monrovia for fear of being overtaken by the instability.

Bong borders on Lofa and the university itself is about 90 minutes drive
from the capital. President Charles Taylor told leaders of opposition
parties earlier this week that he was ordering the mobilisation of
ex-combatants.

The source said many young men were reportedly answering the call,
especially since nationalist sentiment is strong in some quarters
following the death of Youth and Sports Minister Francois Massaquoi.
Massaquoi, who died from injuries he sustained when his helicopter was
shot at in Lofa, was scheduled to be buried on Friday. by Guinean
officials, discussed the relocation plans with refugee leaders at Kolomba.

Media conspiracy

Meanwhile, Liberia's Ministry of Information has accused foreign media of
planning a "massive negative media agenda against the Liberian government"
so as to justify pending UN sanctions against it, Radio Liberia
International (RLI)reported on Thursday.

The UN Security Council has given Liberia until 7 May to prove that it has
stopped backing rebel groups in the region or face sanctions which include
a 12-month ban on its diamond exports and a restriction on travel by
government and military officials and their spouses.

SIERRA LEONE: UN peacekeepers push deeper into RUF territory

The acting force commander of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL),
Maj-Gen Martin Luther Agwai, visited the eastern district of Kono on
Wednesday for the first time since the inception of the UN mission,
UNAMSIL reported.

Agwai, who headed a team of military and humanitarian officials, told
representatives of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), including interim
leader Issa Sesay, that his team had gone to Kono to assess the situation
following RUF complaints of attacks by Guineans and Sierra Leonean Civil
Defence Forces (CDF), a pro-government militia.

The group visited people wounded in the fighting at Kono Hospital and was
taken by the RUF to see the extent of the damage which, Sesay claimed, had
been inflicted by the Guineans and CDF, UNAMSIL said.

Thousands arrive in Daru from Guinea and Liberia

About 12,500 people have arrived on foot since February in Daru, eastern
Sierra Leone, UNHCR reported on Tuesday. Some arrived from Guinea but most
fled instability in Liberia, especially the Vahun area in the northern
county of Lofa. They said they left Vahun because of the presence of
Liberian troops and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) elements along the
border.

The displaced persons included 151 Liberians as well as 17 Guineans, who
claimed they were captured by the RUF during an attack in Gueckedou, near
Guinea's border with Sierra Leone, and taken to Kailahun. In Kailahun,
which is in eastern Sierra Leone, they were forced to do manual labour
while three women were taken as wives, UNHCR reported the men as saying.

They also claimed that 85 other Guineans were still held by the RUF. The
rebels, for their part, have reported that there are 4,500 Liberians in
Kailahun. UNHCR said it was planning a mission to the area to assess the
situation.

UNAMSIL civilian police soon to deploy in Lunsar

The UN Mission in Sierra Leone's civilian police are expected to deploy
shortly in the town of Lunsar, some 85 km northeast of Freetown, UNAMSIL
reported on Thursday. At a meeting on Wednesday of the Task Force for the
Restoration of Civil Authority, the Deputy Special Representative of the
UN Secretary-General for Governance and Stabilization, Alan Doss, reported
that civil affairs officers deployed in Lunsar were working closely with
NGOs to facilitate their return to the area.

He added that UNAMSIL's civilian police would deploy soon ahead of the
Sierra Leone police force. A representative of the Ministry of Education
said teaching materials had been sent to the town and a one-month
sensitisation programme for school authorities in Lunsar had been drawn up
with UNAMSIL's civil affairs section.

He also told the meeting that the ministry planned to hold this year's
National Primary School Examination in Makeni and Magburaka on 11 May.
UNAMSIL deployed to the northern rebel-held towns of Makeni and Magburaka
on 17 April as part of its ongoing efforts to re-establish its presence
throughout the country.

UNCHR expresses concern

The UN Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution on Friday in which
it expressed "grave concern" at abuses in Sierra Leone, especially
atrocities against civilians by the Revolutionary United Front(RUF) and
others. The abuses include summary executions, mutilations, abductions,
arbitrary detention, forced recruitment, forced labour, displacement,
harassment, looting and detentions. The Commission called on the
government to investigate the reports of violations and end impunity.

