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 76
9 - 15 June 2001


CONTENTS: 

SIERRA LEONE: Police arrest 39 in arms cache raid
SIERRA LEONE: UNHCR evacuates 130 refugees 
SIERRA LEONE: RUF hands over 59 more children
SIERRA LEONE: Disarmament begins in Lunsar 
SIERRA LEONE: Donors fail to pledge reconstruction money
SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL supports skills project 
SIERRA LEONE: Bangladeshi unit ends tour
SIERRA LEONE: Government frees Liberians 
SIERRA LEONE: WFP fears food shortages in September
LIBERIA: WFP completes food hand out to 40,000 IDPs
LIBERIA: Wounded soldiers threaten to rampage 
GHANA: Officials turn back ship with Liberians
GHANA: Diseases spread in crowded prisons
GHANA: Japan to help build bridges
WESTERN SAHARA: EU announces US $3.2m in humanitarian aid
NIGERIA: Over 750 patients abandoned in Kaduna State
NIGERIA: Doctors to consider pay offer
NIGERIA: Govt ratifies conventions against child labour
NIGERIA: 1,126 women deported from Europe, Asia 
NIGERIA: Government to review prison law
NIGERIA: Christians condemn call for Muslim president
NIGERIA: Police says "enough" to vigilantes
NIGERIA: Obasanjo to destroy small arms
CHAD: European food aid
MAURITANIA: Jailing of opposition figure condemned
WEST AFRICA: EU priority area for UN cooperation
WEST AFRICA: Soccer star's ship carried child labourers
WEST AFRICA: Course on complex emergencies
BENIN: Peacekeeping training centre to be built

SIERRA LEONE: Police arrest 39 in arms cache raid

Police arrested army Colonel Gabriel Mani and 38 other soldiers and
civilians on Saturday for possessing an arms cache uncovered in a
seven-hour cordon-and-search operation in the Sierra Leonean capital,
Freetown, which was declared a weapons-free zone nearly a year ago.

The Sierra Leone News Agency, SLENA, reported that the weapons -
discovered by agents of the police Special Security Division and UN
peacekeepers in Mani's Juba Hill home - included assault rifles,
rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and ammunition.

Before his arrest Mani was the army's director of military training. He
was among the group of army officers who once overthrew President Ahmad
Tejan Kabbah. Mani joined the anti-government Revolutionary United Front
after Nigerian-led West African troops restored Kabbah to power in March
1998.

SIERRA LEONE: UNHCR evacuates 130 refugees

UNHCR reported on Tuesday it had evacuated 130 Liberian and Guinean
refugees from an area of Sierra Leone controlled by the Revolutionary
United Front RUF).

The agency said the refugees, who had been in the eastern town of
Kailahun, were taken to a government-controlled area where they could
receive urgent help. The group comprised 106 vulnerable and sick Liberian
refugees, their families, and 24 Guineans who will be repatriate. They
have been in Sierra Leone since insurgents attacked their homes in
Guekedou, southern Guinea, in January.

The mission to the districts of Kailahun, Buedu and Koidu (in the east of
the country) was the first of several planned to assess the condition of
thousands of Sierra Leonean returnees, Liberian and Guinean refugees in
these RUF-controlled areas, UNHCR reported.

Despite the generosity of the local communities to the newcomers, UNHCR
said, "the humanitarian situation in these areas is critical". There are
no medical, educational and sanitation facilities, it said, and "there are
also food shortages." UNHCR said it would not operate fully in these areas
until security is improved. However, the agency said it would try to ease
the suffering of the returnees and refugees.

SIERRA LEONE: RUF hands over 59 more children

Revolutionary United Front rebels handed over 59 more children on Saturday
to the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, bringing to 828 those released by all
irregular fighting forces in the country since the process began on 25
May, UNAMSIL reported. UNAMSIL flew them to an interim care centre in the
eastern town of Daru.

