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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 74
26 May -1 June 2001


CONTENTS: 

SIERRA LEONE: More weapons handed over, SLA deployed in Kambia
SIERRA LEONE: Food for 33,225 children
SIERRA LEONE: Phase I of resettlement completed
GUINEA: UNHCR completes refugee relocation from Parrot's Beak
WEST AFRICA: Annan urges Mano river leaders to end conflict
LIBERIA: President warns of wider conflict
SENEGAL: New refugees movements
CHAD: Election result contested
NIGER: Still confronted by food deficit 
NIGERIA: Borno State adopts Sharia
NIGERIA: Troops intercede between feuding communities
BURKINA FASO: Better water management leads to higher yields, FAO says
THE GAMBIA: ADB grant for flood victims
 
SIERRA LEONE:  More weapons handed over, SLA deployed in Kambia

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) this week returned weapons, vehicles
and military equipment seized last year from UN Mission in Sierra Leone
(UNAMSIL) peacekeepers. The handover took place on Wednesday in Makeni,
138 km northeast of Freetown.

On Tuesday, a Sierra Leonean army battalion crossed the Mange Bridge into
Kambia, 80 km northeast of Freetown, to reassert government control in
parts of the Northern Province hitherto controlled by RUF. The deployment
followed the disarmament of irregular forces in Kambia, which began on 18
May. By the official deadline for disarmament in the area, 3,502 fighters
had turned themselves in - 1,096 from the RUF and 2,406 from the Civil
Defence Forces militia. UNAMSIL said on Friday that although the official
deadline was on 31 May, the main centre at Port Loko would continue to
receive anyone wanting to disarm.

Government, RUF and UNAMSIL officials were due to meet on Saturday (2
June) in Magburaka, 143 km northeast of Freetown, to discuss the
disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of more fighters in
that part of the country.

UNAMSIL said on Friday that the meeting of the ad hoc Committee on
Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration would examine the timetable
and locations for the next phase of the DDR programme, and discuss
sensitisation, the location of DDR sites and the release of child
combatants.

SIERRA LEONE: Food for 33,225 children

WFP recently distributed 200 mt of food for 33,225 children enrolled in a
school-feeding programme in various parts of Sierra Leone, the UN agency
said in a report on 25 May. The beneficiaries were in the Freetown
Peninsula, Lungi (north of Freetown) and the nearby islands of Tasso and
Peppel, along with the southern areas of Koya - Kenema District - and Bo.

SIERRA LEONE: Phase I of resettlement completed

Sierra Leone's National Commission for Reconstruction, Resettlement and
Rehabilitation (NCRRR) and humanitarian agencies said the first phase of a
resettlement programme ended in early May and was a success. A total of
40,498 returnees were resettled in safe areas, they said.

Many Sierra Leoneans continued to return home during the month of May,
mainly from Guinea. In the eastern town of Daru, for example, over 14,700
returnees were registered - along with about 1,000 registered Liberian
Refugees, a UNHCR source told IRIN.

OCHA and the NCRRR assessed the situation in the Eastern Province, which
includes Daru, on 22-23 May, OCHA said in a situation report for 9-29 May.
They found that there was no humanitarian emergency in Daru but said that
could change rapidly because they town had a high concentration of IDPs,
resettling IDPs, returnees and refugees.
  
GUINEA: UNHCR completes refugee relocation from Parrot's Beak

UNHCR completed on Sunday the voluntary evacuation of 57,000 Sierra
Leonean and Liberian refugees from the Parrot's Beak, an area in southern
Guinea that juts into Sierra Leone. UNHCR said that, from now on, it would
only provide material aid to refugees relocated to sites where the
government can ensure their safety. The relocations, begun over a year
ago, were accelerated in February after an upsurge in fighting in the
Beak.
   
WEST AFRICA: Annan urges Mano river leaders to end conflict

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone to hold a summit as a confidence-building measure toward achieving
peace in and between their nations. His call came in a 23 May report on
displaced populations in the three countries which, he said, have one
million war victims, including refugees and IDPs.

Annan said the UN would study ways to improve its capacity to coordinate
and deliver humanitarian aid to the needy. He said governments in the
region and UN agencies must continue to protect refugees and IDPs and
urged the international community to support UN and NGO efforts to help
them.
 
Annan also warned that efforts to protect, relocate and return refugees
and IDPs to their homes would fail, "if equal attention is not paid to the
needs of those who stayed behind, to receiving communities and the larger
reconstruction and development needs of the West African subregion."

LIBERIA: President warns of wider conflict

President Charles Taylor said on Tuesday that if West African leaders
became complacent about the war in Lofa County, northern Liberia, the
entire region could be endangered, the Liberian Ministry of Information
reported.

"We cannot be trying to solve the crisis in Sierra Leone while others are
trying to support a new war in Liberia," he said, referring to reports
that Liberian troops had seized British-made ammunition from
anti-government forces in Lofa. He told the UN Secretary-General's Special
Representative to Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, who visited Monrovia this
week, that he would present the evidence to the UN Security Council.

