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 104
22 - 28 December 2001


CONTENTS

NIGERIA: Man confesses to killing justice minister
NIGERIA: Indigenous off-shore oil field starts work
SIERRA LEONE: Liberia clashes increase numbers of returning refugees
SIERRA LEONE: Koidu clashes resolved
SIERRA LEONE: Parliament approves new voting system
LIBERIA: UN Security Council revises travel ban list
LIBERIA: Lawyers freed after three months in detention
GUINEA-BISSAU: Twenty-nine reported detained following coup bid
WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS to enhance stability,fight trafficking
AFRICA: UN funding for human rights projects

NIGERIA: Man confesses to killing justice minister

Nigeria's police said they were holding a 27-year-old who confessed to
being a member of an eight-man gang that shot dead Minister of Justice and
Attorney General Bola Ige at his home in the southwestern city of Ibadan
on the night of 23 December.

The head of police in southwest Oyo State, Mike Okuo, told a news
conference on Thursday in the capital Ibadan that a number of suspects had
been arrested in addition to the man, who gave himself up to the police on
Wednesday. According to Okuo, the man, whose name he would not disclose,
said he was promised one million naira (US $8,960.6) for the crime. Okuo
described the information provided by the suspect as "very useful" and
said those he named would be arrested within 24 hours.

Ige's murder was the latest in a spate of political killings in
southwestern Nigeria that are linked to a bitter feud between Governor
Bisi Akande of Osun, Ige's home state, and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore. All
three belong to Nigeria's third biggest political party, Alliance for
Democracy (AD). Ige was known to be a strong backer of Akande.

Nigeria's senate began an emergency session on Friday in response to the
assassination of the minister.

NIGERIA: Indigenous off-shore oil field starts work

Nigeria's first offshore oil field came on stream over Christmas in the
southeastern state of Rivers, Nigerian TV reported on Tuesday. The Okono
oil field, one of two deep offshore fields discovered by Nigerian
engineers in 1983, has now been completed with the drilling of four wells,
state television said. It has facilities to store up to 200,000 barrels
per day and process another 20,000 per day. The commissioning of this oil
field marked the beginning of Nigeria's own production of offshore crude
oil, the television reported. The other Nigerian offshore oil field,
Okpoho, is expected to come into service in the next 18 months.

SIERRA LEONE: Liberia clashes increase numbers of returning refugees

The number of Sierra Leonean refugees returning home from war-torn Liberia
has increased sharply in recent weeks, UNHCR reported on Wednesday.

UNHCR said that since 17 December, an estimated 1,300 refugees had
returned home through the Jendema border crossing, northwest of the
Liberian capital, Monrovia. Before then, the return rate had been about a
dozen per day. Most of the refugees had been living at Sinje II, some 80
km northwest of Monrovia. The increase in departures was prompted by
continuing conflict between anti-government rebels and pro-government
forces in northern Liberia's Lofa County, reported harassment of refugees
in Sinje II by Liberian soldiers, and improved security conditions in
Sierra Leone following the disarmament of former combatants.

Sinje camps I and II, which were holding some 15,000 Sierra Leonean
refugees, recorded 1,500 new arrivals mainly from Lofa, during the past
few days. Any mass return from Liberia - host to 30,000 Sierra Leonean
refugees - coupled with the arrival of Liberian refugees, would put
pressure on the "already limited reception capacities in Sierra Leone,"
UNHCR warned. Small numbers of civilians from Liberia are also fleeing the
fighting and crossing into Sierra Leone, UNHCR added.

Clashes between Liberian government forces and anti-government force have
been taking place spasmodically since 1998, creating massive internal
displacement. Following a new wave of violence that broke out in
northwestern Liberia in late November internally displaced persons (IDPs)
fled their camps, leading to renewed calls by relief agencies to the
Liberian government and the international community for support for the
relocation of IDPs to safer areas. WFP's Deputy Head for West Africa,
Arnold Vercken, said on Monday that people fled IDP camps at Jenemana and
Bopolu in the northwest for a temporary site at Sawmill, some 70 km from
the capital, Monrovia. Both Jenemana and Bopolu, which are now empty, were
eventually looted and destroyed. Vercken said that Sawmill had more than
10,000 IDPs and it could have as many as 20,000 in the next few weeks if
the insecurity continued. However as a transit town for soldiers heading
for the battlefront, Sawmill was also potentially unsafe, Vercken said,
adding that the UN had called on the government to move the IDPs on to
Clay Junction, about 50 km from Monrovia.

He said there was also concern over the high number of young men among the
IDPs, who had previously been predominantly women, children and the
elderly.

The new trend has reportedly led to suspicion that anti-government
fighters might have infiltrated the IDPs.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Refugees International (RI) also urged
the international community to provide immediate support for the
relocation of the IDPs.

SIERRA LEONE: Koidu clashes resolved

A conciliatory meeting to resolve recent clashes in Koidu, eastern Sierra
Leone, took place on Saturday involving representatives from the UN, the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF), pro-government Civil Defence Forces and
local youths and elders, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL)
reported.

The meeting, which identified indiscriminate mining and revenue collection
as some of the causes of the clashes, unanimously agreed to stop illegal
mining within Koidu town, especially along the roads. It also resolved
that the Chairman of New Sembehun Town Council should start revenue
collection and any internally displaced people be allowed to re-occupy
their houses.