SIERRA LEONE: Disarmament begins in Lunsar

Disarmament of irregular combatants began in Lunsar, 80 km northeast of
Freetown, on Tuesday with at least 1,500 Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
fighters expected to lay down their arms but on the first day just 40
showed up, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reported.

UNAMSIL reported that two children were among the fighters who included
the RUF area brigade commander, Molesky Kallon. They handed in general
purpose machine guns, AK-47s and FN rifles which UNAMSIL destroyed at the
disarmament site. On Tuesday, another 227 CDF fighters disarmed at
Sandaru, Kailahun District, and were flown to the Daru demobilisation and
reintegration camp.

The disarmament process resumed on 18 May, with hundreds of rival fighters
entering camps in the Kambia and Port Loko, 80 km north and 60 km
northeast of Freetown. By the time the process officially closed in these
localities, 3,502 RUF and CDF fighters had disarmed.

SIERRA LEONE: Donors fail to pledge reconstruction money

Donors at a World Bank funding conference in Paris that ended on Tuesday
failed to offer firm pledges to replenish a multimillion trust fund set up
for war-weary Sierra Leone, the UNAMSIL reported.

With just US $6 million dollars left in the fund, the Sierra Leonean
government expects this to last no later than August, the World Bank
Country Director for Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia, Peter Harold, told
reporters in Paris. The money is being used to pay for post-war
reconstruction and socioeconomic development.

Despite the absence of pledges the government has planned further talks
with individual donors. Those countries and multilateral bodies
represented at the meeting included Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the
United States. Multilateral organizations included the European Union, the
UN Mission in Sierra Leone, the United Nations Children's Fund,
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International
Finance Corporation, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, the
International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Bank.

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL supports skills project

UNAMSIL reported on Tuesday it has provided US $14,861 for skills training
for 25 adult and 60 former child fighters, as well as 40 women and girl
rape victims during the civil war. The grant, which comes from UNAMSIL's
Trust Fund, will be administered by the Faith, Hope and Charity
Foundation, a local NGO.

SIERRA LEONE: Bangladeshi unit ends tour

Bangladesh's 1st Battalion completed its one-year tour of duty with
UNAMSIL on Monday, the UN Mission reported. UNAMSIL Force commander Lt-Gen
Daniel Opande paid homage to the unit, saying it had gone about its
mission with dedication and commitment. The unit is being replaced by the
4th Bangladeshi Battalion. The country has some 4,215 troops in the
country, the largest peacekeeping contingent in UNAMSIL.

SIERRA LEONE: Government frees Liberians

Sierra Leone freed on Monday six Liberians who were detained in the
southern border town of Kailahun just over one month ago on suspicion of
engaging in subversive activities, sources at the Sierra Leonean News
Agency told IRIN.  "Subsequent investigations found them innocent," a
source said.

The men were named as Colonel Momoh Burphy of the Special Security
Service, Major Joseph Johnson Passawe, an immigration officer, Captain
Amos Nagbe of military intelligence, Police Captain Ibrahim Graye, Kennie
Lissa Kapka, the town chief of Bo Waterside and a footballer, Harry
Swarray.

SIERRA LEONE: WFP fears food shortages in September

The World Food Programme reported it would face a serious break in the
food supply chain in September and October unless more donations are
received immediately.

In its Emergency Report of 8 June, the agency said it needed at least
another 10,400 mt of cereals, 1,150 mt of pulses, 1,515 mt of oil, 770 mt
of sugar and 280 mt of salt to meet requirements up to the end of the
year.

LIBERIA: WFP completes food hand out to 40,000 IDPs

The World Food Programme has finished delivering emergency rations to
40,000 Liberians fleeing fighting between government troops and dissidents
in Lofa County, the WFP regional office in Abidjan reported on Thursday.

It said 30,000 of the displaced were in Bong County and 10,000 in Grand
Cape Mount County. WFP regional spokesman Ramin Rafirasme told IRIN that
about 70 percent of them were women and children, living in the open air
and in abandoned buildings.

