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 

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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 77
16 - 22 June 2001


CONTENTS: 

LIBERIA: Refugees adrift off Togo
LIBERIA: Lebanese want to be dropped from UN travel ban list
LIBERIA: Relief officials continue effort to alleviate IDPs' plight
GUINEA: Sierra Leonean refugees resettle in Australia
SIERRA LEONE: RUF claims CDF attacked its men
SIERRA LEONE: Plastic surgeons to remove children's scars
SIERRA LEONE: Mapping humanitarian activities
NIGERIA: Soldiers deployed to oil town 
NIGERIA: Several deaths reported in fresh ethnic fighting
NIGERIA: Government refuses to fight crime with ethnic militia
NIGERIA: Youths raze churches in northern Jigawa
NIGER: Measles update
MAURITANIA: Amnesty calls for release of opposition leaders
CHAD: Islamic Bank lends US $7.3m for education
THE GAMBIA: UNHCR moves 4,000 Casamance refugees
GUINEA-BISSAU: Stability key to European aid
BURKINA FASO: Children not bound for farm labour, consul says
WEST AFRICA: Benin, Niger take border dispute to The Hague
WEST AFRICA: ADB approves US $23.14 million for five countries

LIBERIA: Refugees adrift off Togo

The MV Alnar, a Swedish-registered ship with about 168 Liberian refugees
on board, was reported on Friday to be have left the coast of Togo, where
it had been stranded for days. The Liberians had earlier been denied
permission to land in Ghana, Togo and Benin. Media sources told IRIN the
ship received food, water and other supplies from the Togolese authorities
before leaving for Nigeria via Benin, where it was expected to obtain more
fuel. Nigeria's government announced on Tuesday that it was willing to
accept them.

LIBERIA: Lebanese want to be dropped from UN travel ban list

Liberia's Lebanese community has vowed to seek the removal of some of its
members from a list of Liberian government officials, advisers and others
on whom the United Nations has slapped a travel ban, PANA reported on
Tuesday.

The news agency quoted the Liberian chapter of the World Lebanese Cultural
Union as denying that any members of the country's Lebanese community were
"informal advisors" to Liberian President Charles Taylor, as stated in a
UN Security Council document of 4 June.

LIBERIA: Relief officials continue effort to alleviate IDPs' plight

Relief bodies continued efforts this week to help thousands of people
displaced by the war between pro-and anti-government forces in Liberia's
northern county of Lofa.

Some of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) were relocated this week
from the Fassama and Baloma areas to Bopolu in Gbarpolu County (formerly
Lower Lofa). A humanitarian source told IRIN that Save the Children's Fund
had relocated just under 1,900 people to Bopolu, the main town in
Gbarpolu, by Wednesday and was monitoring the situation around Fassama and
Baloma to see if there were more IDPs in the surrounding bushes.

Another main group of IDPs are at Gbalatuah and Belefane, near the border
between Lofa and Bong counties, the source said. Relief workers had
complained that they were being blocked from reaching these IDPs by
members of the security forces, although a group of USAID, UNICEF and
government officials managed to visit the area this week. The source said
efforts were being made to encourage the government to allow better access
to the Gbalatuah and Belefane IDPs pending their relocation.

A verification exercise has been started to find out how many IDPs there
are in Liberia. In the meantime, the humanitarian community is working
with an estimate of 30,000, the source said.

GUINEA: Sierra Leonean refugees resettle in Australia

Fifty-seven out of 132 Sierra Leonean refugees cleared to resettle in
Australia left Conakry, Guinea, on Wednesday for Perth, western Australia,
the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported. The remainder
are to follow over the next two months, IOM spokeswoman Niurka Pineiro
told IRIN on Thursday.
 
SIERRA LEONE: RUF claims CDF attacked its men

The rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) said this week it would abide
by a ceasefire it signed in mid-May with the pro-government Civil Defence
Forces (CDF) militia despite CDF attacks on the villages of Lelewah and
Woodu in northern Sierra Leone on 17 and 19 June.

UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) spokesman Major Mohamed Yerima told
IRIN on Thursday that the attacks were carried out by militiamen who had
been in Guinea and were largely unaware of the RUF-CDF ceasefire. He said
UNAMSIL patrols were investigating the incidents in which, according to
the RUF, at least 35 civilians and four RUF fighters were killed.

