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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 102
08 - 14 December 2001


CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Successive displacements as fighting seesaws in the west
SIERRA LEONE: Disarmament off to a slow start in Tongo Fields
GUINEA: World Bank reports decrease in new cases of FGM
GUINEA-BISSAU: New prime minister
SENEGAL: RSF protests against manhandling of journalists
NIGERIA: UN-backed conference discusses Delta development
GHANA: US funds against crime; commission to investigate clashes
GABON: Suspected Ebola cases rise to 14
CHAD: Reconciliation talks

LIBERIA: Successive displacements as fighting seesaws in the west

Within just about two weeks, internally displaced persons (IDPs) in
western Liberia's Gbarpolu County ran from their camps, returned and then
fled again as pro-and anti-government forces battled it out in the county
and in neighbouring Lofa.

Aid agencies had returned on 4 December to Gbarpolu, which has two IDP
camps at Bopolu and Jenemana, from where the fighting had forced them to
withdraw in late November. However, the situation deteriorated once more,
forcing IDPs and aid workers to withdraw again from the camps on 7 and 8
December.

Action by Churches Together, an NGO, said in a statement on 11 December
that the renewed fighting had sent more than 5,000 people fleeing. A
humanitarian source said aid agencies planned to set up transit centres in
Sawmill and Nyomo, localities in Bomi County, just south of Gbarpolu and
west of Monrovia. Various agencies were trying to provide water, health
and other services to approximately 4,000 IDPs who managed to reach
Sawmill.

Only some of the Gbarpolu IDPs moved. A humanitarian source said those in
Jenemana camp, which has a population of 7,000, had stayed put even though
they were not happy about the security situation.

Both Gbarpolu and Lofa border Sierra Leone while Lofa shares a border with
Guinea. Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea said last weekend that the
anti-government forces, believed to be from the Liberians United for
Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) group were also moving towards Sierra
Leone with a view to attacking that country and thus worsen relations
between Monrovia and Freetown.

In the meantime, civilians are bearing the brunt of the conflict, which
has been going on since 1999. In addition to displacement, they have been
subjected to abuses such as killings, rape, torture and forced
recruitment, Amnesty International said in a statement on 11 December. The
statement was based on a recent mission to Liberia by a group of Amnesty
researchers.

Among the perpetrators it listed Liberian armed opposition groups based in
Guinea, on the one hand, and forces fighting for the government of
Liberian President Charles Taylor on the other. These include the Armed
Forces of Liberia, the Anti-Terrorist Unit, and the police as well as the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF), an anti-government group from Sierra
Leone.

Amnesty urged the international community as well as national and
international relief groups to come up with strategies to protect
civilians.

SIERRA LEONE: Disarmament off to a slow start in Tongo Fields

Disarmament has begun in parts of eastern Sierra Leone where the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) had earlier refused to hand in its
weapons unless various demands were met, including the release of Foday
Sankoh and other rebel leaders.

Over 860 former rebels had disarmed by Thursday in Kailahun, according to
the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNASMIL). UNAMSIL's Masimba Tafirenyika
said he expected the disarmament to speed up at the weekend and during
next week. "We are optimistic it will go on well given the assurances we
have got from RUF commanders," Tafirenyika told IRIN.

Kailahun and neighbouring Kenema are the last of Sierra Leone's 12
districts to disarm.

Following the disarmament and the related improvement of the security
situation in various parts of the country, refugees urged the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to speed up voluntary repatriations.
UNHCR will now increase from 250 to 500 the number of Sierra Leoneans it
repatriates by sea each week from Guinea. According to UNHCR, 30,363
Sierra Leonean refugees have returned home with the UN agency's help.

Many of those repatriated had to be given temporary shelter in secure
areas until their home districts were declared safe, but some have now
been able to return home. These include over 3,500 returnees who have now
gone back to Kambia District in the north, UNHCR reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the US State Department announced on Thursday that it had
included the RUF on a new Terrorist Exclusion List, created in the
aftermath of the 11 September attacks in the United States to "further
protect the safety of the United States and its citizens". The inclusion
of a group on the list gives US authorities greater power to deport
members from the United States or deny them US entry visas.

GUINEA: World Bank reports decrease in new cases of FGM

New cases of female genital mutilation among girls in Guinea have been
reduced to 20 percent, while over 450 female circumcisers have abandoned
the practice since 1998, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

The reduction has resulted mainly from a bank-funded project 'Ending
Female Genital Mutilation' - implemented through a women's rights NGO,
CPTAFE, as well as the outspokenness of top government officials and
Guinea's First Lady, the World Bank said.

