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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 62
3-9 March 2001

                                
CONTENTS: 

GUINEA: Swiss aid for refugees
GUINEA: Many killed or wounded in arms dump explosion
GUINEA: ICRC helps 80,000
SIERRA LEONE: UNHCR urges Security Council to fortify UNAMSIL
SIERRA LEONE: German NGO to train child amputees
SIERRA LEONE: Displaced women transform unused farmland
BURKINA FASO-ANGOLA: Apparent thaw in relations
BURKINA FASO: Francophone newspapers against impunity
GUINEA-BISSAU: Military officers acquitted 
SENEGAL: Seven civilians killed
SENEGAL: New prime minister
CAMEROON: Amnesty calls on state to shed light on disappearances
LIBERIA: UN Security Council imposes sanctions
CAPE VERDE: PAIGC candidate wins presidential election
GABON: Army recruitment drive
GABON: Exiled Congolese soldiers asked to leave 
NIGERIA: 23 Schoolgirls killed in blaze
TOGO: Commissions on light arms, illegal killings  
AFRICA: GlaxoSmithKline and WHO sign agreement on new malaria drug 


GUINEA: Swiss aid for refugees

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation announced on Friday 2
March that it would give 2.6 million Swiss francs (US $1.6 million) to two
UN agencies and an NGO to support their efforts to help thousands of
Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees in southwestern Guinea.

The equivalent of about US $605,000 goes to UNHCR to relocate the refugees
to safer areas farther inland. Around US $666,000 will go to the World
Food Programme for the purchase, transport and distribution of 1,370 mt of
food. The Swiss chapter of Medecins sans frontieres gets roughly US
$303,000 for its work in the new refugee camps.

Meanwhile, UNHCR reported on Tuesday that refugees still stranded in the
Parrot's Beak, one of the most volatile areas in southwestern Guinea,
could be evacuated in the second half of March.

The refugees are being transported to the Kountaya camp in Albadaria
district. UNHCR reported on Tuesday that at least 35 percent of the 17,479
refugees who had arrived at the camp by then said they wanted to be
repatriated to Sierra Leone and Liberia.

GUINEA: Many killed or wounded in arms dump explosion

At least six people died and 41 were wounded when an ammunitions warehouse
exploded on Friday at a military base in Guinea's capital, Conakry, Radio
Guinee reported. BBC reported that a fire set off a series of explosions
at the base, near Guinea's international airport. AFP reported medical
sources as saying the death toll was 22. The government has undertaken to
pay the medical bills of the wounded. News media reported that the bodies
of other people who apparently drowned while trying to escape the fire
were later recovered.

GUINEA: ICRC helps 80,000

At least 80,000 people displaced by fighting in southwestern Guinea have
received aid from the ICRC since September 2000, when insurgents began
attacking areas along the border with Liberia and Sierra Leone, ICRC
reported on Thursday. The aid has consisted of food, cooking oil and other
items such as sleeping mats, blankets, soap and jerry cans. Medical
supplies have been distributed to border health centres and the main
hospitals caring for the wounded.

SIERRA LEONE: UNHCR urges Security Council to fortify UNAMSIL

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers urged the Security Council
on Thursday to strengthen the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) so that
it can secure Kambia, 79 km northeast of Freetown, for the repatriation of
refugees from Guinea, UN News reported on Wednesday.

Lubbers told the Council of assurances he received from Guinea that its
army would ensure security along the road from Forecariah to the border
with Sierra Leone, which is the route the refugees would take to reach
Kambia.

"I have also received indications that the RUF is prepared to leave Kambia
in order that it becomes territory under the control of UNAMSIL," he said.
"As soon as UNHCR has received a public statement of confirmation by RUF,
it will use its good offices to invite the Government of Guinea to refrain
from all military actions in the area of Kambia."

Guinean troops have been striking hard at RUF positions in Kambia to stop
the rebels' cross-border raids into Guinea. This has forced residents to
flee.

SIERRA LEONE: German NGO to train child amputees

Christ End Timer Movement (CETMI), a German NGO, appealed to humanitarian
bodies on Sunday for funding to provide vocational training and medical
care in Germany to 25 Sierra Leonean amputees aged 11-16 years.

CETMI said it needed money for air tickets, artificial limbs, instructors
and local transport for the children, who will be housed in a 40-room
facility equipped with training aids. CETMI also needs money to cover the
operational costs of the three-year project, which might be extended until
the children become adults.

