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 60
17-23 February 2001

                                
CONTENTS:

SIERRA LEONE: One-third of all babies die in Kenema, IRC says
SIERRA LEONE: ECOWAS urged to arrest Bockarie
SIERRA LEONE: Guinean attacks displace thousands
SIERRA LEONE: Polio immunisation in rebel areas
GUINEA: First food deliveries to the Parrot's Beak in months
GUINEA: Immunisation campaign 
GUINEA: Government disappointed by ECOWAS stand on Liberia 
LIBERIA: Journalists arrested
TOGO: OAU-UN probe confirms executions, rape, disappearances
NIGERIA: Group opposes dredging of River Niger
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Government closes journalists association office
CHAD: World Bank appoints advisory group on oil pipeline project
SENEGAL: Bid to have torture charges reinstated against Habre
SENEGAL: Judge heads inquiry into student's death  
SENEGAL: More deaths in Casamance
SENEGAL: WHO donation
MAURITANIA: Food aid from China 
WESTERN SAHARA: Annan asks for MINURSO extension 
WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS-ICRC cooperation
WEST AFRICA: Meningitis

SIERRA LEONE: One-third of all babies die in Kenema, IRC says

A report just issued by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the
Ministry of Health and Sanitation of Sierra Leone indicates that 303 out
of every 1,000 infants born in Sierra Leone's diamond-rich Kenema District
die before reaching their first birthday.

The report is based on a mortality survey conducted in January 2001 among
500 households. It indicates that Kenema's annual mortality rate is 44
deaths per 1000 persons while the national rate is 24:1000. The research
found that most of the deaths were caused by preventable illnesses, mainly
malaria, diarrhoeal diseases and respiratory infections in that order.
  
SIERRA LEONE: ECOWAS urged to arrest Bockarie

The Sierra Leonean government has urged the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) to help arrest former Revolutionary United Front
(RUF) commander, Sam Bockarie, and extradite him to Freetown, the 'Concord
Times' newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Presidential Spokesman Septimus Kaikai was quoted by the paper as saying
the government had written to ECOWAS to facilitate the arrest and
deportation to Freetown of Bockarie, whose nom de guerre was 'Maskita'.  
For over a year after falling out with then RUF leader Foday Sankoh,
Bockarie was lived in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. But with President
Charles Taylor under increasing pressure to stop backing the RUF, Bockarie
was recently said to have left Liberia for an unknown destination.
  
SIERRA LEONE: Guinean attacks displace thousands

Many people were wounded, some of them seriously, when Guinean forces
shelled border areas in Sierra Leone's Kambia District on 15 February, a
survivor told the International Medical Corps (IMC), which has been
helping the injured. The survivor said many of the people injured during
the attacks on the border villages of Mambolo and Kukuna were left behind,
an IMC source told IRIN on Tuesday.

Such attacks have been frequent in Kambia in recent weeks, according to
humanitarian sources. They have caused many people to flee the district
for the Lungi area, where they can be found in 16 sites, according to WFP,
which is now verifying the number of IDPs in the area, estimated at
30,000-40,000.

WFP said IDPs walked for three to four days to reach safety and arrived
with few or no belongings. WFP plans to give them emergency food aid and
agricultural support. Most of the IDPs were afraid to return home because
of the ongoing fighting and were now trying to build shelters in the 16
sites, according to WFP.

WHO, for its part, did an assessment last week in Lokomassama Chiefdom,
one of the 16 sites, and found that the IDPs had increased the population
of the chiefdom by 50 percent. WHO officials found health centres there
poorly staffed and in urgent need of repairs.
 
Meanwhile, some 12,000 of the IDPs have received materials for building
shelters, blankets, sleeping mats and other supplies from the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Sierra Leone Red
Cross Society, ICRC reported on 15 February.

SIERRA LEONE: Polio immunisation in rebel areas

Over 1,200 vaccinators carried out a polio immunisation exercise on 16-17
February in areas in northern and northeastern Sierra Leone controlled by
the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), participating UN agencies
reported.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said 330,000 children in 49
chiefdoms were targeted, and that Vitamin A was also administered to them
during the exercise. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the areas
were previously inaccessible to health workers because of the war between
the RUF and the state since 1991.

GUINEA: First food deliveries to the Parrot's Beak in months

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday delivered food to two refugee
camps in the Parrot's Beak region of southwestern Guinea. The area had
received no relief supplies since October.

WFP Spokesman Ramin Rafirasme told IRIN on Thursday that 2,000 rations of
high-energy biscuits destined for undernourished children and pregnant
women were delivered to camps at Colomba and Koundoulingo, near the Sierra
Leone border. The deliveries were made possible by an improvement in the
security situation in the Parrot's Beak, humanitarian agencies say.

