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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 105
29 December 2001 - 04 January 2002


CONTENTS

CHAD: Four reported killed in cross-border attacks
MAURITANIA: Government bans opposition party
SIERRA LEONE: Disarmament expected to end on Saturday
SIERRA LEONE: UN moves forward with Special Court
SIERRA LEONE: Meningitis kills 13
MALI: Government investigates clash between communities
GABON-CONGO: Ebola update
NIGERIA: 3,000 flee to Jos following militia attack
WESTERN SAHARA: Free all prisoners, UN tells belligerents


CHAD: Four reported killed in cross-border attacks

Four people were killed in two separate incidents after armed men led by a
Chadian rebel launched cross-border attacks from Central African Republic
(CAR) into southern Chad, news organisations reported on Thursday.

Chad's interior minister, Abderahmane Moussa, said on Radio France
Internationale (RFI) that the attack was led by Abdoulaye Miskine,
formerly an aide to Laokien Barde, the assassinated leader of the Armed
Forces for a Federal Republic (FARF). The FARF, a rebel group based in
southern Chad, signed a peace agreement with the Chadian government in
1997, and the two sides renewed the accord a year later.

Miskine's group reportedly attacked a nomads' camp near the Grande Sido
border post on 29 December, killing two herders and kidnapping several
others. Two days later the group ambushed a vehicle in the same area,
killing two passengers and taking four others prisoner, RFI said. The
kidnapped Chadians are reportedly in jail in the town of Kabo in northern
CAR and have been tortured, RFI and AFP reported.

Moussa, reacting to reports from eyewitnesses that troops from CAR took
part in the attacks, said he was sure that Miskine, who has been living in
CAR for a few years, did not act alone. "We do not think that he could
have acted on his own. Therefore we are urging the CAR authorities to put
an end to these provocative acts," RFI reported him as saying.

These are the first border incidents since the governments of Chad and CAR
agreed at the end of December to ease tension between their countries
following the flight of former CAR army chief General Francois Bozize to
southern Chad. Bozize, accused of participating in a bid to topple the CAR
government, recently had all charges against him dropped.

MAURITANIA: Government bans opposition party

The Mauritanian Human Rights Association on Thursday described as
"anti-democratic" the banning by Mauritania's government of Action pour le
changement (AC - Action for Change), an opposition party which defends the
rights of ex-slaves and other Black Mauritanians. The association said the
ban, decided at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, would "darken an already
bleak socio-political situation", and called on the civil society and the
international community to intervene. The government banned the party on
grounds that it posed a threat to national unity and incited intolerance.

Created in 1995, AC has adopted positions that are still considered taboo
in Mauritania, such as drawing attention to slavery which, although
officially banned, still exists, according to rights activists. The party
is made up mostly of descendants of slaves, known as Black Moors or
Harratin. It also fights discrimination against non-Moorish black
Africans.

AC's leader, Messoud Ould Boulkheir, was quoted by Radio France
Internationale as saying that his reaction to the ban was "both one of
surprise and no surprise". On one hand, he said, the decision was expected
given the party's relationship with the government. On the other hand, he
thought the government would listen to calls by Mauritania's western
partners for greater democracy in the country. BBC quoted him as saying
that the ban was "a typical example of the absence of democracy under a
dictatorial regime that does not tolerate opinions opposed to its own".

Cheikh Saad Bouh Kamara, head of Mauritania's human rights association,
told IRIN on Friday that Boulkheir had announced that the party would
appeal against the decision before the Supreme Court.

SIERRA LEONE: Disarmament expected to end on Saturday

The disarmament of rebel fighters in Sierra Leone is expected to end on
Saturday, the deputy spokesman of the United Nations Mission in Sierra
Leone (UNAMSIL), Patrick Coker, told IRIN on Friday. The disarmament
programme was scheduled to end on 30 December but was extended following
its interruption by unrest in Kenema District, eastern Sierra Leone.

Former combatants had stopped handing over their weapons two to three days
after violent clashes erupted on 19 December between individuals involved
in diamond mining in Koidu town, he said. A conciliatory meeting involving
representatives of the UN, the rebel Revolutionary United Front, the
pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF) and local youths and elders
later resolved to stop illegal mining within the town.