LIBERIA: Wounded soldiers threaten to rampage

Wounded soldiers threatened on Tuesday to riot again if the government
fails to provide for their welfare, PANA reported citing local news
reports.

The soldiers - wounded in battles in Lofa County against Liberian
dissident forces - are demanding regular food, clothing and medication at
the government hospital in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, about 75 km north of
Monrovia.

Assistant Defence Minister for Public Affairs Philibert Browne said his
ministry "could do nothing" about the wounded because that was the
responsibility of a presidential committee set up for that purpose, PANA
reported. Since 1999 when the war began in northern Liberia, wounded
soldiers have resorted to violence to draw attention to their plight.

GHANA: Officials turn back ship with Liberians
 
Ghanaian authorities denied entry to 167 Liberians on board a Swedish
registered ship after other nationals were allowed to disembark, news
organizations reported on Monday.

The German news agency, DPA, said the MV Alnar was allowed to dock briefly
on Sunday at Tema Harbour, some 25 km east of Accra where 134 Ghanaians,
20 Nigerians and two Sierra Leoneans got off while the Liberians were
refused entry. Interior Minister Malik Alhassan Yakubu said on state radio
on Tuesday that the passengers were turned away because they were illegal
immigrants and not refugees.

"They have all ways of entering, and then you have on your hands people
who claim to be refugees," he said.

Up to 16,000 Liberians who fled the country's seven-year civil war from
1990 still reside in Ghana, some of whom recently fought police and
locals. There are fears that a resurgence of fighting in Liberia's
northern Lofa County may spur a renewed influx of refugees from the
war-torn country into the region.

GHANA: Diseases spread in crowded prisons

Infectious diseases such as yellow fever, diarrhoea, typhoid fever,
pneumonia and cerebrospinal meningitis are spreading among inmates of
Ghana's Sekondi Central and Ekuasi prisons as a result of overcrowding,
'Accra Mail' reported on Tuesday. The newspaper reported the assistant
director of the Sekondi Central Prisons, Joseph Kwaw-Johnson, as saying
this while receiving drugs worth four million cedis (US $551.724) the
Pharmacy Council of Ghana donated to prisoners.

GHANA: Japan to help build bridges

Japan says it will help Ghana build 18 small and medium size bridges in
six regions of the country at the cost of US $8.4 million, the Ghana News
Agency reported on Saturday. They are to be built in Ashanti, Volta,
Eastern, Brong-Ahafo, Northern and Upper East.

WESTERN SAHARA: EU announces US $3.2m in humanitarian aid

The European Commission announced on Tuesday a 3.7 million-euro (US $ 3.2
million) grant to buy relief items - mainly food - for some 155,000
Western Sahara refugees in Tindouf, southwestern Algeria.

This will enable the European Union's humanitarian aid office, ECHO, and
Italian partners Medico International and the Comitato Internazionale per
lo Sviluppo dei Popoli to guarantee food for the next three months. Their
food supply has been almost empty since February, ECHO said. The European
aid followed a funding appeal by UNHCR and WFP on 8 June.

The UN agencies called for $1.2 million per month for the refugees who
have been in Tindouf since 1976 because of the dispute between Morocco and
the pro-independence Polisario Front over Western Sahara's right to
independence.

NIGERIA: Over 750 patients abandoned in Kaduna State

More than 750 victims of vesico vaginal fistula (VVF) have been abandoned
by their relatives in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna, 'Vanguard' daily
reported on Thursday, citing medical sources.

VVF, a condition common in underage women who have undergone pregnancy,
leaves its victims unable to control passage of urine and faeces. It is
widespread in northern Nigeria due to a high preponderance of underage
girls being forced into marriage by their families.

Sani Hassan, of the Department of Community Health at the Ahmadu Bello
University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, which takes cares for VVF patients,
was reported as saying that many of the patients rejected by their
husbands or families had taken up menial jobs in the town and earning, on
average, 50 naira (US $0.44) a day.