UNICEF resumes assistance in north

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday that it had resumed
education and health assistance in the area around the northern town of
Makeni following the deployment of UN forces to the rebel-held area on 17
April. A UNICEF team distributed school supplies to some 1,000 students in
Makeni on 19 April.

The agency also supplied essential drugs, vaccines and equipment for
reviving five health clinics catering for some 10,000-12,000 people in
Bombali District. UNICEF's partners, CARITAS Makeni, People's Education
Association and the district health team, provided technical assistance.
They also assessed the need for staff training and other forms of support
in health and education.

Conventions against torture, landmines adopted

Ibrahim Kamara, Sierra Leone's permanent representative to the UN,
ratified the international conventions against torture and the
proliferation of land mines at the UN headquarters in New York on
Wednesday.

Concern over funding for Special Court

Amnesty International (AI) has expressed concern about the uncertainty
surrounding funding for the Special Court for Sierra Leone following a UN
Security Council decision to have it funded through voluntary
contributions, an AI news release said on Tuesday. Relying on individual
states to contribute towards establishing and operating the court could
jeopardise its very creation, the human rights watchdog said.

The international community as a whole should bear responsibility for the
investigation and prosecution of crimes under international law, it said.
The UN Security Council decided in August to establish the special court
to try those people who bear the greatest responsibility for crimes
against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international
humanitarian law in Sierra Leone.

Controlling phantom limb pain

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has established a pain clinic in Murraytown
Amputees Camp in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, as part of a
project in pain management. The project developed from a preliminary
survey of 40 amputees which showed that chronic pain left by amputation
was widespread even in cases where the limb had been cut off years ago.

Patients at the clinic are prescribed drugs to help with pain relief, and
are asked about their physical symptoms, mobility, practical skills and
emotional state. The project is also working on improved procedures for
acute pain relief in hospital surgery where reducing post-operative pain
might lead to less chronic, long-term pain.

CÔTE D'IVOIRE: Parliament moves to hinterland capital

The new Ivorian parliament, elected in December, held its opening session
on Wednesday in Yamoussoukro, 18 years after a law was passed transforming
the hinterland town 200 km north of Abidjan into the nation's capital. It
was the first time parliament had met in Yamoussoukro. State sources said
the move was part of a decentralisation policy under which the government
plans to transform a few key localities into major urban centres to
promote development.

The move has economic and social implications as it would promote "a
minimum of economic growth", the minister in charge of parliamentary
relations, Dano Djedje Sebastien, told the state-owned daily
'Fraternite-Matin'. Other governmental structures and institutions could
relocate to Yamoussoukro sometime in the future, Dano said.

GUINEA-BISSAU: WFP provides food

The World Food Programme (WFP) assisted 89,014 beneficiaries (51,136
female), with 415 mt of food during the month of March, the UN agency said
on 20 April. This included assistance for 52,253 students, 36 percent of
them girls, in 431 schools through a school-feeding project.

WFP said it also started distributing kitchen utensils donated by UNICEF
in schools in the east and south of the country. In the eastern region of
Bafata, WFP did a nutritional screening of 60 pupils, of whom half were
found moderately malnourished. A therapeutic feeding programme targeting
1,517 malnourished children is underway in seven centres in the east and
south.

WEST AFRICA: International Federation of the Red Cross helps fight
meningitis

A shortage of vaccines is hindering West Africa's efforts to stop an
outbreak of meningitis that has killed more than 3,000 people, the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on
Wednesday. The Federation said it had ordered additional doses of the
vaccine, of which 400,000 are destined for the worst affected country,
Burkina Faso, where over 1,500 people have died since January.

It has appealed for 480,000 Swiss francs (US $280,000) for a vaccination
campaign in seven of the worst affected countries: Benin, Burkina Faso,
Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Niger. The
Federation also plans to launch an education and information campaign
aimed at prevention and early detection.