According to UNHCR, about 140,000 refugees were stranded in camps in the
Parrot's Beak - Guinean territory that juts into Sierra Leone. Some of
these refugees have walked to a transit point at Katkama, from where they
are being relocated to Albadaria, which is farther north. UNHCR has
already relocated some 11,000 people from Katkama and nearby Nyaedou.
  
WFP distributed food to about 7,000 refugees in Katkama on Wednesday but a
security incident led to the suspension of distributions to another 7,000
on the following day, and interrupted the transfer of refugees to
Albadaria
 
Humanitarian sources said the interruption was apparently caused by an
attempt by Guinean forces to seize relief food in Katkama. The attempt was
reportedly foiled by Kamajors - a pro-government militia from Sierra
Leone. The Kamajors have been allied to the Guinean forces in their fight
against assailants said to include Guinean dissidents and Sierra Leonean
rebels.

GUINEA: Immunisation campaign

A campaign to vaccinate refugees, IDPs and members of host communities
against measles began earlier this month in Guinea, UNICEF reported.
UNICEF said it was providing vaccines, injection supplies and Vitamin A
capsules for the campaign, which targets children between nine months and
15 years old.

UNICEF also said a UNICEF/FAO assessment identified a dramatic increase in
Guinea's malnutrition rate which is now 9-15 percent. The UN agency said
every effort would be made to reduce the rate. It said the nutritional
status of children aged 0-3 years would be evaluated while adequate
micro-nutrients and other supplies such as therapeutic milk would be given
to pregnant women, and malnourished and/or unaccompanied children.

GUINEA: Government disappointed by ECOWAS stand on Liberia

Guinea's government is disappointed by an Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) proposal that the UN Security Council delay by two
months a decision on whether to impose sanctions on Liberia for its
government's alleged role in diamonds and arms trafficking with Sierra
Leonean rebels.

Foreign minister N'Mah Hawa Bangoura is quoted by Guineenews, an online
news service, as saying at a meeting on Thursday with diplomats accredited
to Guinea that her government felt sanctions should be applied as quickly
as possible. She said Guinea would not oppose the deployment of ECOWAS
peacekeepers along its border with Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, it
felt they should not be neutral but have a peace-enforcing role.

LIBERIA: Journalists arrested

A Liberian court sent four journalists to jail on Wednesday after their
newspaper reported that the government had spent US $50,000 to repair
three military helicopters while it owed civil servants more than four
months' salary, news organisations said.

The court alleged that the four - a reporter and three editors from 'The
News' daily - had acted with "criminal intent" to "reveal national defense
information to foreign powers with the purpose of injuring Liberia or of
benefitting the said foreign powers in the event of a military
confrontation with Liberia". They reappeared in court on Thursday, but the
hearing was adjourned to 6 March.

TOGO: OAU-UN probe confirms executions, rape, disappearances

A joint commission of inquiry of the United Nations and the Organisation
of African Unity (OAU) has confirmed human rights violations in Togo, UN
News reported.

In a report based on investigations in Togo and neighbouring countries in
November-December 2000, the International Commission of Inquiry for Togo
said allegations by Amnesty International that hundreds of people had been
victims of extrajudicial executions "must be taken into consideration".

The report said the victims were mainly members of opposition parties. It
said there were indications that the perpetrators of the crimes were
police and other security officers and militias under their control. The
violations included executions, torture, degrading treatment, rape and
kidnappings.

The three-member commission recommended that the Togolese government
investigate the abuses, punish those responsible, and adopt laws to
prevent a recurrence of such violations. The report also proposed that the
UN appoint a Special Rapporteur on human rights violations in Togo.

NIGERIA: Group opposes dredging of River Niger

A plan by Nigeria's government to dredge the River Niger will be opposed
by people of the Niger Delta because of the adverse ecological impact it
is likely to have, 'The Guardian' daily reported a community group from
the area as saying on Thursday. The Ijaw Economic Monitoring Group (IEMOG)
said dredging the river would aggravate flooding and erosion in the
region, which is already burdened with environmental degradation caused by
oil production activities.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Government closes journalists association office

Reporters sans frontieres (RSF) on Thursday criticised the closure of the
offices of the Equatorial Guinea press association, ASOPGE, by the mayor
of Malabo, calling it "a violation of freedom of expression". RSF said
that, according to information it had received, municipal policemen acting
on the orders of Mayor Gabriel Mba Beya closed the ASOPGE building on
Wednesday.
 
