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 55
13-19 January 2001


CONTENTS:

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL gives assurances on humanitarian help
SIERRA LEONE: Peacekeepers provide free medical services 
SIERRA LEONE: Women's group donates food to children
SIERRA LEONE: Four areas declared safe for resettlement
SIERRA LEONE: UNICEF warns of disease in Pujehun, Kenema
GUINEA: Relief agencies return to parts of the southwest
GUINEA: Alarming situation in the Parrot's Beak 
LIBERIA: Monrovia recalls ambassador from Guinea
LIBERIA: 600 IDP's return home
SENEGAL: Red Cross provides food for Casamance IDPs
NIGERIA: Campaign against the trafficking of women
NIGERIA: Rights commission wants prisons boss arrested
WESTERN SAHARA: EC aid for Sahrawi refugees  
COTE D'IVOIRE: Detentions
COTE D'IVOIRE: Call for journalist to be freed
COTE D'IVOIRE: Few vote in by-election 
MAURITANIA: Supreme Court upholds dissolution of party
TOGO: Roman Catholic radio ordered closed
CAPE VERDE: PAICV to tackle unemployment, poverty
DRC-AFRICA: Summit's minute silence for Kabila

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL gives assurances on humanitarian help

UNAMSIL Force Commander Lt-Gen Daniel Opande has assured Sierra Leone's
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) that humanitarian help will soon reach the
people of Lunsar, which is under RUF control.

Opande gave the undertaking in a meeting with RUF commanders on 13 January,
UNAMSIL spokeswoman Hirut Befacadu said in a recent briefing. At the
meeting, the RUF delegation asked UNAMSIL to deploy peacekeeping troops to
Lunsar, 80 km northeast of Freetown. 

The meeting was part of confidence-building measures UNAMSIL has been
undertaking to maintain a two-month-old ceasefire between the government and
the RUF, and to coax RUF fighters to join the Disarmament, Demobilisation
and Reintegration (DDR) process. 

SIERRA LEONE: Peacekeepers provide free medical services 

The departing Indian medical unit of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone
(UNAMSIL) ended on Thursday a three-day health clinic at the mission's
hospital in Hastings, 15 km southeast of Freetown, UNAMSIL said. 

Patients were given free optical, dental and paediatric care at the
hospital, located at the Police Training Academy in Hastings. Laboratory
services and medicines were also provided. 

The Indian team used to run the hospital, which it handed over to UNAMSIL's
Jordanian contingent on Tuesday.

SIERRA LEONE: Women's group donates food to children

Over 300 children at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital and the Jui
Transit Camp for Returnees - 14.5 km southeast of Freetown - have received
assorted food and non-food items from a local NGO, the Sierra Leone news
agency, SLENA, reported on Monday.

The items included milk, sugar, garri, rice, toys, exercise books, pencils
and crayons and were donated by the Women's Movement for Peace in
collaboration with the movement's chapter in New Jersey, USA.

SIERRA LEONE: Four areas declared safe for resettlement

The government has declared Freetown, Port Loko and the districts of Kenema
and Pujehun safe for returning IDPs, WFP said in its country situation
report of 2-9 January. The agency said it would continue helping these IDPs
for the next four months "after which food aid will be eliminated".

About half the 57,000 IDPs in camps in Sierra Leone's Western area are from
these districts. WFP said it would continue to provide food-for-work and
food-for-agriculture programmes in the war-affected communities of the
country. 

SIERRA LEONE: War crimes court needs adequate funding, Annan cautions 

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has cautioned the Security Council against
setting up a war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone without proper funding.

In a letter to Council President Kishore Mabhubani of Singapore, Annan said 
the court might run into cash-flow problems unless it was provided three
years of operational funds up front. 

SIERRA LEONE: UNICEF warns of disease in Pujehun, Kenema

UNICEF has warned of a possible outbreak of disease in the southern district
of Pujehun, and Kenema in the east, because of a lack of sanitation,
clothing, food and safe drinking water for some 73,920 returning refugees. 

The UN children's agency, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and
Sanitation and WHO, conducted an assessment in the two districts in
December. It said the few health personnel available in these areas were
"poorly equipped in terms of training and logistics" to cope with health
emergencies. 

UNICEF said, in its situation report for 19 December 2000 to 15 January,
that
although returning refugees were building thatched homes and engaging in
farming, food and shelter were still scarce. 

GUINEA: Relief agencies return to parts of the southwest

Relief agencies have again been able to operate in some regions of southwest
Guinea from where they had withdrawn earlier this week after rebel attacks
in the area, UNHCR reported on Friday. However, the situation remains tense
across southwest Guinea, and stringent security measures are in place, it
said.

