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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 73
19-26 May 2001


CONTENTS: 

SIERRA LEONE: Over 2,100 demobbed in six days
GUINEA: Evacuation of Parrot's Beak almost completed
GUINEA: Military arrest seven following search of refugee convoy
GUINEA: Opposition leader freed
LIBERIA: Insecurity continues in the north 
SENEGAL: More than 2,000 flee to The Gambia  
NIGER: Food deficit causes displacement
CHAD: World Bank, IMF approve $260 Million in debt relief 
NIGERIA: Religious clash in Gombe State
NIGERIA: Measles cases increase sharply in Kano 
MALI: Powell ends first leg of African tour
AFRICA: OAU calls for end to conflicts

SIERRA LEONE: Over 2,100 demobbed in six days

Some 2,613 rebels and pro-government militiamen in Sierra Leone handed in
their weapons between 18 and 24 May, a UNAMSIL source told IRIN. The
ex-fighters have been taken to disarmament, demobilisation and
reintegration camps in Port Loko, 60 km northeast of Freetown.

Over 2,000 of the ex-combatants received food supplies this week from WFP,
which is helping to feed almost 400,000 people in the country.

The demobilisation followed a ceasefire agreement on 15 May between the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Civil Defence Forces (CDF) as a
result of which an estimated 25,000 RUF and CDF combatants are expected to
disarm in the next six months.

Earlier this month, RUF and government officials concluded an agreement
reconfirming an earlier peace accord, which paved the way for the release
of children abducted by the rebels.

On Friday, officials of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) left
Freetown for the northern town of Makeni to receive some 600 children
scheduled to be released on the same day by the RUF.

The agreements have increased hopes that the process launched by a peace
agreement RUF and the government signed in May 1999 in Lome, Togo, will
remain on track and signal a definitive end to a war during which many
atrocities were committed.

A war crimes tribunal is to be set up in Sierra Leone but money is still
needed for it. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the United States on 18
May to contribute to the establishment of the tribunal.
   
GUINEA: Evacuation of Parrot's Beak almost completed

The evacuation of tens of thousands of refugees from the Parrot's Beak in
southern Guinea is nearing completion, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski
reported on Friday.

He said about 2,000 refugees remaining in small groups in camps and
villages inside the Beak, an insecure area wedged into Sierra Leone, would
be transferred over the next two days to the Katkama transit camp to the
north.


Most camps in the area are now empty and have been torched by local
villagers, UNHCR said. So far, 12,000 refugees have been evacuated from
the Beak since the start of the UNHCR-organised operation on 2 May.

GUINEA: Military arrest seven following search of refugee convoy

On May 23, Guinean military personnel manning a checkpoint in Badala, just
south of the Katkama transit centre, searched trucks from camps in the
western part of the Parrot's Beak and arrested seven young men, UNHCR
reported on Friday. They are suspected of belonging to a militia group.

UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said the agency was concerned about the
incident, which occurred despite an agreement by Guinean military and
local authorities that baggage and refugees would be screened before the
convoys left the camps.

UNHCR said its staff had noted increased tension in the area, particularly
among the military in Nongoa, in the eastern part of the Parrot's Beak,
which came under rebel attack in early March. On Wednesday, UNHCR staff
escorting convoys reported a visible presence of Kamajors - Sierra Leonean
pro-government militia - at checkpoints also manned by Guinean troops.
This could indicate a deterioration in the security climate along the
border, Janowski said.
 
GUINEA: Opposition leader freed

Guinean opposition leader Alpha Conde left prison on 18 May after being
detained for two and a half years, news organisations reported.

Conde, freed under a presidential pardon, was arrested near the Ivorian
border in December 1998 just after losing a presidential election and
charged with endangering state security, recruiting mercenaries and
plotting to kill President Lansana Conte. Conde and his co-accused were
sentenced in September 2000 to five years in jail in a trial that critics
described as rigged.
 
LIBERIA: Insecurity continues in the north

Liberia's government claimed this week that it had recaptured the town of
Foya, some 280 km north of the capital, Monrovia, from dissidents.
However, BBC reported dissidents in Lofa, the northern county that
includes Foya, as denying this.

The fighting in Lofa has displaced thousands of people. Save the Children,
a non-governmental organisation, reported that up to 21 May, 27,647 IDPs
had been registered, 20,597 of them in neighbouring Bong County. Thousands
of IDPs waiting to cross into Bong were being held up by security forces
at a bridge over a river between the two counties. There were reports that
all males above the age of nine years were being told they should remain
in Lofa to defend the fatherland.

Liberia accuses Guinea of backing the dissidents, while Conakry maintains
that Monrovia backs insurgents in southern Guinea, who have reportedly
been helped by Sierra Leone's rebels. The UN Security Council has imposed
an embargo against Liberia for allegedly supporting the Sierra Leonean
rebels. The embargo includes a diamond ban and this week, US President
George Bush prohibited the import of rough diamonds from Liberia.

