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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 140
07 - 13 September 2002


CONTENTS:

MAURITANIA: Food shortage threatens 60,000 - FEWS Net
MANO RIVER UNION: Countries continue peace-making efforts
SIERRA LEONE: Kabbah asks for UNAMSIL extension, Annan agrees
NIGERIA: Obasanjo refutes accusations; voter registration starts
TOGO: Elections before year's end
TOGO: Prison term for journalists
CHAD-CAMEROON: World Bank sticks with pipeline project


MAURITANIA: Food shortage threatens 60,000 - FEWS Net

At least 60,000 Mauritanians face serious imminent food shortages, the
Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reported on Thursday.

The problem was particularly serious in the southern enclave of Aftout,
which has suffered six successive poor harvests, it said.

Mauritania is facing a cereal deficit of 205,000 mt, equivalent to five
months' cereal consumption needs, primarily because of extremely poor
rains, according to the report. The cereals include millet, sorghum and
maize.

"In addition, freak rain storms from 9-11 January caused the death of
120,000 cattle, sheep and goats; destruction of 25 percent of already
harvested crops; and loss of lives and property," FEWS Net said.

"The rains ruined pasture land for the animals that survived," the report
added.

In Aftout, crop production was sufficient to meet only two months' needs,
FEWS Net warned.

Households in the Senegal River valley and pastoral districts of Trarza
region were hardest hit by the loss of livestock, it said. Extremely
impoverished Haratin villagers in southern Hodh el Chargui and Hodh el
Gharbi were in similar conditions, and many had left for Mali, the report
stated.

"Conditions have pushed some 16,000 farmers in the two Hodhs and 46,000
farmers and herders in the Senegal River Valley and Aftout into the
extremely food insecure category - now or soon unable to meet their
consumption needs, having already exhausted their strategies for acquiring
food - and facing imminent famine," FEWS Net warned.

"Evidence of malnutrition abounds in the form of exhaustion and loss of
weight, night blindness, scurvy, dehydration and diarrhoea- and
hunger-related deaths," it added.

The FEWS Net report followed an urgent appeal by the Mauritanian
government on 1 September, when it called for assistance to provide 38,000
mt of grain and 14,000 mt of complementary materials to meet the needs of
desperate people for about three months.

In launching the appeal, Minister of the Interior, Posts and
Telecommunications, Lemrabet Sidi Mahmoud Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said nothing
was expected from the country's farm lands, since most of them depended on
rainfall.

Rain-fed agriculture accounts for about one third of Mauritania's annual
cereal production, and low-lying areas behind dams contribute a sixth of
production. Most of the low-lying areas have been dry this year.

Details of the FEWS Net report and related documents


MANO RIVER UNION: Countries continue peace-making efforts

Security minister of the Mano River Union (MRU) on Wednesday ended another
round of talks aimed at reviewing and developing into concrete actions
from decisions taken during a meeting held in April in Morocco.

The meeting's main conclusions included a "peace caravan" that would
travel the three countries in December, with senior officials, as a show
of confidence and to mark the formal re-opening of their common borders
that had remained closed for months. The officials also agreed that
Liberian refugees living in Sierra Leone and Guinea need "better
treatment" from their host countries.

The Freetown meeting, which the Sierra Leonean government was mandated to
organise, also addressed the deployment of cross-border security
personnel, the plight of refugees in the sub-region, and the issue of
dissidents living in each other's country, which officials said, remained
a "gray area".

The tripartite MRU, created in the 1970s to foster economic cooperation
between the members, has become a moribund organization due to years of
conflict and cross-accusations of support for armed dissidents or rebel
groups.

The three countries have been holding peace-making talks since last year.
The talks were supposed to culminate in a summit between President Charles
Taylor of Liberia, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Lansana Conte of
Guinea in January 2002, but the three have yet to meet.

UN agencies working in the MRU countries have all along urged them to
demonstrate their commitment to peace in the sub-region through practical
measures, such as re-opening their borders to allow free movement of
people.

Other MRU items this week include:
LIBERIA: Focus on Liberia - "the eye of the storm"


SIERRA LEONE: Kabbah asks for UNAMSIL expansion, Annan approves

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday recommended that the UN
Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) be extended by six months, then downsize
gradually before the handover of the security apparatus to the country.
UNAMSIL's mandate is set to expire on 30 September.

In a report to the Security Council, Annan suggested that UNAMSIL be
reduced from its current level of 17,000 peacekeepers to about 5,000 by
late 2004. The military operation would then settle to 2,000 troops
"depending on need at that time" UNAMSIL's civilian component would also
be reduced.