A small UNHCR team visited the border town of Guekedou on Thursday. The town
has suffered from rebel attacks on Saturday and Monday that were repulsed by
the Guinean army and allied militia forces. 

A military operation is now underway in regions bordering on Sierra Leone
and Liberia, UNHCR learnt. Checkpoints are in place at the entrance to every
village in the region, and Guinean army armoured vehicles are visible along
the roads, the refugee agency reported. 

GUINEA: Alarming situation in the Parrot's Beak  

The fragile security situation along Guinea's southwestern border has
prevented aid agencies from re-establishing relief operations in the
Parrot's Beak region, UNHCR reported on Friday.

In this area, which juts into Sierra Leone, about 180,000 refugees live in
scores of camps alongside some 70,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). 
Relief workers believe they face an alarming nutritional situation: some
rice stocks were harvested locally and fruits are available, but the people
in the zone have not received any outside food aid since early November,
UNHCR said.  However, Guinea's health department has been distributing
medical aid recently provided by UNHCR and other partner agencies throughout
the Guekedou area, including in the Parrot's Beak zone, the agency said.

LIBERIA: Monrovia recalls ambassador from Guinea

Liberia has recalled its ambassador from Conakry in protest at what it said
were continuing acts of aggression by the Guinean government, according to
media reports and observers in Monrovia. 

The two nations have placed troops on their borders and continue to accuse
each other of supporting armed anti-government rebels. 

The Liberian Foreign Ministry said recently that Guinean troops made several
incursions into Liberian territory last year. On the other hand, Conakry has
accused Liberia of being behind the incursions by armed men into southern
Guinea that have claimed scores of lives and displaced tens of thousands of
refugees and Guineans. 
 
One political analyst who watches Liberia closely told IRIN on Thursday the
government's decision, coming on the eve of the deployment of ECOWAS border
monitors, "significantly diminishes" the chances of direct talks
between presidents Charles Taylor of Liberia and Lansana Conte of Guinea. 

LIBERIA: 600 IDP's return home

The ICRC, aided by the Liberia National Red Cross Society, returned 600 IDPs
to their homes last week, the ICRC said in its news bulletin on Thursday.

The IDPs, over half of whom were children and teenagers, were trucked to
Voinjama, Kolahun and Foya in northwestern Liberia near the border with
Guinea. They had all fled lower Lofa County after fighting in upper Lofa in
mid-2000. Some had been living on the premises of an oil company and others
with relatives. The ICRC said some 200 decided to remain in lower Lofa where
they had found work with logging companies. 

SENEGAL: Red Cross provides food for Casamance IDPs

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Senegalese Red
Cross have distributed 38,952 kg of food to internally displaced persons
(IDPs) in Ziguinchor, southern Senegal, Mame Brahima Tounkara of the
Senegalese Red Cross told IRIN.

Each of the 4,869 IDPs were given five kg of rice and three kg of millet
over a four-day period that ended on Thursday.

The IDPs were forced from their homes in the Casamance area by an armed
conflict between the state and the Mouvement des forces democratiques de
Casamance which has been fighting for independence for Casamance, an area in
southern Senegal wedged between The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.

The distributions, which end on Thursday, are the first in Casamance for
2001. Last year, the Red Cross provided 105 mt of food in April, July and
August to Casamance IDPs.

NIGERIA: Campaign against the trafficking of women

Amina Abubakar, wife of Nigeria's vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has
launched a nationwide campaign against the widespread trafficking of women
to Europe to work as prostitutes, 'The Guardian' Lagos daily reported on
Wednesday.

The newspaper said the campaign began on Monday in Benin City, capital of
the Midwestern state of Edo, regarded as a major centre of the trade being
conducted by highly organised criminal gangs that often lure the women into
bondage on the pretext of finding them jobs.

NIGERIA: Rights commission wants prisons boss arrested

Nigeria's Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission ordered on
Tuesday the arrest of the head of the country's prisons and three police
officers in the southeastern city of Port Harcourt for failing to heed
summons to appear before the body, AFP reported on Wednesday.

AFP said the chairman of the Commission, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, ordered
the arrest of the comptroller-general of prisons, Mohammed Jarmah, Assistant
Commissioner of Police Kehinde Oyenuga and two junior police officers.

It was the first arrest ordered by the Commission, set up by President
Olusegun Obasanjo after he took office in May 1999. Its mandate is to
investigate abuses since January 1966, when the military first seized power
in Nigeria.