NIGERIA: Doctors to consider pay offer

Doctors in Nigeria are due to meet on Friday to consider whether or not to
call off their three-week strike that has paralysed public medical
services nationwide, the BBC reported.

The meeting is being called following a government offer of a pay rise. A
doctor in the public health sector makes about US $400 a month, BBC
reported, but did not state the government's new offer.

BBC reported that the strike had affected "tens of thousands" of patients
and fuelled growing discontent with the government of President Olusegun
Obasanjo. In the Midwestern city of Benin 593 patients were forced to
vacate the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the Central Hospital,
'Thisday', a Lagos newspaper, reported on Friday. It quoted the chief
medical director of the teaching hospital, Professor Austin Obasohan, as
saying only patients who had specified appointments with certain
consulting physicians were still on admission.

NIGERIA: Govt ratifies conventions against child labour

The government has ratified five of the eight core conventions of the
International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions against child labour,
'The Guardian' newspaper reported on Thursday.

The permanent secretary at the Nigerian Labour Ministry, Godfrey Preware,
told delegates from the 175 ILO-member states at a Geneva meeting recently
that the government was "actively engaged" in providing the institutional
framework and logistic infrastructure "to sustain the implementation of
ratified core conventions".

Meanwhile, the police in Lagos has charged a well-known city
businesswoman, Bisi Dan-Musa, and two others before a magistrate court
with 19 counts of child stealing and slave dealing, local newspapers
reported on Thursday. The 'Vanguard' daily reported that the accused
pleaded not guilty and were granted bail. The hearing was adjourned till
18 July.

The accused were arrested last week after being found in the custody of 16
children aged between one year and four years. In a routine highway search
of vehicles, police found the children hidden behind plastic crates in a
mini-bus. Newspapers reported that Dan-Musa told the police she had
rescued the children from destitute and drug addicts, and had adopted them
out of humanitarian concern.

NIGERIA: 1,126 women deported from Europe, Asia

A total of 1,126 Nigerian women who were victims of traffickers were
deported from Europe and Asia between March and April, 'The Guardian'
reported on Thursday, quoting Titi Abubakar, head of the Women Trafficking
and Child Labour Eradication Foundation in Nigeria.

Abubabakar, wife of the country's vice president, also said on average 69
women were deported to Nigeria every month. The figure, she said, excluded
the dead, the maimed and others who sneaked into their host countries
through clandestine routes. Many of the victims were used for commercial
sex, begging, rituals or were engaged in menial jobs and forced marriages.

NIGERIA: Government to review prison law
 
The government is to review the country's prison law to place more
emphasis on reforming inmates and giving them skills to make them more
useful citizens on their release, 'The Guardian' Lagos daily on Thursday
reported Minister of Internal Affairs Sunday Afolabi as saying.

The paper reported that President Olusegun Obasanjo's government had spent
2.4 billion naira (US $21 million) under the first phase of a
refurbishment programme aimed at improving prison conditions and the
welfare of inmates. Nigeria has 147 prisons and other detention centres,
with an estimated population of 43,000 inmates.

NIGERIA: Christians condemn call for Muslim president

Two Christian groups in Nigeria have condemned statements attributed to a
former military ruler, General Muhammadu Buhari, urging Muslims to vote
against a Christian presidential candidate in the 2003 elections, 'The
Guardian' newspaper reported on Tuesday.

In separate statements, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN),
representing 19 northern states, and Nigeria's Anglican bishops urged the
government to consider Buhari's statement a serious threat to security.

Nigeria has been increasingly polarised along religious and ethnic lines
since several state governments in the country's predominantly Muslim
north last year began strict application of Islamic or Sharia law. Buhari,
who ruled Nigeria for 20 months after toppling an elected government in
1983, has emerged a strong supporter of Sharia.

NIGERIA: Police says "enough" to vigilantes

The police in Nigeria's southeastern Anambra State has said it will no
longer accept the methods of a local anti-crime vigilante in dealing with
criminals, 'The Guardian' daily reported on Wednesday.
 