Meanwhile, the RUF has asked the UN for more information on a proposed
truth and reconciliation commission, UNAMSIL reported. The rebels also
wanted information on a proposed UN tribunal that would try crimes
committed during Sierra Leone's war.

The war, which began in 1991, caused great destruction, including in the
diamond-rich eastern district of Kono where, according to World Vision
(WV), 90 percent of the buildings were damaged or destroyed, particularly
in the district's main town, Koidu.

WV reported on 16 June that health care and schools were "practically
non-existent" in Kono and that people were surviving on bananas and wild
yams. Up to 80 percent of Kono's pre-war population, estimated at 510,000,
had fled fighting in the district, which used to be the country's
breadbasket. WV said tens of thousands had recently gone back to the
district and more were returning daily from refugee camps in Guinea.

SIERRA LEONE: Plastic surgeons to remove children's scars

Some 136 children on whose faces and bodies rebels carved their groups'
acronyms during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war are to have them removed
by two visiting plastic surgeons from the International Medical Corps. A
UNICEF official told IRIN the first surgeon was due to arrive in mid-July.
 
The official said some 95 percent of the children had been branded with
the letters RUF or AFRC, the acronyms of the Revolutionary United Front
and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which ruled Sierra Leone in
1997-1998.
 
Many of the children were forcibly separated from their relatives. Child
protection agencies have started a massive effort to trace the families of
minors released from militia service or captivity, OCHA reported in a
review of the country's humanitarian situation from 10 May to 16 June.

OCHA said that up to 11 June, UNICEF and its partners had reunited 153
children who served in the pro-government Civil Defence Forces with their
families.

SIERRA LEONE: Mapping humanitarian activities

OCHA and UNHCR are making "significant progress" in developing maps on
"who is doing what and where" in the humanitarian arena, OCHA reported. It
said that maps of individual international non-governmental organisations
were now available, in electronic form, at the Humanitarian Information
Centre in Freetown.

NIGERIA: Soldiers deployed to oil town

Armed soldiers have been deployed to the oil town of Warri in Nigeria's
Niger Delta to avert a renewal of fighting between Urhobos and Itsekiris.
The deployment followed reports of an arms build-up involving factions of
the two ethnic groups, which fought late last month over plans to create
new local government councils in the area. Clashes between factions of
Warri's three ethnic groups - Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo - over the past
three years have killed over 2,000 people, according to media reports.

NIGERIA: Several deaths reported in fresh ethnic fighting

Several people have been killed and hundreds displaced in a fresh outbreak
of fighting in central Nigeria between members of Tivs and neighbouring
Hausa speakers, AFP reported on Thursday.

The French news agency said the clashes affected a number of towns and
villages in Nasarawa State, to the east of the capital, Abuja. They were
sparked by the killing last week of a Hausa traditional ruler, which his
people blamed on Tivs. The report said hundreds of Tivs, who are a
minority in Nasarawa State, have fled Nasarawa for neighbouring Benue
State, where they are the majority.

Local newspapers had been reporting growing tension in the area since the
traditional ruler, Musa Ibrahim - also a leading landowner in Nasarawa -
was ambushed and killed by unknown gunmen while driving along a highway.
In April violence had broken out between the two groups over allegations
by Tivs that Ibrahim was encroaching on their land.

NIGERIA: Government refuses to fight crime with ethnic militia

Nigeria's federal government will not accept plans by the Lagos
administration to use an ethnic militia to fight crime in the country's
biggest city, Minister of Information Jerry Gana told journalists on
Wednesday.

Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu had said recently he was considering
deploying the Oodua Peoples' Congress (OPC - a militant organisation of
the Yoruba ethnic group) as an anti-crime unit. However, Gana said the
federal government was determined to discourage the growth of ethnic
militias in the country and, moreover, the OPC was still a banned
organisation. The federal government banned the OPC in October 2000 after
it was blamed for ethnic riots that led to the death of more than 100
people in Lagos.

NIGERIA: Youths raze churches in northern Jigawa

Four Christian churches were set ablaze by Muslim youths at Dutse, capital
of northern Nigeria's Jigawa State following a religious dispute, 'The
Guardian' reported on Friday. The Lagos daily said the incident, on
Thursday, was the result of a religious dispute sparked by the publication
of a book by a Christian author, which the Muslims deemed blasphemous of
Islam. The report said tension was very high in Dutse, despite a heavy
police presence, and that scores of Christians had fled the predominantly
Muslim town. There has been an upsurge in religious violence in Nigeria's
mainly Muslim north since last year, when several states began to impose
the Sharia - Islamic law. Jigawa is one of 10 states that have so far
adopted Sharia.
   
