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 126
01 - 07 June 2002


CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: More Liberians fleeing to Sierra Leone
SIERRA LEONE: Resettlement kicks off again
SIERRA LEONE: UNDP helps rebuild homes
MAURITANIA: Lack of funds delays emergency operation
CAMEROON: Separatist group calls for election boycott
CAMEROON: US $18.29 million for poverty reduction
NIGERIA: Japanese aid against polio
NIGERIA: Stoning sentence suspended until 2004
BURKINA FASO: German funding for agriculture, health
WESTERN SAHARA: ICRC delegates visit Moroccan prisoners
GLOBAL: Additional US $24 billion needed to reduce hunger
GLOBAL: Birth registration important, UNICEF says


LIBERIA: More Liberians fleeing to Sierra Leone

More than 20,000 Liberians have arrived in neighbouring Sierra Leone in
the wake of renewed insecurity, while another 13,000 have taken refuge in
Guinea, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday. However the number of those
entering either country through unofficial crossing points was unknown.
There were also reports of more Liberians fleeing across the border, UNHCR
said.

UNHCR spokesman Chris Janowski said while fewer refugees were arriving
from the capital, Monrovia, arrivals from the northwestern county of Lofa
and Grand Cape Mount which borders on both Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea had
increased. "We are also registering an increase in the number of local
chiefs and government officials who have fled Liberia," Janowski said in
Geneva.

The precarious security situation remained an obstacle to humanitarian
agencies, including the World Food Programme which said on Thursday that
refugee camps in Sinje, near the border with Sierra Leone, were still
inaccessible. WFP was in the process of distributing food to refugees and
internally displaced people when fighting broke out last month between
government troops and rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation
and Development (LURD). The agency has not been able to return to the
area, WFP officer in charge Felix Gomez told IRIN on Thursday.

The agency had however managed to complete food distributions in other
locations, including areas around the capital, Monrovia, Totota (50 km
north of Monrovia) and Nimba County, near the border with Cote d'Ivoire.

SIERRA LEONE: Resettlement kicks off again

Tuesday marked the resumption of resettlement of internally displaced
Sierra Leoneans in Kono and Tonkolili, two areas formerly inaccessible to
civilians, an official of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) told IRIN on Thursday. Some 3,600 will also be helped back
to Mile 91, east of Freetown, while others will be resettled Bombali
district (north).

The resettlement is assisted by UNAMSIL which among other things is
conducting an information and sensibilisation campaign on its radio
station.

As the UN and its partners inch towards the completion of the facilitated
resettlement programme, the principal concern now is support for a
recovery programme in resettled communities. Another concern is the
security situation, especially along the border with Liberia. Liberians
have been crossing over into Sierra Leone as the fighting between
government troops and the LURD rebels continues.

SIERRA LEONE: UNDP helps rebuild homes

Several hundred homes destroyed in Sierra Leone's ten-year conflict are
being rebuilt in the northwestern district of Kambia in a joint initiative
between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the
government, UNDP reported on Thursday.

Under an eight-month Swedish-funded initiative launched in December,
support for rebuilding homes, training in construction skills and creating
job opportunities is being provided to individuals to build three and four
bedroom homes using local materials, UNDP said. Some 240 of the 400 houses
planned had so far been roofed, it added.

More than 4,000 people will benefit from the project. They include
families displaced from their homes, ex-combatants and other vulnerable
groups, such as households headed by women and returning refugees.

"As areas were liberated from the rebels and the disarmament and
demobilisation progressed, the need to assist communities in rebuilding
their homes was unquestionable," UNDP Resident Representative in Sierra
Leone, Alan Doss said.

Two international NGOs already involved with shelter activities - the
Catholic Relief Services and Action Aid - are implementing the programme.

The programme complements an ongoing UNDP resettlement and reintegration
programme and the government's national recovery strategy, the agency
said. It added that it was seeking additional resources to replicate the
initiative in the eastern district of Kono.

MAURITANIA: Lack of funds delays emergency operation

In Mauritania World Food Programme officials told IRIN on Tuesday that an
appeal for US $7.5 million to provide food for victims of drought and
floods in Mauritania had so far received little funding, but WFP still
expected the international community to respond positively.

Country Director Philippe Guyon-Le Bouffy said the slow mobilisation was
worrisome as two months after the appeal was launched, his office had only
received $200,000 from Finland and $91,000 from Italy. Several donors have
showed interest but the programme to benefit some 250,000 will not begin
until sufficient funds have been received.

The current crisis has resulted from years of drought and floods earlier
this year that destroyed crops and killed livestock, Guyon-Le Bouffy said.

According to the WFP official, the absence of staple food items and the
high cost of such commodities, when available, have forced people to adopt
"survival strategies" such as migrating to major cities or neighbouring
countries and borrowing money. Some have been depending increasingly on
wild seeds and grains, which has started to worry authorities as people
have been picking unripe seeds, which could cause diarrhoea and food
poisoning, thus worsening their already poor health, the WFP official
said.

CAMEROON: Separatist group calls for election boycott

Cameroon's Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) on Wednesday called
on residents of the country's two English-speaking provinces, the
Southwest and the Northwest, to boycott municipal and legislative
elections slated for 23 June.

SCNC officials said "the die has already been cast" and that the elections
held no significance for the two Anglophone provinces. They said those who
voted on 23 June would be considered "traitors" and they urged the Church,
which has been involved in the preparation of elections, to stay out of
the upcoming polls.

