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 127
15 - 21 June 2002


CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Country poised for humanitarian disaster, WFP official says
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: EU parliament calls for special rapporteur on
  human rights
NIGERIA: 85,000 IDPs return home
NIGERIA: At least 12 dead in university violence
NIGERIA: Groups speak against offshore drilling
CAMEROON: Elections due on Sunday
WESTERN SAHARA: Another 100 released by Polisario
MAURITANIA: US $1.1 billion debt relief
TOGO: US support for anti-trafficking initiative
BENIN: Africa urged to give more money for refugees

LIBERIA: Country poised for humanitarian disaster, WFP official says

Being "unsettled" country of the three that make up the Mano River Union,
the World Food Programme West African Manager Manuel da Silva on Thursday
warned that, unless the situation improves, Liberia could become a "big
humanitarian disaster in two or three months."

Speaking in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, da Silva said the deteriorating
situation had caused thousands of people to flee to neighbouring
countries, while thousands of internally displaced remained in the
country. WFP estimates that there are about 120,000 internally displaced
people (IDPs) around the Liberian capital Monrovia, while many more
remained accounted for in the hinterland. In addition, 44,000 have taken
refuge in Liberia, while thousands of others have reached Cote d'Ivoire
and Guinea.

In Guinea, where the situation was "quite stable" according to da Silva,
the main concern of WFP, its sister UN agencies and other partners was the
rise in refugee number which could largely surpass the present figure. As
da Silva was speaking in Abidjan, WFP was delivering food - 16 mt of high
protein biscuits - to newly arrived Liberian refugees living in N'zerekore.
Of the 44,000 who currently live in Guinea, about 20,000 had arrived since
January 2002.

In Sierra Leone, WFP is concentrating its efforts on the ongoing voluntary
repatriation and the launching of a massive school feeding programme.
However two major issues would continue to be monitored: new Liberian
arrivals and the plight of Sierra Leonean refugees in Liberia, da Silva
said.

In Liberia fighting was again reported this week. On Monday, the Liberians
United For Reconciliation and Democracy attacked the town of Gbah, 43 km
northwest of Monrovia, killing several civilians and capturing a few
government forces. In a statement on Wednesday, LURD claimed to have also
captured Klay, 60 km northwest of Monrovia. Fighting also occurred on the
road to Sinje which hosts some 22,000 refugees and IDPs. The fighting has
prevented UNHCR from resuming registration of Sierra Leonean refugees of
its voluntary repatriation programme.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: EU parliament calls for special rapporteur on human
rights

The European Parliament, after condemning the recent trial of opposition
leaders in Equatorial Guinea, urged on Tuesday EU foreign ministers to
propose to the UN Commission on Human Rights the re-appointment of a
special rapporteur on human rights in the West African country.

The request came during a meeting held in Luxembourg when the
parliamentarians asked that "utmost firmness" be applied to the government
of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema who, they say, has not respecting
international engagements to respect human rights, and to promote
democracy and good governance.

The EU's concern followed the trial held in Malabo, the capital, at the
end of which 68 opposition leaders were sentenced for allegedly plotting
to overthrow Nguema. 76 others were freed. Among those jailed were Felipe
Ondó Obiang (20 years), Guillermo Nguema Elá (14 years) of the opposition
Fuerza Democratica Republicana and Placido Miko, secretary general of the
main opposition party, Convergencia para la Democracia Social, who
received 14 years.

The appointment of a new rapporteur could face a few obstacles as it is
the UN Commission on Human Rights which ended the mandate of the past
immediate rapporteur, Gustavo Gallon Giraldo, and recommended that the
government implement a national human rights plan. Prior to his dismissal
in April, Giraldo warned that the human rights and socio-political
situations had not improved and that the country still needed to be
closely monitored.

In a 13 June resolution, the EU parliament condemned the trial as unfair
and called for the annulment of the sentences and release of prisoners.
Amnesty International and the Olof Palme Foundation, another rights NGO,
also condemned the trial and called for a new trial or for the release of
the prisoners.

NIGERIA: 85,000 IDPs return home

In the last two months, more than 85,000 IDPs have returned to their home
area in Taraba State, central Nigeria, Red Cross officials told IRIN on
Tuesday. Most of them are of the Tiv ethnic group who fled ethnic and
communal violence with Jukuns between June and November 2001.

