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 83
28 July to 3 August 2001


CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: NGOs draw attention to IDPs' plight
SIERRA LEONE: Setbacks in disarmament, police deployment
GUINEA: UNICEF operations underfunded
NIGERIA: Shell pipeline spill
NIGERIA: Queela bird invasion
NIGERIA: Communities face annual flooding
GHANA: Two held with arms cache
COTE D'IVOIRE: Ex-junta leader, gendarmes set free
SAO TOME/PRINCIPE: Opposition candidate wins presidential poll
WEST AFRICA: Swedish official becomes EU special envoy
WEST AFRICA: Small arms training

LIBERIA: NGOs draw attention to IDPs' plight

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has appealed for more
funds for its effort to help people displaced from Lofa County, northern
Liberia, while Amnesty International called for international pressure
against armed groups to stop abuses against civilians in Lofa.

ICRC said on Tuesday that it had increased its 2001 budget from the
equivalent of about US $1.18 million to just under US $2.79 million to
cover new protection activities for the internally displaced persons
(IDPs). "To meet the needs of the displaced, the ICRC urgently requires
substantial additional financial contributions for its operation in
Liberia which so far faces a considerable funding shortfall," the
committee said.

ICRC said about 35,000 IDPs were in Bong and Gbarpolu counties. The World
Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday it had completed the delivery of
food to over 30,000 in Bong.

The IDPs were forced from their homes by fighting between pro- and
anti-government forces in Lofa. ICRC said population movements from Lofa
had stabilised temporarily but "about 10,000 people are thought to be on
the road or gathered in inaccessible areas".

The war in Lofa has led to "widespread and gross abuses against unarmed
civilians", according to a new report by Amnesty International which has
urged both sides to end such practices. Many civilians have been killed,
arbitrarily detained, tortured and raped, Amnesty said in the report,
titled 'Liberia: Killings, Torture and Rape Continue in Lofa County'.
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/AFR340092001?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\L
IBERIA

Amnesty recommended that influential governments and organisations condemn
and put pressure on Liberia's armed groups. It called on the UN to deploy
human rights observers and urged the international community to provide
aid, including medicine and psychosocial assistance, to victims.

Liberian Information Minister Reginald Goodridge denied on Wednesday that
government forces had committed atrocities. He called Amnesty's report "a
malicious lie and an attempt to tarnish the image of Liberia", the
Panafrican News Agency (PANA) reported.

SIERRA LEONE: Setbacks in disarmament, police deployment

Efforts to reduce insecurity in Sierra Leone experienced another hitch on
Wednesday when the anti-government Revolutionary United Front (RUF) barred
the Sierra Leonean Police from deploying to the central towns of Makeni
and Magburaka, a police spokesman told IRIN.

There was no confrontation between the two forces as the convoy of 700
police reached the town of Lunsar, at least 59 km from its nearest
destination, Makeni. The RUF gave no reason for reneging on a previous
agreement, but Police Inspector Dominic Kargbo said the prison death of
RUF War Council head Solomon Rogers could have been the motivating factor,
news organisations reported.

Meanwhile, the RUF said on Tuesday it would help the UN hunt down renegade
RUF commander Demba Marrah, blamed for the death of 22 people and the
burning of 25 to 40 homes on 19 July in Henekuma, a village in the
northern district of Koinadugu. UNAMSIL Force Commander Lt-Gen Daniel
Opande, who visited the area, promised to have Marrah and other culprits
"brought to book".

Opande's deputy, Maj-Gen Martin Agwai, also visited the area and appealed
to the pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF) defending the village to
refrain from retaliating.

In the eastern district of Kono, disarmament was to have ended on 31 July
but has been extended by one week because of the initial slow pace of the
exercise. However, UNAMSIL remains optimistic that the new deadline will
be met, mission spokeswoman Margaret Novicki told IRIN on Tuesday.

"Disarmament has picked up considerably," she said. There has been an
"enormous improvement" in the disarmament rate and ceasefire violations
have ended because Kono chiefs and elders joined Agwai on his daily visits
to supervise the process, she said.

The disarming of the RUF and the rival CDF in diamond-rich Kono, which
began on 2 July, was dogged by mutual suspicion and some fighting. Up
until 30 July, 752 RUF and 910 CDF fighters had handed over their weapons
whereas some 1,000 RUF and 2,500 CDF were to have done so, Novicki said.

Donations to disarmament and the overall peace process continued this week
with Sweden approving on Tuesday a six-million krona (US $566,824) grant
to the World Bank Multidonor Trust Fund. It had earlier given the
equivalent of US $330,647 for a UN war crimes tribunal to be set up for
Sierra Leone. Canada announced on Tuesday a pledge for US $2.25 million to
the fund.

GUINEA: UNICEF operations underfunded

UNICEF's operations in Guinea have remained largely underfunded six months
after an appeal for money, the UN agency said on 27 July. Despite this,
UNICEF has conducted numerous humanitarian activities in Guinea to ease
the plight of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host
communities affected by insecurity in Guinea and neighbouring Liberia and
Sierra Leone, it said.

Water-sanitation and child protection programmes have received no new
money since UNICEF appealed in February for US $2.39 million for its
operations. The agency has been able to conduct its health and nutrition
activities with funds amounting to 48 percent of the US $1.76 million it
had asked for.