NIGER: Measles update

About 237 deaths from measles have been registered in recent weeks in
Niger out of 44,513 people infected with the disease, Medecins sans
Frontieres (MSF) reported this week. MSF said its teams, in collaboration
with Niger's health authorities, vaccinated more than 200,000 children in
Niamey, the south central district of Maradi and Tahoua, northeast of the
capital. Tahoua was also affected by a meningitis epidemic that claimed
the lives of 559 out of 7,452 infected persons. Some 206,660 persons have
so far been vaccinated against meningitis in Tahoua, MSF said.

MAURITANIA: Amnesty calls for release of opposition leaders

Amnesty International called on Tuesday for the release of three
imprisoned members of the opposition Front populaire mauritanien (FPM),
describing them as prisoners of conscience. Amnesty said the 14 June
conviction of FPM leader Mohammed Lemine Chbih Ould Cheikh Melainine and
party members Mokhtar Ould Habetna and Bouba Ould Hassena on charges of
conspiracy to commit sabotage and terrorism, was flawed and "intended
solely to stifle political opposition".
 
CHAD: Islamic Bank lends US $7.3 million for education

Chad will receive a US $7.3-million loan from the Islamic Development Bank
to support educational projects, AFP reported, citing a statement from the
Jeddah-based institution. Primary school enrolment in Chad is about 52
percent while some 10 percent of eligible children attend secondary
school, according to 1996 figures. The country has one university and
several technical colleges.

THE GAMBIA: UNHCR moves 4,000 Casamance refugees

Some 4,000 refugees in The Gambia who fled fighting in Senegal's Casamance
region have been moved since May from two border camps to the interior,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) office in Banjul
said on Monday. UNHCR officials told IRIN the refugees were moved from the
camps of Sifo and Arankol because of recent fighting in Casamance, which
is seeking independence from Senegal. There are also fears that the
fighting could spill across the border into the refugee camps. A UNHCR
spokesperson told IRIN that some 200 people who did not want to move "were
asked by the government to go home" but were not deported as some have
alleged.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Stability key to European aid

The European Union's newly accredited representative in Guinea-Bissau,
Antonio Avelino Moreira Martins, has said that political and social
stability are key to the resumption of aid to the country, the Portuguese
news agency Lusa reported on Friday. "Our top priority is to contribute to
this country's political and social stability, because it is a basic
condition for the resumption of development," Martins said in the capital,
Bissau. He said the EU would look at helping to restructure national
institutions and promote democracy.
  
BURKINA FASO: Children not bound for farm labour, consul says

Burkina Faso's consul general in Abidjan, Amadou Traore, denied on Monday
reports in the Ivorian media that 200 Burkinabe children handed over to
the embassy last week were victims of child traffickers. He said the
teenagers were students on holiday who were going to visit relatives when
their bus was intercepted by Ivorian police in the northern town of
Ouangolodougou on suspicion that they were being brought in as labourers.
The children have been released to their families. However, Burkina Faso's
government decided on Thursday to suspend all summer excursions to Cote
d'Ivoire, the governmental daily in Abidjan,'Fraternite Matin' reported.
 
WEST AFRICA: Benin, Niger take border dispute to the Hague

Benin and Niger have signed an agreement to submit their border dispute to
the International Court of Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands, the
Panafrican News Agency reported on Thursday. The report, quoting official
sources in the Niger capital, Niamey, said the agreement was signed last
week in Cotonou, Benin. Under its terms the Court is required to determine
the precise border of the two countries on Lete Island in the River Niger
and the Mekrou region. Both sides pledged to abide by the Court's ruling.

WEST AFRICA: ADB approves US $23.14 million for five countries

The African Development Bank (ADB) has approved loans totalling US $23.14
million for development projects in The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Mali and Senegal.

Mali will get the equivalent of US $7.11 million to finance a project
promoting widespread use of certified seeds in agriculture, and expected
to improve food production and reduce poverty. Guinea-Bissau will receive
US $1.37 million to develop institutional support for rural development
programmes. A loan of US $14.66 million is aimed at helping members of the
Organisation for the Development of the Gambia River Basin - The Gambia,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal - to alleviate poverty and improve
living conditions.

Abidjan, 22 June 2001; 19:11 GMT
  

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