WESTERN SAHARA: EC aid for Sahrawi refugees  

The European Commission has earmarked nine million euros (US $8.5 million)
for supplies to Sahrawi refugees living in camps in the Tindouf region of
Algeria and to assist in selected rehabilitation activities, the EU
announced on Thursday. The camps' occupants remain largely dependent on
international aid, and foodstuffs form a major component of the assistance.
In July 2000, the Commission allocated humanitarian aid worth just over 4.9
million euros ($4.6 million) in response to a food crisis in the camps. The
latest funding is being directed through five NGO partners of the European
Commission Humanitarian Office, ECHO. 

COTE D'IVOIRE: Detentions

Military prosecutor Ange Kessy has denied that the detention of two generals
accused of being involved in a September attack on the home of former
Ivorian leader General Robert Guei is illegal. 

Generals Lansana Palenfo and Abdoulaye Coulibaly had gone into hiding after
Guei accused them of trying to kill him but emerged after popular protests
forced Guei out of office in October. Shortly after that, they were detained
by the authorities and have remained in detention. 

In an interview aired on Wednesday by the BBC, Kessy said the generals had
been denied bail by a court. "We have not committed anything illegal because
the procedure followed with regard to their detention followed the rules of
law," Kessy said.

COTE D'IVOIRE: Call for journalist to be freed

Ivorian and international media organisations have denounced the detention
of Ivorian journalist Junior Ouattara, accused by the state of participating
in an attempted coup on 7 January.

Ouattara, an employee of Agence France Presse (AFP), had covered the
attempted coup. He was arrested on Wednesday by agents of the Directorate of
Territorial Surveillance, who took him away handcuffed in an unmarked car,
AFP said. 

The head of the Union nationale des journalistes de Cote d'Ivoire (UNJCI),
Honorat De Yedagne, and the French-based Reporters sans frontieres (RSF -
Reporters Without Borders) have demanded his immediate release. 

COTE D'IVOIRE: Few vote in by-election 

Only about 13.3 percent of registered voters participated in by-elections on
Sunday in northern Cote d'Ivoire, the national electoral commission
announced on Monday.

Legislative elections held on 10 December in the rest of the country were
postponed in the north following unrest sparked by the rejection of the
candidature of the leader of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains
(RDR), Alassane Ouattara. The RDR, which protested by withdrawing from the
October polls, did not take part in Sunday's by-election.

No voting took place in Kong, Ouattara's home region, which has two seats in
parliament. Civil servants who had been chased from the area in December
have not yet returned, according to the CNE, which said the by-election
would be held there at a later date.

There are 225 seats in Cote d'Ivoire's parliament. Of the 223 already
decided, President Laurent Gbagbo's Front populaire ivoirien has 96, the
PDCI has 94, and 11 went to four other parties. The remaining 22 are
independents.

MAURITANIA: Supreme Court upholds dissolution of party

Mauritania's Supreme Court upheld on Sunday a 28 October 2000 decision by
the
government to ban the country's main opposition party, l'Union des forces
democratiques/Ere nouvelle (UFD/EN), the party said. The UFD/EN had appealed
against the government's decision, which it had described as "illegal and
illegitimate".

The opposition party claimed that the legal system was an instrument of the
government, and appealed to Mauritanians and the international community to
support its fight for democracy. The Supreme Court's decision cannot be
appealed against.

TOGO: Roman Catholic radio ordered closed

A radio station owned by the Roman Catholic church was sealed off on 13
January by Togolese authorities after it announced that a memorial mass
would be held for Sylvanus Olympio, the country's first president, killed in
a coup on 13 January 1963 led by the current president, Gnassingbe Eyadema,
The Missionary News Service (MISNA) reported.

MISNA said Jeunesse Espoir Radio of the Mission of Tabligbo, in southern
Togo, was closed indefinitely by soldiers sent by the local prefecture. 

CAPE VERDE: PAICV to tackle unemployment, poverty

Overcoming unemployment and poverty will be the key priorities of the
Partido Africano da Independencia de Cabo Verde (PAIVC), which was voted
back into power this month 10 years after losing the country's first
multiparty polls, party leader Jose Maria Neves told Portuguese radio on
Tuesday.

"At the moment virtually half of Cape Verdeans are poor - they live under
very difficult conditions, without water and electricity, but above all they
live in very precarious housing," he said. 

DRC-AFRICA: Summit's minute silence for Kabila

Heads of state and government from France and Africa observed one minute's
silence on Thursday in Yaounde, Cameroon, in memory of Laurent-Desire
Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Some 25 heads
of state and government attended the France-Africa summit, which was
scheduled to focus on globalisation. 

[For full story see 'DRC-AFRICA: Franco-African Summit observes minute of
silence for Kabila']

Abidjan, 19 January 2001; 19:17 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
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International Disaster Information
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
                                          web: www.cidi.org
                                     listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Africa  -  http://vwww.vita.org/humanitarian/irin/wafrica