Military officials rearing to set up peacekeeping force

Military officers from African countries said on Monday at the end of a
joint military exercise that they were ready to set up a force to keep the
peace and prevent conflicts in Africa. "From the views that were exchanged
and the results of our exercises, we can say that we are now prepared,"
Chad's chief of staff was quoted as saying by 'Republic of Togo', an
online information service.

"It's now up to the decision-makers to create a corps," the official said.
The exercise, 'Cohésion Kozah 2OO1', was held on 20-23 April in Kara,
northern Togo. Participants came from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte
d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

GHANA: Water bodies to be monitored

A special unit is to be established to patrol Ghana's main waterways in
order to monitor pollution and environmental degradation, Joy FM reported
the Ministry of Works and Housing as saying. The patrols will be equipped
with speedboats and helicopters as they monitor the Volta Lake and the
Densu and Oti Rivers, the private radio station reported in its online
edition. The unit would also monitor the activities of fishermen and
farmers who pollute the waters by using improper techniques such as
dynamite, Minister Kwamena Bartels said.

20 drown on their way to Gabon

Twenty-one Ghanaians reportedly drowned at sea while traveling to Gabon in
search of work, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported. All were young
people from the eastern district of Kintampo, according to an area
resident, Nana Asare Nkomeah, who reported the accident to GNA. He said
the mishap took place about two weeks ago, when the group set out from
Nigeria for Gabon.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Government bans logging on Bioko island

Equatorial Guinea's government has banned the cutting of trees on Bioko
Island, AFP reported the deputy minister of Water, Forests and
Environment, Joaquin Mecheba Ivina, as saying on 21 April after a meeting
with small-scale loggers in the capital, Malabo, which is located on the
island.

He said the measure was meant to protect the forest against the "abusive
exploitation to which it is subjected by chain-saw operators", AFP
reported. Logging companies were banned from Bioko in 1990 but they have
since been replaced by small-scale sawmillers, Ivina said.

NIGERIA: State-owned hotel in Kano bans Christian activities

A hotel owned by the government of the northern Nigerian state of Kano has
banned Christian activities on its premises, the 'Vanguard' newspaper
reported on Wednesday. The move came about a week after Islamic
fundamentalists burnt hotels and restaurants in Kano for selling alcoholic
beverages.

The president of Christ Evangelical Life Assembly, Rev. Joseph Chukwuma,
described the hotel's action as "part of the discrimination against the
Christians by the government and people of the state."

Fear of measles epidemic spreading

Nigeria's government has replaced the heads of its armed forces, who have
retired, according to an official statement reproduced by 'The Guardian'
newspaper on Wednesday. Maj-Gen Alexander Odareduo Ogomudia replaces
Lt-Gen Victor Leo Malu as chief of army staff.

The post of chief of air staff, formerly held by Vice-Marshal Ibrahim Alfa
is now held by Air-Vice Marshal Jonas Wuyep. The new chief of naval staff
is Rear Admiral Samuel Afolayan, who takes over from Commodore V.K. Ombu.

Parliamentary radio station inaugurated

Niger's parliament now has its own radio station, La Voix de l'Hemicycle
(The Voice of the National Assembly). The station, inaugurated on Tuesday,
is intended as "a radio for the expression of democracy", according to
state-owned 'Voix du Sahel' radio.

"It will help the National Assembly to enlighten the public on its
constitutional responsibilities, namely legislation, the exercise of
monitoring government activities, and the integration of the interests of
citizens into the system of governance," Voix du Sahel said.

CHAD: RSF protests against ban on politics on private radio

Reporters sans frontieres (RSF) has protested against a decision by Chad's
government to ban private and community radios from airing political
debates or other programmes of a political nature in the run-up to
presidential elections on 20 May. RSF asked the president of the Haut
conseil de la communication (HCC), Emmanuel Touade, in a letter dated 24
April, to revoke the ban, which took effect on 17 April, and allow all
media to cover the election freely.


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International Disaster Information
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
                                          web: www.cidi.org
                                     listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Africa                      www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/wafrica