Taylor said the British presence in West Africa would "continue to
threaten" Liberia. [British military instructors have been training
regular Sierra Leonean troops.] He also said the anti-government forces in
Lofa were backed by Kamajor militiamen from Sierra Leone and Guineans
trained by the US military.

The war in Lofa has displaced some 60,000 people, according to official
estimates. A WFP source told IRIN that thousands of IDPs in neighbouring
Bong County needed shelter and other non-food items. The source said the
IDPs were staying in abandoned buildings, warehouses, an agricultural
centre and the open air.

Meanwhile, the Information Ministry said this week that foreign
journalists wishing to report in Liberia needed to give at least 72 hours
notice in writing to be allowed into the country. "Once in Liberia there
will be a 24-hour briefing time to give the ministry details of what the
journalist wants to do before accreditation is accorded," an official told
IRIN.

SENEGAL: New refugees movements
 
Tension in Casamance, southern Senegal, continues to drive people into
neighbouring Gambia, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond reported on Friday in
Geneva.

He said more than 200 refugees arrived this week in villages along
Gambia's southern border, bringing to more than 2,500 the number of people
who fled to The Gambia since fighting flared up in mid-May between
Senegalese government forces and the Mouvement des forces democratiques de
Casamance (MFDC).

Meanwhile, UNHCR is trying to verify reports that Guinea-Bissau
authorities have been forcing Senegalese refugees to leave, Redmond said.
NGO sources told IRIN that about 70 refugees had crossed into Casamance,
southern Senegal, via the Mpack border post in recent days.

Redmond said UNHCR had sent a team to the area to establish whether or not
their return was forced.

Humanitarian sources told IRIN the refugees fled northern Guinea-Bissau
after soldiers burnt many homes on 20 May in a village whose inhabitants
they suspected of hiding members of the MFDC. Refugees from Casamance had
been living for about 10 years in the village, which is some 5 km
southwest of the town of Sao Domingos. After the military's action, some
refugees fled to Sao Domingos, while others returned to Senegal, the
sources said.

The MFDC has been fighting for self-rule for Casamance since 1982.
 
CHAD: Election result contested

Chad's electoral commission announced on Sunday (27 May) that President
Idriss Deby won more than 67 percent of the vote at presidential polls on
20 May, while his main rival, Ngarledjy Yorongar, scored about 13 percent.
 
However, all six opposition candidates maintain that the elections were
fraudulent and their parties appealed on Friday for the annulment of the
polls, law professor Dionko Maounde told IRIN from Ndjamena.

The six politicians were arrested twice this week: on Monday as they
planned a protest rally, and on Wednesday ahead of the burial of a student
shot by security forces during Monday's arrests. Maounde confirmed news
reports that Yorongar was beaten during his detention on Wednesday.
 
NIGER: Still confronted by food deficit

Niger's government hopes to be able to provide its most vulnerable
populations with enough low-cost cereals to tide them over until the first
cereal harvests in August, state officials said on Tuesday. In April, the
government appealed for 60,000 mt of cereals to cover a shortfall of
163,000 mt in the 2000 agricultural season. So far about 24,000 mt have
been obtained through donations and purchases by the state, Nafoga Adamou,
coordinator of Niger's Early Warning Unit told IRIN.

NIGERIA: Borno State adopts Sharia

Borno became on Friday the latest northern Nigerian state to adopt Islamic
law, media reported. Ten other states have either adopted Sharia or
announced plans to do so over the past year and a half.
  
NIGERIA: Troops intercede between feuding communities

Security forces deployed in Warri in southeastern Nigeria's Delta State
have been stopped fighting that broke out on 25 May between the Urhobo and
Itsekiri communities over a proposal to create a local government in an
Urhobo-majority area, a media source told IRIN on Tuesday. About seven
people were shot and wounded, while some property was damaged, the source
said. AFP said the troops, deployed on Sunday, arrested more than 40
youths.

BURKINA FASO: Better water management leads to higher yields, FAO says
 
New water management techniques implemented in Burkina Faso under the
FAO's Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) have increased irrigated
rice yields by 38 percent and lowland rice output by 53 percent, FAO
reported on 25 May. Since the programme began in 1995, earnings have
increased from 91,000 francs CFA to 200,000 FCFA per hectare (ha) for
irrigated rice, and from 58,000 FCFA to 143,000 FCFA per ha for lowland
rice, FAO said. (One US dollar is worth about 700 FCFA.)
   
THE GAMBIA: ADB grant for flood victims

The African Development Bank (ADB) has granted The Gambia US $500,000 for
emergency relief for flood victims, the ADB reported on Tuesday. The money
is to be used to help affected communities cope with damage caused by
floods during the 1999 rainy season, which affected about 27,000 people.
The grant will go towards repairing dykes and spillways, the purchase of
inputs such as rice seeds, the rehabilitation of 35 wells and the
treatment of 116 others.

Abidjan, 1 June 2001; 20:00 GMT
 

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