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 112
23 February - 01 March 2002


CONTENTS:

MANO RIVER UNION: Child refugees sexually exploited by aid workers
MANO RIVER UNION: West African presidents vow to end tensions
LIBERIA: The exodus continues
SIERRA LEONE: Doctors join nurses' strike
SIERRA LEONE: Up to one million may not vote, NGO says
WESTERN SAHARA: Security Council extends UN mission's mandate
CHAD: Parliament passes amnesty bill for rebels
CHAD: Belgian judge investigates Hissene Habre case
NIGERIA: US bomb disposal team arrives in Lagos
BURKINA FASO-MALI-NIGER: Joint military brigade
BENIN: UNICEF launches early-childhood development project
SAHEL: Food prospects vary
COTE D'IVOIRE: ADB funds for governance, potable water
GHANA: Debt-reduction package

MANO RIVER UNION: Child refugees sexually exploited by aid workers

Refugee children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been subjected
to sexual abuse and exploitation, reportedly by employees of national and
international NGOs, UN agencies, fellow refugees, security forces of host
countries and other persons, according to a joint assessment by UNHCR and
Save the Children-UK.

The report, titled, 'Sexual Violence & Exploitation: The Experience of
Refugee Children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone', said that the
perpetrators "are often men in positions of relative power and influence
who either control access to goods and services or who have wealth and/or
income." The resources at their disposal are "considerably more than those
of the refugees", and they exploit this extreme disparity.

The initial findings of Tuesday's report, based on interviews and group
sessions with 1,500 adults and children conducted between 22 October to 30
November 2001, reveal that the exchange of sex for money or gifts appeared
widespread. The victims were mostly girls aged 13 to 18, while the most
vulnerable group comprised orphans and children separated from one or both
parents.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed shock at the reports of possible
extensive abuse of children in refugee camps in West Africa. He has
directed a thorough and immediate investigation into the allegations as
well as "remedial action aimed at strengthening the protection of women
and children," UN News quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

The UN children's agency, UNICEF, expressed outrage that some humanitarian
workers had betrayed the trust of children they were supposed to assist
and protect, but welcomed the efforts of UNHCR and Save the Children "to
throw light on the often unreported but widespread problem of child sexual
abuse".

[The report can be accessed at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/UNID/6010F9ED3C651C93C1256B6D00560FCA?O
penDocument]

MANO RIVER UNION: West African presidents vow to end tensions

West African leaders agreed this week on measures to try to end
insurgencies that have soured relations between Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone for a number of years.

Presidents Lansana Conte of Guinea, Charles Taylor of Liberia, and Ahmad
Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone, made the announcement on Wednesday following
a summit held in the Moroccan capital, Rabat. They agreed to enhance
border security, repatriate refugees, provide aid to displaced persons and
reactivate the administration of the Mano River Union, the Moroccan news
agency, MAP, reported.

The Mano River Union is an all-but-defunct economic integration movement
that involves the three countries.

A Joint Security Committee will meet in Freetown on 4 March to begin
implementing the presidents' announcement. It is expected to submit a
progress report to the three countries' foreign ministers by 28 March.

The three Mano River countries have at one time or another accused each
other of supporting anti-government dissidents operating from their
territories.

Liberia is currently facing a rebellion by a group known as Liberians
United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) which, according to
Monrovia, are backed by Guinea. Taylor says that his ability to fend off
the LURD is severely hampered by a UN arms embargo. He wants the embargo
lifted as well as other sanctions imposed in 2001 to force Monrovia to
stop supporting Sierra Leonean Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels.
These include an embargo on diamond sales from Liberia and a travel ban on
senior government officials and their families.

Meanwhile the UN Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to
re-establish a panel to investigate whether or not Liberia is still giving
financial and military support to the RUF, which, until recently, had been
waging a 10-year war against the Sierra Leonean government. The
five-member team, to be chosen by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will
also conduct missions to countries neighbouring Liberia "and compile a
brief audit" of the Liberian government's compliance with the Council's
demand that it end all support for the RUF.

The war between the Sierra Leone government and the RUF was formally
declared over in January 2002.

LIBERIA: The exodus continues

Liberians continued fleeing their troubled country this week, travelling
to Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, according to UNHCR and other
sources.

The flight followed shooting incidents just north of the capital Monrovia
that broke out in early February. There was much confusion as to the
origin of the shooting. Some sources invoked clashes between government
soldiers and anti-government rebels. Others put it down to infighting
within the ranks of pro-government forces. Sceptics saw it as part of a
scenario mounted by the government to back its demands for a lifting of
the UN arms embargo against Liberia.

Whatever the reason for the insecurity, it was followed by the imposition
- on 8 February - of a state of emergency, other bouts of fighting, and
population movements in various directions.