State Police Commissioner Daniel Anyogo told leaders of the vigilante and
the community at a meeting that "no deviation" from the code of conduct
establishing the Anambra Vigilance Services would be entertained any
longer. Of particular concern has been the vigilante's practice of hacking
suspected criminals with machetes and then setting their bodies ablaze.

NIGERIA: Obasanjo to destroy small arms

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will next week undertake a symbolic
destruction of a large quantity of small weapons and ammunition in the
capital, Abuja, 'The Guardian' newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The paper reported chairman of the National Committee on Small Arms and
Light Weapons, Musa Yahaya, as saying the bulk of the weapons, now in
police custody, were either seized at the nation's borders or from scenes
of communal conflicts and other recent trouble spots around the country.

CHAD: European food aid

The European Commission (EC) approved on Tuesday a US $812,000-grant in
food aid for 155,000 Chadian drought victims in the districts of Tandjile,
Chari and Logone Occidental. Food reserves are "almost non-existent", the
EC reported, adding that the drought had driven people to the capital,
N'djamena.

World Vision, a partner of the European Union's humanitarian aid office,
ECHO, will distribute the food to vulnerable groups. World Vision will
care for malnourished children under five years, improve existing feeding
centres and build new ones.

MAURITANIA: Jailing of opposition figure condemned

Opposition parties in Mauritania and human rights groups condemned on
Thursday the five-year prison term handed down to the leader of the le
Front populaire Chbih Cheikh Ould Malainine.

The Criminal Court in Aioun, 800 km east of the capital, Nouakchott,
sentenced Malainine and two others on Thursday for plotting to overthrow
the government, media organizations reported. They were arrested early
April and accused of preparing acts of sabotage and terrorism, AFP
reported.

WEST AFRICA: EU priority area for UN cooperation

The European Union (EU) has identified West Africa as one of the regions
selected for priority cooperation with the United Nations in their effort
at crisis management and conflict resolution, according to the conclusions
of the union's General Affairs Council released on Tuesday.

Cooperation will cover mutually reinforcing approaches in conflict
prevention, exchange of information on current and potential crises,
cooperation in fact-finding and coordination of diplomacy. Others are
cooperation in election monitoring and provision of electoral aid, and
field coordination and training.

WEST AFRICA: Soccer star's ship carried child labourers

Nigerian international footballer Jonathan Akpoborie said a ship he owns
carried child labourers but neither he nor the vessel's captain had been
aware of it, media organizations reported on Tuesday.

A BBC report quoted the footballer as telling the German weekly news
magazine 'Stern' that the 13 children found on board MV Etireno were
"probably being taken from Benin to Gabon to work". Earlier media
allegations in May that the ship had up to 250 children on board were
revised when the ship finally docked at the Benin port of Cotonou.

Akpoborie, a striker for the German club Wolfsburg, has been cleared of
any personal responsibility by the Nigerian government and the German NGO
Terre des Hommes, which had mounted a publicity campaign over the
incident. However, the news reports said carmaker Volkswagen, which owns
Wolfsburg, had decided to drop Akpoborie from the club because of the
incident.

WEST AFRICA: Course on complex emergencies

Columbia University, New York, in collaboration with the International
Rescue Committee (IRC) and World Education will run a training programme
from 8-22 July in public health in complex emergencies.

IRC said the course will cover the context of emergencies; epidemiology;
communicable diseases; environmental health; nutrition; reproductive
health; psychosocial issues; ethical issues; weapons, violence, trauma;
and coordination.

The course is intended for health professionals working in complex
emergencies and is being offered in West Africa for the first time. There
are still a few openings available and interested parties should contact
Lorna Stevens at shortcourse@theirc.org

BENIN: Peacekeeping training centre to be built

Benin and France have agreed to build a US $332,000 regional centre to
train troops in demining and peacekeeping operations, the Panafrican News
Agency (PANA) reported on Wednesday. The centre is to be based in Benin
and slated to open in June 2002.

Abidjan, 15 June 2001; 15:32 GMT
  

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