Since 18 May 2000, 33,437 ex-fighters had turned in their weapons,
including 25,832 from the CDF and 17,407 RUF, Coker said.

SIERRA LEONE: UN moves forward with Special Court

The UN has decided to authorise the establishment of a special court to
try persons accused of war crimes in Sierra Leone, despite a shortfall in
funding for the tribunal's operations.

In a letter to the President of the Security Council, released on
Thursday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was convinced of the
political will and commitment of states to the success of the court and
that he had authorised a UN planning team to travel to the country next
week.

The 7-18 January mission will discuss with the government of Sierra Leone
practical arrangements for establishing and operating the court, including
premises, the provision of local personnel and services, and the launching
of the investigative and prosecutorial process. It will be led by the
Office of Legal Affairs and will also include experts in all aspects of
the operation of the court, Annan added.

As of 30 November 2001 the UN had received contributions of US $14.8
million for the first year, a shortfall of US $1.4 million, and pledges of
US $20.4 million - a US $19.6 million shortfall - for the two subsequent
years.

SIERRA LEONE: Meningitis kills 13

A meningitis outbreak detected in northern Sierra Leone on 31 December has
killed 13 people and prompted about 300 others to flee the affected area
for fear of contracting the disease, UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL)
spokesperson Patrick Coker, told IRIN on Friday.

He said the outbreak was confirmed by Medecins sans Frontieres as well as
Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health, which has sent a team to try and
contain the disease in Krubola town, Koinadugu District. "The outbreak was
first reported by UNAMSIL Radio from reports of troops on the ground,"
Coker added. "The team from the ministry has taken vaccines there."

MALI: Government investigates clash between communities

A delegation from Mali's Ministry of Territorial Administration has been
investigating clashes between two neighbouring communities in the central
region of Mopti which left at least four people dead and three wounded, a
ministerial source told IRIN on Thursday. Some media organisations
reported seven deaths.

The violence, which broke out on 25 December between inhabitants of the
villages of Saoua and Berdossou, was related to a dispute over the
location of the area's local government office, media organisations said.

The source said the ministerial team left for Mopti, northeast of the
capital, Bamako, on Wednesday "to look into the causes of the violence
which seemed to be politically motivated".

The dispute started a year ago when the mayor of the district, made up of
about 30 villages, decide to move the local council office to Saoua, his
village, whereas legal documents say that it should be in Berdossou.
Troops have been dispatched to the area.

GABON-CONGO: Ebola update

The World Health Organization reported on Friday that confirmed cases of
Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Gabon and Congo had risen to 32. The death
toll stood at 23, while an additional 10 suspected cases were under
investigation.

On Wednesday, WHO said that 191 people believed to have come in contact
with blood or other fluids from infected persons were being monitored. On
Friday, it said the number had risen to 242.

Ebola broke out in Gabon's Ogooue-Ivindo province late last month. It was
later detected across the border in Congo. An international team, in
collaboration with the health ministries of the two countries, have been
working to contain the disease and prevent the virus from spreading.

NIGERIA: 3,000 flee to Jos following militia attack

An armed attack by a militia group, during which 17 people died and
several others were wounded, led this week to the displacement of some
3,000 residents of a village near Jos, capital of central Nigeria's
Plateau State, state police told IRIN on Wednesday. The assailants are
believed to be Muslim Hausa-Fulani who attacked Dagwom Tutu village, Vwang
district, in retaliation for casualties suffered by Muslims during violent
confrontations with local Christians in September 2001, Governor Joshua
Dariye said. Those displaced were reported to be mainly Hausa-Fulanis who
fled to Jos fearing reprisals for the attack.

Some 500 people died during the September violence between Christians and
Muslims in Jos.

WESTERN SAHARA: Free all prisoners, UN tells belligerents

The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the
French government on Thursday hailed the release of 115 Moroccan political
prisoners by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and
Rio de Oro (Polisario Front). However, MINURSO said both sides should free
all long-term prisoners.

"The continued detention of prisoners of war is a serious humanitarian
issue", MINURSO said, adding that it "strongly supports the Security
Council's call on the parties to release, without further delay, all those
held since the start of the conflict".

Both Polisario and the Moroccan government hold prisoners captured during
the 26-year war between the liberation movement -which wants self-rule for
Western Sahara - and Morocco, which took over the former Spanish colony
when Spain pulled out in 1975.


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