Since the state of emergency was declared, more than 10,000 Liberian
refugees have arrived in Sierra Leone, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said
on Friday. UNHCR, he said, has been relocating the new arrivals from the
border town of Jendema to camps further inside Sierra Leone. So far, 2,029
refugees had been relocated, and convoys continued daily.

On Tuesday Janowski had said some 300-500 people had been arriving daily
in Sierra Leone from Liberia. He said most originated from Lofa County in
northern Liberia, and that they had already been displaced several times
before the latest clashes forced them across the border.

The new insecurity also sent IDPs fleeing in the direction of Monrovia.
This week, the government authorised the opening of camps near the
capital.

Liberians have also been leaving Monrovia and heading for the Ivorian
border. Humanitarian sources said these were largely people worried that
the fighting might reach the capital. According to figures from the
Ivorian Red Cross, 1,895 Liberians entered Cote d'Ivoire from 19 to 24
February. The number registered by UNHCR was smaller: between 11 and 28
February, UNHCR registered 907 new Liberian arrivals in Cote d'Ivoire,
according to figures provided to IRIN by the refugee agency. This brought
the number of Liberian refugees registered in Cote d'Ivoire since April
2001 to 8,943.

UNHCR reported the new Liberians as saying that young men were being
press-ganged into the pro-government forces. They also told the UN agency
that they had to barter with security forces in order to reach the border.

Not all the newly arrived Liberians have been staying in Cote d'Ivoire.
UNHCR's regional director for West Africa, Abou Moussa, told IRIN that
"1,139 Liberians have been received in Ghana" since the beginning of the
latest upheavals in Liberia. According to UNHCR-Ghana, the majority were
people who had lived in Ghana before.

SIERRA LEONE: Doctors join nurses' strike

Government doctors in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown joined on Friday a
three-week strike by nurses for more pay and better conditions of service,
official sources in Freetown told IRIN.

None of the state's three main medical facilities in Freetown - the
Connaught Hospital, the Princess Christian Maternity, and the Princess
Children's Hospital - were functioning normally, the official said. Many
patients had either gone home, to private hospitals or military and police
hospitals for attention. Military nurses and Red Cross volunteers were
providing some care to the few remaining patients.

Hospitals outside the capital were not affected by the strike, the source
said. In a recent statement on the strike, the government reported that it
remained committed to undertaking a comprehensive review of the salary and
grade structure "for the entire service". The strike has continued despite
the fact that the doctors and nurses have received an interim package, the
official added.

SIERRA LEONE: Up to one million may not vote, NGO says

Hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leoneans may not be allowed to vote in
forthcoming elections because of shortcomings within the recently ended
registration process, the NGO Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) said on
22 February.

However, the National Electoral Commission's (NEC) chairman, Walter Nicol,
told IRIN on Monday that he doubted very much that up to one million
people had failed to register, adding that an accurate figure would be
available once all the registration forms had been retrieved.

WESTERN SAHARA: Security Council extends UN mission's mandate

The Security Council voted on Wednesday to extend the UN Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) by two months until 30 April. It
has been working for over a decade to organise a referendum to allow the
territory's people to choose between independence or integration with
Morocco.

The council also decided to "consider actively" Secretary General Kofi
Annan's latest report on Western Sahara which puts forward four options to
try to solve the stalemate in the 27-year old conflict between the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario
Front) and Morocco.

Resuming the implementation of a settlement plan without the necessary
consent of both parties, revising last year framework agreement drafted by
Annan's personal envoy, James Baker, and discussing a possible division of
the territory constitute Annan's first three options. The fourth and most
drastic option entails the withdrawal of MINURSO.

On Tuesday, the Council urged Polisario to release all its prisoners of
war, and urged both sides to avoid acts that could aggravate the
situation. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross,
which earlier this week also called for the release of all remaining POWs,
the Polisario Front holds some 1,362 Moroccan prisoners, some of whom have
spent over 26 years in detention. Morocco claims that it has released all
of its prisoners.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara when Spain withdrew in 1975, prompting the
Polisario Front to take up arms to fight for independence. The two sides
signed a ceasefire in 1991, paving the way for the deployment of MINURSO.

CHAD: Parliament passes amnesty bill for rebels

Parliamentarians in the Chadian capital, N'djamena, passed a bill on
Tuesday granting a general amnesty to rebels of the Movement for Democracy
and Justice in Chad (MDJT), Chad's national radio reported.

There were 64 votes in favour, 21 abstentions and one against,
Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne reported.

The amnesty formed part of a peace agreement signed between the rebels and
the government in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on 7 January.

The MDJT, headed by Youssouf Togoimi, launched a rebellion in the Tibesti
region of northern Chad in 1998. Togoimi had been defence minister in the
government of President Idriss Deby, who seized power from Hissene Habre
in 1990 and was elected head of state in 1996.