"If new additional resources are not mobilised, there is a risk of
increasing mortality rates for the next months," UNICEF said. "Efforts to
maintain education for 30,000 children will also be in jeopardy."

The United States decided on 26 July to earmark US $12 million for
refugees, IDPs and host communities in Guinea and Sierra Leone affected by
fighting along the common borders of the two countries.

NIGERIA: Shell pipeline spill

A major oil spill that began five weeks ago following a failure along a
Shell pipeline at Ikwerre in southern Nigeria's Niger Delta is still
spreading, Environmental Rights Action (ERA - the Nigerian affiliate of
Friends of the Earth) said on Thursday. ERA said oil was still leaking
from the pipeline and that Shell had not begun cleaning up the spill,
which has devastated farmland and the surrounding ecosystem, including
swamps, rivers and streams.

A Shell spokesman in Lagos told IRIN the transnational moved as soon as
the spill was reported to control its spread by putting in place devices
known as "booms", but that local people eager to claim compensation cut
the booms to make the slick spread. "We're in the process of cleaning up
the spill, but it wouldn't have spread this far if the booms were left
intact," he said.

NIGERIA: Queela bird invasion

Huge flocks of queelas, tiny birds which eat grain and leaves, have
invaded northern Nigeria's Kano State for the first time in 10 years,
devastating many farms around the city of Kano, an official of the state's
Ministry of Agriculture told IRIN on Tuesday. He said the invasion was
likely to spread in coming weeks. Kano's commissioner for agriculture,
Yusuf Ado Kibiya, said last week that the birds had invaded more than 700
farms around the city.

NIGERIA: Communities face annual flooding

People living along the Kaduna River face the threat of floods every year
unless they are relocated before the construction of a hydroelectric dam
in Zungeru, northern Niger State, 'ThisDay' newspaper reported the
assistant general manager of the National Electric Power Authority as
saying.

Abdullateef Raji was speaking during a tour by parliamentarians of areas
affected by floods because of their proximity to Nigeria's three dams, the
daily reported. He said most communities downstream of Zungeru, some 50 km
northwest of the state capital, Minna, were likely to be submerged after
the building of a proposed fourth power station and would need to be
relocated.

GHANA: Two held with arms cache

Ghanaian police arrested two men on 29 July after finding 35 fireams and
ammunition hidden under the seats of a car in an Accra vehicle workshop,
news organisations in Ghana reported. The 'Daily Graphic' reported that
the detained men included the driver of the car, which had a Nigerian
registration number. Police quoted him as saying they were about to leave
for Nigeria to sell the guns.

COTE D'IVOIRE: Ex-junta leader, gendarmes set free

An ex-member of Cote d'Ivoire's former ruling military junta, General
Lansana Palenfo, was released from jail on Wednesday after the Supreme
Court overturned a one-year prison sentence which a military tribunal
imposed on him in March. Palenfo had been accused of threatening state
security in connection with an attack in September 2000 on the home of
former junta leader General Robert Guei.

On Friday, a court at one of the main gendarmeries in Abidjan acquitted
eight gendarmes accused of murder in connection with the discovery in
October 2000 of 57 bodies in a field in the suburb of Yopougon.

SAO TOME/PRINCIPE: Opposition candidate wins presidential poll

Businessman Fradique de Menezes won Sunday's presidential election in Sao
Tome and Principe, obtaining 56.3 percent of the votes while 38.7 percent
went to Prime Minister Manuel Pinto da Costa, news organisations reported,
quoting the national electoral commission. About 37.65 percent of the
archipelago's 61,159 voters abstained.

Fradique de Menezes was supported by a number of parties, including the
biggest opposition group, Independent Democratic Action (ADI). Prime
Minister Pinto da Costa was backed by the ruling Movement for the
Liberation of Sao Tome and Principe - Social Democratic Party (MLSTP-PSD).
There were three other candidates.

WEST AFRICA: Swedish official becomes EU special envoy

The European Union (EU) has appointed Hans Dahlgren, the state secretary
of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as its special envoy to
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the Swedish government reported on
Tuesday.

It said Dahlgren would be responsible for framing a coordinated EU policy
on the three countries, which "will include measures aimed at alleviating
the serious humanitarian and political situation in the area".

Dahlgren will maintain close contact with the leaders of the three
countries and promote cooperation with the UN and the Economic Community
of West African States. He will support efforts at reconciliation among
the three countries as well as conflict prevention, reconstruction and the
nurturing of democracy.

WEST AFRICA: Small arms training

About 25 persons, mainly police and military officers, from four West
African countries are to participate in a training course on small arms
control organised in Freetown, Sierra Leone, by the UN Programme of
Coordination and Assistance for Development (PCASED).

The training-for-trainers course, which will run from 13 to 18 August, is
aimed at upgrading the participants' skills and theoretical knowledge on
small arms control, Napoleon Abdulai of PCASED told IRIN.

PCASED, which operates within the framework of the UN Regional Centre for
Peace and Disarmament in Africa, is financed by UNDP and bilateral donors.
Its brief is to help the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) attain the objectives of peace, security and stability set by
ECOWAS leaders when they agreed to a three-year moratorium on small arms
in 1998.

Abidjan, 3 August 2001; 15:50 GMT


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