Meanwhile, Sierra Leone's health minister, Ibrahim Jalloh, has received US
$130,000 from DHL West Africa for an orthopaedic and prosthetic building
project for amputees, the state-owned news agency, SLENA, reported on
Wednesday.
 
Over 5,000 people had their limbs hacked off by the Revolutionary United
Front during its 11-year war against the state.

SIERRA LEONE: Displaced women transform unused farmland

In just a few months, the 300 members of Sierra Leone's Ogoo Women Farmers
Association have turned underutilised farmland into fields of greens
vegetables, pumpkins and tomatoes, the ICRC reported on Thursday. "We
women got together to help ourselves and to avoid the vices of
prostitution and idleness," Mariama Keita, the association's chairman,
said.

The women - most of them displaced or widowed by the war - were given
seeds, tools and training by the ICRC, the Sierra Leone Red Cross (SLRC)
and the Ministry of Agriculture. ICRC and the SLRC supported nearly 12,000
women this way last year and plan to help another 60,000 this year.

BURKINA FASO-ANGOLA: Apparent thaw in relations

A visit to Ouagadougou this week by an Angolan delegation led by the
speaker of parliament, Roberto Antonio Victor Francisco de Almeida,
appeared to mark a thaw in relations between Angola and Burkina Faso.

''There is a new sentiment and new wishes for the two countries to move
forward and have better relations,'' de Almeida said at a news conference
on Thursday after meeting President Blaise Compaore. ''All officials, both
private and public, whom I met have shown willingness to move in this
direction.''

Relations between Luanda and Ouagadougou soured when the Angolan
government, and later a UN panel, accused Burkina Faso of accepting
''bloody diamonds'' from the rebel Uniao Nacional de Independencia Total
de Angola (UNITA) in exchange for illegal arms and fuel shipments. The UN
panel also accused Burkina Faso of helping Sierra Leone's Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) rebels sell their diamonds and buy weapons.
 
BURKINA FASO: French-language newspapers against impunity

'Presse et Democratie', a media watchdog linking 35 French-language
newspapers in African countries, has launched a campaign to press Burkina
Faso's judiciary into lifting the impunity which, it says, is being
enjoyed by the presumed killers of journalist Norbert Zongo. Participating
papers have agreed to publish full-page advertisements to express their
position on the issue. Zongo, editor of the weekly 'L'Independant', was
found dead in his car on 13 December 1998 in Sapouy, 100 km south of the
capital, Ouagadougou. He had been investigating the death of David
Ouedraogo, driver of Francois Compaore, brother of Burkina Faso's
president.
 
GUINEA-BISSAU: Military officers acquitted
       
A court in Guinea-Bissau has acquitted army Colonel Sandji Fati of charges
linked to his defence of ex-president Joao Bernardo Vieira's government
during a mutiny by a section of the military between June 1998 and May
1999, news organisations reported.

Lusa reported that Fati had been accused of treason, sabotage of national
defence and collaboration with foreign invaders - a reference to
Senegalese and Guinean troops that helped Vieira fight the Junta Militar,
led by the former chief of staff, late General Ansumane Mane.

The Bissau regional court ruled on Thursday 1 March that Fati had acted
"within the scope of his military status" and should be acquitted under
the terms of an accord signed during the conflict, Lusa reported. The
accord stated that no one could be persecuted or tried for having fought
on one side or the other.

Fati was among Vieira loyalists imprisoned by the Junta when it overthrew
Vieira in May 1999. Two others - the former chief of staff of the armed
forces, Brig-Gen Humberto Gomes, and his assistant, Afonso Te - were
acquitted earlier.
 
SENEGAL: Seven civilians killed

Seven civilians were killed on Friday 2 March when armed men attacked a
convoy of cars on a highway in the Casamance, southern Senegal, news
organisations reported. The attack, blamed on members of the Mouvement des
forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), came two weeks after another
incident, on 16 February, in which 13 people were killed. February's
attack was also blamed on the MFDC, which has been fighting since 1982 for
the independence of Casamance. The MFDC's leader, the Reverend Augustin
Diamacoune, condemned on Thursday the attacks against civilians, 'Le
Soleil' daily in Dakar reported.

SENEGAL: New prime minister

Madior Boye became on Saturday Senegal's first female prime minister,
replacing Moustapha Niasse of the opposition Alliance des forces de
progres (AFP), who had occupied the post since March 2000. According to
the BBC, Niasse lost his post as a result of disagreement within the
ruling coalition of 23 political parties, the Front pour l'alternance
(FAL). The disagreement centred on which candidates to endorse in
legislative elections due in April.
 