CHAD: Belgian judge investigates Hissene Habre case

Belgian Judge Daniel Fransen arrived in Chad on Tuesday on a nine-day
visit to pursue investigations into a case which a group of Chadians have
filed in a Belgian court against former president Hissene Habre, whom they
accuse of human rights abuses.

Reed Brody, advocacy director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, told
IRIN on Wednesday that Fransen would interview victims, witnesses, former
members of Habre's special security force and other people to gather
evidence.

The accusers and international human rights watchdogs say Habre, who ruled
Chad from 1982-1990, was responsible for 40,000 executions and the torture
of some 200,000 people during his presidency.

The law allows courts in Belgium to try cases involving serious rights
abuses, no matter where and by whom they were committed. The plaintiffs
filed their case in Brussels after they had failed to get Habre to stand
trial in Senegal, where he has lived since fleeing Chad in 1990.

NIGERIA: US bomb disposal team arrives in Lagos

A US army bomb disposal team arrived in the Nigerian commercial capital,
Lagos, on Wednesday on a two-month mission to help dispose of unexploded
ordnance dispersed across the city after a fire at an armoury just over a
month ago.

The 60-member team will join other US and British bomb disposal experts
who have been helping their Nigerian counterparts to identify and recover
unexploded munitions since early February. Nigerian authorities said 1,350
unexploded bombs, mortars and artillery pieces had been recovered so far.

At least 1,000 people died in the 27 January disaster.

BURKINA FASO-MALI-NIGER: Joint military brigade

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have agreed to create a joint brigade to
check the movement of light firearms in their countries, secure people and
goods at border points and provide humanitarian aid, Mali's military press
director, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, told IRIN on Tuesday. Military chiefs from
the three countries met in the Malian capital, Bamako, this week to
discuss the operations of the new 500-member brigade whose units will be
based in Labbezanga, Mali; Maretei, Burkina Faso; and Yatakala, Niger,
Coulibaly said. The unit will have a joint command staff with an overall
commander rotated between the three countries.

BENIN: UNICEF launches early-childhood development project

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with Benin's Health
Ministry, has launched a programme aimed at improving early childhood
development by reducing the incidence of preventable diseases and ailments
linked to poor nutrition. The programme targets infants up to five years
old. It aims to protect them against tetanus, measles and other
vaccine-preventable diseases, reduce the incidence of malaria, pneumonia
and diarrhoea, and fight diseases linked to vitamin A deficiency. In the
long term, the project aims to reduce the food deficiency/disease tandem
by 25 percent in selected regions in Benin.

SAHEL: Food prospects vary

The overall food outlook for Niger looks good this year but in Mauritania
a nationwide food deficit is likely, the Food Early Warning System (FEWS)
reported this week.

Niger produced a 297,500 mt grain surplus during the growing season, FEWS
said, but some 16 percent of the population still face moderate levels of
food insecurity. Mauritania is likely to experience a grain deficit of
more than 160,000 mt this year, especially in the southwestern regions of
Trarza, Brakna and Gorgol, which were hardest hit by winter rains in
January, FEWS reported.

FEWS, an initiative funded by the US Agency for International Development,
is aimed at strengthening the ability of African countries and regional
organisations to manage threats to food security by providing timely and
analytical early warning and vulnerability information.

The reports on Mauritania and Niger can be found at: http://www.fews.net

COTE D'IVOIRE: ADB funds for governance, potable water

The African Development Bank (ADB) and Cote d'Ivoire's government signed
on Tuesday two agreements totalling FCFA 4.3 billion (US $5.8 million) to
foster good governance and to improve the water system in two of the
country's biggest cities.

Some FCFA 3.5 billion (US $4.7 million) will aid the government's Good
Governance and Capacity Building Programme, whose aims include
decentralisation and improving the management of public resources. The
remaining FCFA 785 million ($1.1 million) will finance a study on
upgrading water supply systems catering for the three million people
living in the economic capital, Abidjan, as well as the needs of some
500,000 people living in the central city of Bouake.

The funds come from the African Development Fund, the small-loans branch
of the ADB.

GHANA: Debt-reduction package

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have agreed to
support a US $3.7 billion debt reduction package for Ghana, under the
enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, the World Bank
announced on Tuesday. Both institutions, the bank said, agreed to begin
providing debt relief immediately along with most official bilateral
creditors. The bulk of additional assistance under the enhanced HIPC
Initiative will be delivered when Ghana completes a number of agreed
measures.

In a separate announcement on 22 February the IMF said that it had
approved a US $65 million disbursement for poverty reduction programmes in
Ghana.


IRIN-WA
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
Email: IRIN-WA@irin.ci

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2002


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