ASOPGE was formed in 1997 with a view to linking private and public sector
journalists. Two private weeklies, 'La Opinion' and 'El Tiempo', were
published at the association. According to RSF, access to information is
controlled by Equatorial Guinea's authorities. All electronic media are
censured, the private press is almost non-existent, and the ruling party
controls the country's main publications, radio and television. Many
people have been arrested merely for being in possession of 'La Verdad',
an opposition magazine or documents of non-governmental organisations, RSF
said.

CHAD: World Bank appoints advisory group on oil pipeline project

The World Bank on Wednesday appointed an International Advisory Group
(IAG) on the Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project. The
IAG will advise the World Bank Group and the two governments on overall
progress in implementing the project, including the key objective of
reducing poverty in Chad, the World Bank said.
 
SENEGAL: Bid to have torture charges reinstated against Habre

Senegal's highest court is to rule on 6 March on whether Chad's exiled
ex-president, Hissène Habré, should stand trial in Dakar on torture
charges, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Tuesday.

Habre, 57, was indicted in February 2000, but in July an appeals court
dismissed the charges, arguing that Senegal had no jurisdiction over
crimes committed in Chad. In arguments on Tuesday before the Cour de
Cassation, Senegal's highest court, the prosecution argued that the
charges should be reinstated.
 
SENEGAL: Judge heads inquiry into student's death

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has appointed a former judge, Assane
Bassirou Diouf, as chairman of a justice department commission charged
with investigating the death on 31 January of university student Balla
Gaye. The director of Cheick Anta Diop University, Moustapha Nourang, is
deputy chairman. Gaye died of a gunshot wound sustained during a clash on
the university's campus in Dakar between security forces and protesting
students.

SENEGAL: More deaths in Casamance

Two Senegalese soldiers died and six were wounded this week in separate
incidents near Ziguinchor, the main town in Casamance, southern Senegal,
according to media reports confirmed by a rebel source.

One soldier died in an ambush by members of the Mouvement des forces
democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) while the other casualties occured when
an army truck drove over a landmine. Former MFDC spokesman Alexandre Djiba
confirmed the incidents but told IRIN they did not represent a hardening
of his organisation's point of view, as some Senegalese newspapers had
reported.

On 16 February, 14 civilians were killed and two wounded when a gang
attacked a convoy of vehicles on a highway north of Ziguinchor, the daily
'Le Soleil' and other news organisations reported. No one claimed
responsibility for the killing, but fingers were pointed at the MFDC.
President Abdoulaye Wade has launched a inquiry into that incident.

SENEGAL: WHO donation

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has donated 50,000 mosquito nets and
three all-terrain vehicles to Senegal's Health Ministry to help in the
fight against malaria, a WHO source told IRIN on Thursday. The donation is
worth about US $166,350.

MAURITANIA: Food aid from China

China has donated 1,000 mt of wheat, estimated at US $1.4 million, to the
Mauritanian government to help alleviate food scarcities and fight against
malnutrition, AFP reported on Monday. Several Sahelian countries have
appealed for food aid in response to recent shortages. Burkina Faso, Chad
and northern Cameroon are among the countries and areas most severely
affected.
  
WESTERN SAHARA: Annan asks for MINURSO extension

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended a two-month extension, to
30 April 2001, of the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in
Western Sahara (MINURSO). In a report to the UN Security Council on
Tuesday, Annan said he was requesting the extension to "see whether the
government of Morocco is prepared to offer or support some devolution of
governmental authority" to the inhabitants of the territory, annexed by
Rabat in 1975.

WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS-ICRC cooperation

ECOWAS and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have agreed
to exchange information and consult each other on matters of mutual
concern, the ICRC reported.

Under the agreement, signed on 15 February in Abuja, Nigeria, the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the ICRC may undertake joint
activities to achieve common objectives.

Since 1990, ECOWAS has played a leading role in settling conflicts in West
Africa. ICRC delegates have begun providing instruction in international
humanitarian law for members of the ECOWAS peace monitoring force, ECOMOG,
which is to be deployed to the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone.

WEST AFRICA: Meningitis
 
Various West African countries have been affected by meningitis in recent
months. They include Chad, where the disease has killed 83 of the 798
people known to have contracted it between 25 December 2000 and 15
February, the World Health Organisation reported on Tuesday. A mass
vaccination campaign is underway in the affected areas, which are in the
southwest of the country. In northern Benin, 45 of the 603 persons
afflicted with the disease have died since January. Meningitis sweeps
across the Sahelian region each dry season, affecting thousands of people
from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.
 
Abidjan, 23 February 2001; 18:45 GMT


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