"Since April at least 85,000 people have returned to Taraba State from
Benue State," Alhaji M.D. Lawan, the Red Cross official overseeing the
central region, told IRIN on Tuesday. "Most of the people in camps set up
in Taraba have also left," he added. Those who had taken refuge in IDP
camps set up in Taraba State had also returned home.

At the height of last's year violence, Tivs and Jukuns fought each other
in the states of Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba and Benue.

The Red Cross and its partner, the Catholic Relief services, had been
providing aid to the displaced until April. Due to shortages, the
displaced had not received much aid since April. The Red Cross has
launched an appeal for aid, Red Cross official Benson Attah said on
Tuesday.

More than 1,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced in
the communal violence which swept Nigeria's central region last year. The
situation was aggravated after the military became embroiled in the
Tiv-Jukun conflict when 19 soldiers were killed by a Tiv militia. Reprisal
attacks were launched against several Tiv settlements by soldiers during
which at least 200 people were killed, scores of houses destroyed and tens
of thousands of people forced from their homes.

NIGERIA: At least 12 dead in university violence

At least 12 students from the University of Nigeria in southeastern Enugu
State, on Saturday were killed when an armed group of suspected student
cult members attacked a rival group.

The armed group entered the university's engineering faculty and opened
fire on students writing examinations, killing 12 students on the spot,
university lecturer Val Ekechukwu told IRIN. Others died while receiving
care in the hospital, he said.

Although the motives for the killings were still being investigated, Enugu
State police had detained two people involved in the attack. Police
commissioner Nwachukwu Egbochukwu told reporters on Wednesday that it
could been caused by a conflict between two university cult groups.

Nigerian universities have been plagued by violence between rival student
cult groups since the mid-1970s. But the trend grew worse from the 1980s,
with allegations by student union leaders that the fraternities had been
infiltrated by the country's military rulers who used them to neutralise
militant student opposition.

Similar attacks have been recorded across universities in different parts
of the country. Apart from attacks directed against rival cult groups in
turf wars, student union officials campaigning against cult activities are
often the targets. In March the president of the student union at Lagos
State University was shot and killed by assailants believed to members of
a student cult.

NIGERIA: Groups speak against offshore drilling

Two leading groups in the Niger Delta this week accused the government of
aggressively developing offshore oilfields which, they say, would
perpetuate poverty in the area.

On Wednesday, the Ijaw National Council (INC) and the Movement for the
Survival of Ogoni people (MOSOP) charged President Olusegun Obasanjo's
government of conniving with major oil producers to source most of the
country's oil from offshore and abandon onshore fields. For the two
groups, this measure was a government attempt to "economically
strangulate" the area and avoid addressing other issues. One of these
issues is the environmental degradation the area has suffered, the two
groups say. The second is the persistent disruption of oil production by
local youths who often kidnap the oil companies' personnel as ransom for
jobs.

Successive Nigerian governments have had to contend with accusations from
groups in the Delta, Nigeria's oil producing region. Residents have
persistently accused governments of cheating them out of the wealth pumped
from their land while leaving them to live with the environmental
degradation brought by oil activities.

CAMEROON: Elections due on Sunday

International observers this week arrived in Cameroon to monitor
legislative and municipal elections expected to take place on Sunday.

The United Nations's delegation is headed by Seydou Diarra, prime minister
of Cote d'Ivoire from 1999-2000, who was named by UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan as his personal envoy. The Commonwealth sent a four-member
delegation, while the organisation of French-speaking countries, La
Francophonie, has sent 12 observers to oversee the elections and ensure
that they are free and transparent.

In addition to the foreign observers, locally-trained observers will also
supervise Sunday's polls during which Cameroonians will vote for the
180-member parliament as well as for the 384 municipal seats in the
country. The parliamentary elections will be contested by 48 political
parties including the ruling Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian people,
the Social Democratic Front and the National Union for Democracy and
Progress. 26 parties have enlisted for the municipal elections.

The electoral campaign, which opened two weeks ago and closed on Saturday,
had been marked by calls both against and in favour of these elections.

The Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) called on people in the two
English-speaking provinces to boycott the Sunday polls because, they said,
the polls were likely to be rigged. In turn, the Catholic Church called on
the population to vote for those candidate "who are competent and honest,
regardless of ethnicity." The Church in Cameroon over the years has been
involved in the political arena, mainly by training election observers and
conducting civic education sessions.

The SCNC, since its creation in the mid 1990s, has advocated for the
separation of the two English provinces from the rest of the country on
grounds that English-speaking Cameroonians suffer discrimination.

WESTERN SAHARA: Another 100 released by Polisario

The Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro
(Polisario Front), released this week 100 Moroccan prisoners of war, the
Maghreb Arabe Presse reported.

The "humanitarian gesture", as described by the Polisario itself, was an
attempt to solve the dispute with Morocco over Western Sahara, BBC
reported." In January, Polisario released 115 prisoners.

Polisario announced the release on the same day the European Union (EU)
reported that it would grant more than 14 million euros (US $13.3 m) to
provide humanitarian assistance to at least 150,000 refugees from Western
Sahara living in the southwestern Algerian Tindouf region.

In February, the UN Security Council urged Polisario to release all
prisoners of war, some of whom had spent over 26 years in detention.
Morocco, the council said, had released all of its prisoners. The council
also called on Morocco and Polisario "to avoid any action that can
aggravate the situation" and "to ensure freedom of movement of the United
Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)."

Polisario Front took up arms to fight for the independence of Western
Sahara soon after Morocco annexed the territory. Until 1975, Western
Sahara had been a colony of Spain. The two sides signed a ceasefire in
1991, paving the way for the deployment of MINURSO. However, efforts to
organise a referendum on the territory's future have failed thus far.

In April the United Nations Security Council extended MINURSO's mandate
until 31 July in order to allow more time to examine Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's proposals to break the impasse over the territory's future.

MAURITANIA: US $1.1 billion debt relief

The International Monetary Fund and The World Bank announced on Wednesday
a US $1.1 billion debt relief for Mauritania which the country is expected
to use to fund anti-poverty programmes. The relief was granted under the
enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.

The debt relief would also allow the country to reduce its external debt
by 50 percent which would provide for long-term sustainability, a World
Bank news release said on Wednesday.

Mauritania negotiated a debt rescheduling agreement with the Paris Club on
Cologne terms (a debt reduction of 90 percent) and a number of Paris Club
creditors have indicated that they would provide debt relief beyond that
required under the HIPC Initiative.

TOGO: US support for anti-trafficking initiative

Togo and the United States launched on Tuesday a FCFA 1.376 billion (US $2
million) initiative against child trafficking. Officials said the project
would help attract and retain children in schools.

Titled 'Child Labor Education Initiative' (CLEI) and funded through the US
Department of Labor, the project aims to remove children, particularly
girls who are the most vulnerable, from the labour market and offer them
educational opportunities. As the first such project in West Africa, it
will focus on strengthening national and communal capacity, ensuring
support for children rescued from traffickers. It will also support the
Togolese government to enforce anti-trafficking measures.

The signing ceremony was held in the capital, Lome, and attended by US
Deputy Under-Secretary of Labor, Michael Magan, and Togo's Minister for
Social Affairs, Irene Ashira Assih. Hoffman told the audience that the new
initiative could be extended to other countries in the region.

The new project coincided with last month's launching of local
anti-trafficking committees to educate people living in rural areas
against child trafficking.

BENIN: Africa urged to give more money for refugees

UNHCR country representative in Benin, Gustavo Ngango, told a news
conference in Cotonou on Thursday that his office was operating on an
annual budget of just US $450,000. He said this was a "derisory" amount
when compared to the cost of running all the required refugee protection
activities.

Ngango urged African countries to increase their annual contributions to
UNHCR so that it could perform better, especially in Africa where there
was a large refugee population. He was speaking on the occasion of World
Refugee Day.

Benin has 4803 refugees - 2,740 men and 2,063 women - from the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Togo, Sierra Leone and
other African countries. The first arrivals were registered in 1993,
Interior Minister Daniel Tawema said.

Meanwhile, UNHCR released its 2002 annual report on refugees and displaced
people this week to coincide with World Refugee Day. The report is
available at http://www.unhcr.ch/statistics.


IRIN-WA
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Email: IRIN-WA@irin.ci

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