CAMEROON: Amnesty calls on state to shed light on disappearances

Amnesty International said on Friday 2 March that it had called on
Cameroon's government to clarify the disappearance of nine youths in
Douala after their arrest on 23 February as suspects in the theft of a
neighbour's cooking gas bottle. The youths were taken to a detention
facility of the Commandement operationnel, an elite security corps created
last year to combat armed robbery in Douala and Yaounde. They were last
seen there by relatives on 27 February. Since then, there has been no
information on their whereabouts, Amnesty said. Local NGOs have often
reported that the unit has carried out large-scale extrajudicial
executions while fighting street crime in Douala, Amnesty said.

LIBERIA: UN Security Council imposes sanctions

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to impose a
12-month ban on diamond imports from Liberia and restrict travel by senior
Liberian government and military officials and their spouses.

The measures are in response to evidence of Monrovia's involvement in arms
and diamonds trafficking with Sierra Leonean rebels. They will take effect
in two months unless the Council determines that Liberia has stopped
supporting the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and other armed groups in
region.

[See separate item titled 'LIBERIA: IRIN Focus on reactions to Security
Council resolutions']

CAPE VERDE: PAIGC candidate wins presidential election

Pedro Pires has been declared winner of the second round of presidential
elections in Cape Verde, held on 4 March. Pires, candidate of the Partido
africano da Independencia da Guine e Cabo Verde (PAIGC), beat Carlos Veiga
by 12 votes, the national electoral commission reported. Veiga was prime
minister in the outgoing Movimento para Democracia (MPD) government, which
ruled the country since 1991, when it ended the PAIGC's 17-year reign.
Pires is also a former prime minister.
 
GABON: Army recruitment drive

Gabon's Ministry of Defence has launched a programme to recruit 1,500
young men and women aged 18-25 years into the armed forces over the next
five years , AFP reported on the ministry as saying on 2 March. The
recruitment is linked to recent measures by the ministry to curb rising
violence and insecurity. The extra troops would also enable Gabon to
participate in peacekeeping missions, AFP reported.

GABON: Exiled Congolese soldiers asked to leave

The Gabonese government says it has asked exiled Congolese army officers
to leave the country. The exiles had sought refuge in Gabon after a civil
war broke out three years ago in the Republic of Congo.

Gabonese Interior Minister Antoine Mboumbou Miyakou made the disclosure on
Tuesday on Africa No. 1, a Libreville-based radio station. He said that,
following a meeting between Gabonese and Congolese authorities "and in
view of the fact that peace has returned to Congo", he had asked the
exiles to return home or choose another host country. He said he made the
request at a meeting on Monday with representatives of the exiles.

The civil war in Congo pitted supporters of then president Pascal Lissouba
against former head of state Denis Sassou-Nguesso. Sassou-Nguesso won the
war and took over in late 1997.
  
NIGERIA: 23 Schoolgirls killed in blaze

At least 23 girls died on Monday when a fire broke out in a secondary
school hostel in Plateau State, central Nigeria, media organisations
reported. The victims were among 165 girls staying at the hostel, located
in the town of Gindiri. They were trapped in their rooms because doors and
windows had been locked to prevent them from going out at night, the BBC
reported. Several others suffered severe burns. Plateau's government has
declared three days of mourning.

TOGO: Commissions on light arms, illegal killings

The Togolese government formed a commission on Wednesday to plan a
strategy for curbing the proliferation of light arms in the country,
according to The Republic of Togo web site. The commission comprises
representatives of the head of state, the prime minister, ministries
concerned with security, the Togolese human rights commission, religious
leaders and traditional chiefs.
 
Another commission whose establishment was announced on Wednesday will
investigate allegations that extrajudicial executions were perpetrated
during the 1998 presidential election campaign. The four-member commission
of inquiry will verify a charge by Amnesty International that hundreds of
people, mostly soldiers, were killed and dumped into the sea. The corpses
were reportedly washed ashore in Togo and Benin, prompting a public outcry
in the latter.

AFRICA: GlaxoSmithKline and WHO sign agreement on new malaria drug

GlaxoSmithKline, a major pharmaceutical company, and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) announced on 2 March the signing of an agreement for
the development of a new anti-malaria treatment called LAPDAP.

LAPDAP combines two existing anti-malarial compounds (chlorproguanil and
dapsone), WHO said. The agreement aims at developing the drug as an oral
treatment for uncomplicated malaria, primarily for use in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Clinical trials in the region have shown that LAPDAP is effective
in treating uncomplicated malaria resistant to other standard therapies,
WHO reported.

Abidjan, 9 March 2001; 20:09 GMT


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