Last week the organisation distributed anti-election pamphlets to people
living in the two provinces.

The SCNC, which started in the mid-90s, purports to defend the rights of
English-speaking Cameroonians. Claiming that they have been marginalised
for decades, the organisation has been pressing for the separation of the
two provinces from the rest of French-speaking Cameroon. About four-fifth
of Cameroon's population speaks French while the others speak English.

CAMEROON: US $18.29 million for poverty reduction

Cameroon's North and Central provinces will benefit from a US $18.29
million Community Development Project whose aim is to reduce poverty and
enhance the lives of some 4.8 million inhabitants, the International Fund
for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced on Monday.

IFAD believes that enhancing agricultural output, which would allow
inhabitants to feed themselves and sell any surplus, is a good strategy
for improving the lives of people in poor rural communities. Youths,
women, landless migrants from mountain areas, as well as the disabled and
the elderly are the main beneficiaries, IFAD said in Rome, Italy.

NIGERIA: Japanese aid against polio

The government of Japan on Monday contributed US $2.85 million to Nigeria's
fight against polio, officials of the Nigerian health ministry said. The
money would allow Nigeria to buy polio vaccine, 104 storage refrigerators,
vaccine carriers and cold boxes. The money is part of a $17-million
Japanese fund to eradicate the disease in five countries, including
Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana and Sudan. The aid falls short of the $15
million which, according to the coordinator of Nigeria's National
Programme of Immunisation, is necessary to eradicate the disease by the
end of the year. Polio is endemic in Nigeria.

NIGERIA: Stoning sentence suspended until 2004

A Sharia appeal court in Katsina State, northern Nigeria, has postponed
until 2004 the execution of a 30-year-old woman whom a lower court
sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

The court's decision was in response to a request by the lawyer of the
accused, Amina Lawal, that the lower court's decision be overturned or
that Lawal be given time to bring up her five-month old girl. It also
deferred hearings on her appeal until 8 July.

Lawal was the second woman to be sentenced to death by stoning for
adultery since states in northern Nigeria adopted the strict religious
penal code two years ago. The first woman, Safiya Hussaini, had her
sentence quashed on the day Lawal received hers. In each case, the child
born out of the encounter was used as evidence to convict the woman, but
it did not constitute sufficient evidence to sentence the alleged male
partner.

BURKINA FASO: German funding for agriculture, health

The German government has agreed to provide funding to the sum of 18.450
billion CFA (about US $26.6 million) for development projects in
agriculture, health, water and sanitation in Burkina Faso.

This was announced on Tuesday by Burkina Faso's Finance Ministry.

The funding is a result of negotiations launched last year between the two
governments. It will be used, among other things, to build and improve
rural roads, and to boost HIV/AIDS protection by increasing the
distribution of condoms.


WESTERN SAHARA: ICRC delegates visit Moroccan prisoners

A team of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) delegates,
including a medical doctor, a dentist and an ophthalmologist visited
Moroccan prisoners held by the Polisario Front in five detention centres
near Tindouf, Algeria, ICRC reported on Thursday.

The purpose of the May visit was to assess the general conditions of
captivity of the prisoners and to gauge the effect on their mental health.
Detention for some 916 of them has now lasted more than 20 years.

The delegates talked privately with some 768 of the 1,361 prisoners, 32 of
them civilians. They also held talks with representatives of the Front.

ICRC expressed concern "more than ever" at the exceedingly long captivity
of these men given their age, health, condition of captivity, and the
relevant provisions of international humanitarian law. It appealed for all
prisoners to be released without delay, beginning with the weakest and
most elderly.


GLOBAL: Additional US $24 billion needed to reduce hunger

Unless additional funding of US $24 billion is made available each year in
poor countries, the world will fall short of reaching its goal of halving
the number of hungry people by the year 2015, the UN Food and Agricultural
Organization warned on Tuesday. Without this yearly investment, the FAO
fears there will still be 600 million hungry people by 2015. FAO had hoped
to reduce thenumber of hungry people worldwide to 400 million.

In additional to the health benefits, FAO estimates that reducing hunger
could bring economic benefits of at least $120 million per year, the
organisation said in a news release. It also announced a new global
Anti-Hunger Programme which combines investment in agriculture and rural
development with measures to enhance direct immediate access to food for
the most seriously undernourished. It focuses mainly on small farmers and
aims to create more opportunities for rural people, representing 70
percent of the poor, to improve their livelihoods on a sustainable basis.

Heads of state and government, international agencies and NGOs will meet
in Rome on 10-13 June at the 'World Food Summit: Five Years Later'
conference to take stock of progress made towards ending hunger and to
identify ways to accelerate the process.

The FAO "Anti-Hunger Programme" can be found at:
http://ww.fao.org/worldfoodsummit/english/index.html

Further information on the World Food Summit: Five Years Later is
available at: http://ww.fao.org/worldfoodsummit/english/index.html


GLOBAL: Birth registration important, UNICEF says

Birth registration could lead to better protection and promotion of
children and their rights, the UN Children Fun said this week in releasing
a study on the importance of registering newborns.

According to the report titled "Birth registration- Right from the start",
sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia top the list of regions where
registration is the lowest. Some 50 million newborns were unregistered in
2000, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. The 34-page
report says that while a child who has been registered can benefit from
all the social services of the state, one who has not been registered can
become a victim of discrimination, neglect, and abuse.

UNICEF called on governments to make the necessary financial and technical
investments to facilitate families in registering their babies.

[The full report is available at http://www.unicef.org ]


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