"In Guinea, as in most West African nations, female genital cutting was
common practice," the bank added. "While the government enacted
legislation banning the practice in 1984, the law was only recently
enforced."

GUINEA-BISSAU: New prime minister

Almara Nhasse was sworn in on Wednesday as Guinea-Bissau's third prime
minister in less than two years, replacing Faustino Imbali, whom President
Kumba Yala dismissed on 6 December. During Wednesday's inauguration, Yala
warned that any politician who plotted with the military to overthrow his
government would be shot, according to various news organisations. The
warning came just over a week after the government announced that it had
foiled a coup attempt. Amnesty International expressed concern over many
former military officers and paramilitary officers who have been detained
in connection with the reported bid to overthrow Yala. These include the
alleged leaders of the reported coup attempt, former deputy army chief of
staff Almane Alam Camara and ex-navy chief Mohamed Lamine Sanha.

SENEGAL: RSF protests against manhandling of journalists

The global media watchdog, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) has protested
against the manhandling of two journalists by gendarmes on Monday while
covering a demonstration by former peacekeepers, RSF said on Friday. The
journalists were from the state news agency, Agence de Presse Senegalaise,
and the private Sud FM radio.

RSF called on Senegal's Defence Minister, Youba Sambou, to take steps to
ensure the gendarmes do not commit any more aggressions against
journalists. Monday's demonstrators were demanding allowances owed to them
for two missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to RSF,
the military authorities had declared beforehand that they intended to
prevent the media from covering the protest.

NIGERIA: UN-backed conference discusses Delta development

A conference on development initiatives for Nigeria's impoverished and
volatile Niger Delta oil region was held on 10-12 December in the
southeastern city of Port Harcourt.

Organised by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and supported
by the UN Development Programme, the conference was aimed at building a
consensus on strategies for rapid and sustainable development in the
region. President Olusegun Obasanjo described it as "the first in a series
of planned activities and consultations intended to fashion out a coherent
vision and plan of action" for the development of the Delta.

The 70,000-sq km Niger Delta produces more than 90 percent of Nigeria's
crude oil, but its inhabitants, most of whom live in farming and fishing
communities, have derived little benefit from the huge wealth produced in
the area, reaping pollution, environmental degradation and death instead.

Meanwhile, Shell Petroleum Development Company and a group of 20
communities in Bayelsa, one of the Delta states, recently signed a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the building of a 42-km road by 2005.
Under the MOU, the communities agreed to donate their land for the road,
while Shell would evaluate and determine monetary compensation to property
owners, The Guardian daily in Lagos reported on Tuesday. The new agreement
relates to the second part of an 80-km road project, during whose first
phase a 38-km roadway was built.

GHANA: US funds against crime; commission to investigate clashes

The US government is to contribute US $294,500 to the government of Ghana
to help law enforcement efforts in the country, the US Embassy in Ghana
said this week in a news release. It said the funds would be used to help
set up a community policing programme, improve the counter-narcotics
capability at Accra's international airport and equip a police unit that
fights domestic violence.

Meanwhile, Ghana's government announced that it would set up a commission
to investigate last week's clashes between members of the Mamprusi and
Kusasi ethnic groups in the northeastern town of Bawku, in which 50 people
died, some 150 were injured and up to 5,000 displaced.

GABON: Suspected Ebola cases rise to 14

The number of suspected cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in northeastern
Gabon rose to 14 this week, WHO quoted the Ministry of Health as saying on
Friday. At least 11 people are reported to have died.

Two of the cases were confirmed, according to WHO, which said a team from
two NGOs, MSF Belgium and EPICENTRE, arrived in the Gabonese capital,
Libreville, to join international experts already in the country. It said
on Thursday that a joint Gabonese-international team was leaving for the
field. Gabon appealed for international help and placed the affected
province, Oogoue-Ivindo, under quarantine.

CHAD: Reconciliation talks

Representatives of various Chadian groups began a six-day meeting on
Thursday in Ndjamena with a view to charting a path towards national
reconciliation, Africa Numero Un, a Gabon-based radio station, reported.
The meeting, held at the invitation of President Idris Deby, involves
ruling and opposition parties based in Chad, as well as political and
armed opposition groups based outside the country.


IRIN-WA
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