The UN Security Council last week unanimously agreed to extend for 11
months its ban on imports of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone after noting
that both former rebel and pro-government forces were still mining
illegally.

SIERRA LEONE: Parliament approves new voting system

The Sierra Leonean parliament recently approved a new voting system for
use in legislative elections to be held in May 2002, Deputy Director of
Information Dominic Lamin told IRIN on Monday.

Under the new "District Block" voting system approved by the legislature
on Thursday, parties will submit names of candidates in each electoral
district and the election of party representatives will be based on the
percentage of votes polled by parties in the district. It replaces a
system of proportional representation under which parties were awarded
seats in parliament on the basis of the percentage of votes they polled
throughout the nation. The new system has not been universally welcomed.
In a recent poll conducted by the non-governmental Campaign for Good
Governance, nearly 82 percent of respondents said they did not understand
how it worked. When asked how the government aimed to resolve this issue,
Lamin said that the national electoral commission was going to launch an
"education campaign to sensitise the people".

LIBERIA: UN Security Council revises travel ban list

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday revised its list of
Liberians and Sierra Leonean rebels banned from international travel under
sanctions imposed earlier this year. The revised list retains several
senior government officials including the president, and members of Sierra
Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

Those who remained banned, the UN said on Thursday, include President
Charles Taylor, RUF member Sam "Mosquito" Bockarie, European businessman
Viktor Bout, the Managing Director of the Roberts International Airport,
Randolph Cooper, and the Foreign Minister Monie Captan.

The ban, initially imposed for 12 months, was in response to evidence of
involvement in arms and diamond trafficking by both Liberian government
and RUF officials. It was endorsed on 7 March and affected several other
Liberian nationals, their spouses, military personnel, and other people
found to have been involved in the trafficking.

LIBERIA: Lawyers freed after three months in detention

Two Liberian lawyers were released this week after three months' detention
for "contempt" of the the lower house of parliament, diplomatic sources in
the capital, Monrovia, confirmed to IRIN. Marcus Jones and Ishmael
Campbell had been detained since September for describing as
unconstitutional the detention of Bar Association President Emmanuel Wureh
on the order of the House of Representatives. They were also accused of
"inciting other lawyers to boycott all court proceedings" - lawyers had
staged a four-week boycott to protest the jailing of their two colleagues.

The speaker of parliament, Nyundueh Monokomana, released the men following
the intervention of President Charles Taylor "on humanitarian and
reconciliatory grounds," PANA reported on Thursday.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Twenty-nine reported detained following coup bid

Twenty-nine persons have been placed in preventive detention in
Guinea-Bissau in connection with a coup attempt reported three weeks ago,
Portuguese media quoted Deputy Attorney General Antonio Sedja Man as
saying on 21 December.

He also said that other suspects had gone into hiding and were being
sought by the authorities, Lusa news agency and Radiodifusao portuguesa
(RDP) reported. The coup bid was reportedly staged on 3 December. The
detainees include its alleged leaders, ex-navy chief of staff Lamine Sanha
and another former senior armed forces official, Almami Camara. Few other
details have been given on the coup attempt or on the investigation into
it which, a diplomatic source in Bissau told IRIN, is being conducted by
the military and security services.

WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS to enhance stability, integration, fight trafficking

Regional stability, integration and a pledge to combat trafficking in
human beings were some of the goals stated at the 25th ordinary summit of
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), held on 20-21
December in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

The West African leaders condemned the activities of illegal armed groups,
particularly those operating within the Mano River Union (Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone), an ECOWAS source told IRIN. They expressed support for
the work of UN humanitarian agencies in the region, but called on the
entire international community to contribute to bringing peace to West
Africa, and in particular conflict countries, the source added. They also
approved the formation of a second West African Monetary zone that will
include Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia to take effect
in 2003. In 2004, ECOWAS plans to merge this new monetary area with the
existing CFA zone and create a single currency. [The CFA (Communaute
francoafricaine) zone comprises the region's former French colonies except
Guinea.]

Leaders also decided to set up special police units to combat trafficking
in humans beings, usually women and children. They agreed that special
training would be provided for police, customs and immigration officials,
prosecutors and judges.

Other key decisions related to the election of the ECOWAS executive
secretariat, which will now be headed by Mohamed Ibn Chambas of Ghana.
Chambas, who replaced Guinea's Lansana Kouyate, can serve up to two
four-year terms. The summit also nominated President Abdoulaye Wade of
Senegal as ECOWAS's new chairman. He replaces Malian President Alpha Oumar
Konare.

ECOWAS comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The
Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

AFRICA: UN funding for human rights projects

Community human rights initiatives in over 20 countries, nine of them in
sub-Saharan Africa, are to receive small grants of up to US $5,000 from
the United Nations, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNDP announced on Monday. UNDP
said the project, which began in 1998, supports activities that can have a
significant local impact. It cited the example of an organisation called
Liberia Prison Watch, which used its grant to monitor human rights in
prisons and create awareness about the rights of detainees among members
of the criminal justice system.

The project is now entering a new phase during which grants will be
awarded to Burkina Faso, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and various countries
outside sub-Saharan Africa.

The material contained on this Web site comes to you via IRIN, a UN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or
re-post any item on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer.
Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources.
All graphics and Images on this site may not be re-produced without the
express permission of the original owner. All materials copyright © UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International Disaster Information
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
                                          web: www.cidi.org
                                     listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Africa                      www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/wafrica