Meanwhile, the government has lifted travel restrictions imposed just over
three weeks ago on UN staff and diplomats, purportedly because of the
fighting in Lofa.

SENEGAL: More than 2,000 flee to The Gambia

Over 2,196 people from Casamance, southern Senegal, have fled to The
Gambia following heavy fighting between the Senegalese army and fighters
of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC).

The refugees started entering the country on Thursday 17 May. A
humanitarian source in Casamance told IRIN the refugees fled their
villages after the army started shelling the area on the night of 16-17
May.

The source said commandos from the town of Thies, in northern Senegal,
were sent to the area, Sindian District in the Department of Bignona,
after attacks by armed men against travellers. The attacks, in which many
people died, were blamed on the MFDC, which has been fighting for
independence for Casamance since 1982.

The fighting in Bignona died down on Monday, when the commandos were
reportedly withdrawn.

NIGER: Food deficit causes displacement

Poor harvests brought on by drought have displaced an unspecified number
of people in Niger, according to state officials. The Foreign Ministry
said a shortfall of 163,000 mt in the 2000 agricultural season had
affected an area that has nearly 3.6 million inhabitants - 35 percent of
Niger's population. Nafoga Adamou, head of Niger's Early Warning Unit,
told IRIN "the situation is still critical because the state had asked
(international partners) for about 60,000 mt but since its appeal only
about 10,000 mt have been received".

CHAD: World Bank, IMF approve $260 Million in debt relief
 
The World Bank announced on Tuesday that its International Development
Association and the International Monetary Fund would support a
comprehensive package under which Chad will receive US $260 million in
debt service relief from all of its creditors under the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).

The IMF and IDA will start providing debt relief immediately. Total
interim assistance will average US $14 million yearly, but Chad will
receive most of the help under the HIPC initiative when it completes
various measures, including the adoption and implementation of a poverty
reduction strategy paper.

Other measures include maintaining macroeconomic stability, strengthening
public expenditure management to identify and track poverty-related
spending, ensuring that 75 percent of health districts and centres
countrywide are functional, increasing the sale of condoms to strengthen
the fight against HIV/AIDS, increasing school enrolment and improving
access to roads and potable water.

NIGERIA: Religious clash in Gombe State

Some 25 people were injured on Tuesday when Christian and Muslim youths
clashed in Nigeria's northern state of Gombe, AFP reported Governor
Abubakar Hashidu as saying. The incident took place in the town of Kumo
after some Muslims confronted three Christians who were carrying a picket
bearing the words "No Sharia", AFP quoted Hashidu as saying. Buildings
were set ablaze but there were no deaths, AFP reported.
  
NIGERIA: Measles cases shoot up in Kano

Measles cases in northern Nigeria's biggest city, Kano, reached 16,263 in
the first 21 weeks of this year as against 2,111 for the same period of
2000, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), reported on Tuesday. Dr Gebrewold
Petros, MSF medical coordinator in Nigeria, told IRIN the incidence of the
disease had been rising since November 2000 but had now started dropping.
 
MALI: Powell ends first leg of African tour

Democracy, poverty reduction and enhanced research on malaria, HIV and
other infectious diseases were among the main issues US Secretary of State
Colin Powell discussed with his hosts during a one-day visit in Mali
between Wednesday and Thursday.

Powell said Washington was committed to strengthening democracy in Mali,
and planned to provide US $750,000 in technical and logistical aid for
presidential elections due next year.

He also promised support for education, in particular primary schooling,
and increased funding and cooperation for the Malaria Research Centre at
the University of Mali, where Malian and US researchers have been working
on drugs against malaria, HIV and infectious diseases, the US official
said.

AFRICA: OAU calls for end to conflicts

The central organ of the OAU's conflict prevention and resolution
committee has urged the protagonists of African conflicts to end fighting
and engage in discussions. The call came at the end of a summit on 18-19
May in Lome at which leaders discussed cross-border fighting between
Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, wars in Burundi and Democratic Republic
of Congo and conflict in the Comoros.

The committee appealed to the governments of Guinea and Liberia to sign a
proposed troop deployment plan which has been delayed for months. It also
called on the UN Security Council to approve the deployment "without
delay". The committee, in its final document, expressed satisfaction at
recent positive developments in the Congo but was concerned about repeated
violations of international humanitarian law. The meeting, which was
attended by seven heads of states, called on all OAU members to help
solidify the Lusaka peace accord signed in February.

However it saw the outlook for Burundi as bleak, expressing concern that a
current stalement in the peace process could lead to another major crisis.  
The committee repeated an appeal to the Security Council to deploy forces
in Burundi once the situation stabilises. It urged the international
community to help UNHCR relocate displaced Burundians.

A January peace agreement in the Comoros was seen as encouraging and the
committee called on the international community to help the archipelago's
socio-economic development.

Abidjan, 25 May 2001; 18:50 GMT


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