Annan's recommendation came more than a month after President Kabbah, in a
letter dated 8 August, asked the UN to extend UNAMSIL's mandate by several
months, saying that the prevailing situation in neighbouring Liberia could
destabilize the entire region.


NIGERIA: Obasanjo refutes accusations; voter registration starts

Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday rebutted- point by point-
all 17 charges that form the basis of the House of Representatives' call
for impeachment.

"All I have done, I have done in the best interest of our great country. I
have not deliberately violated the law or the constitution," Obasanjo said
in a statement.

On 13 August, the lower chamber of parliament had issued a two-week
ultimatum to resign or face impeachment. It accused him of accumulated
breaches of the Nigerian constitution since taking office in 1999. The
upper chamber, the Senate, subsequently backed the lower house's action.
According to the chairman of the House Committee on Information Farouk
Lawan, 200 of the 360 members of the lower chamber had signed up to issue
Obasanjo an impeachment notice.

While this latest twist cast shadows over presidential elections due in
2004, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday
begun voter registration for upcoming general elections. At least 60
million voters aged 18 years old and above (in an estimated population of
120 million) are expected to register during that period.

Registration would run for nine hours each day until 22 September.

Tight security has been put in place to minimize problems, while the INEC
has warned that those who attempt to disrupt the exercise will face
criminal prosecution.

Other items on Nigeria this week included:
NIGERIA: Lawyers demand emergency rule in Anambra State
NIGERIA: Obasanjo proposes bill to pacify oil region


TOGO: Elections before year's end

The political crisis in Togo took one small step forward this week when
the electoral college of seven judges, set up in May to organize
legislative elections, announced that the polls would be held before the
end of the year. But it fell short of giving a specific date.

The judges, in a statement, said they would establish the polling date
upon receipt of all the necessary equipment and materials necessary for
holding proper elections. They however released the names of commission
members to sit on various electoral technical commissions.

The opposition coalition, which represented opposition parties during the
former national electoral commission, said it would participate only if
the college of judges was replaced by an electoral commission. Other
parties have however said they would participate and called on those who
threaten to boycott not to do so in the interest of the population.

The seven judges replaced a 20-member electoral commission in May that had
become dysfunctional as of result of disagreements between the government
and the opposition on the organization on the polls.

The polls, postponed since October 2001, are meant to replace elections
boycotted by the opposition in 1999 in protest against the 1998
presidential elections which they claim was rigged.


TOGO: Prison term for journalists

The publishing editor of Togolese weekly Nouvel Echo, Julien Ayi, was
sentenced on Friday to four months in jail and fined FCFA 100,000 (US
$150) for defamation against President Gnassingbe Eyadema. The weekly's
editor in chief, Alphonse Nevame Klu, who has gone missing, received a
six-month jail sentence and FCFA 100,000 for an article claiming that
Eyadema was one of the world's richest man. The paper claimed to base its
article on the Forbes Magazine ranking of the world's richest people.

Press freedom watchdog, Reporters sans Frontieres, condemned the
sentencing and called for the immediate release of the journalist.

Related items include:
TOGO: Politician and journalist face jail terms


CHAD-CAMEROON: World Bank sticks with pipeline project

World Bank directors on Thursday approved a management action plan
suggested by independent experts to support three projects of the Chad
Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project.

The action plan addressed concerns raised by an independent inspection
panel within the Bank on four areas: environmental and social compliance
with the Bank's policies and procedures, economic issues, poverty
reduction issues, and monitoring and supervision.

"The findings of the panel will lead to improvements in the ongoing
implementation of this challenging project, which has enormous potential
to bring great benefits to the people of Chad and Cameroon," said World
Bank President James Wolfensohn.

Thursday's approval of the new action plan meant the World Bank was
standing by the project to build an oil pipeline between Chad and
Cameroon, despite its experts' earlier concern that the project could harm
the environment and fail to meet other goals, according to analysts.

Environmental and human rights groups have suggested that the project - to
build a 1,050 km pipeline connecting the Doba oil fields in southern Chad
to Cameroon's Atlantic coast - raises serious concerns about the treatment
of local and indigenous people in both countries, as well as its
environmental consequences. With regard to economic benefits, it said more
than 80 percent of the oil revenues accruing to the Chadian government
would be directed to expenditures in the priority sectors of health,
education, rural development, infrastructure, environment and water, as by
law.

For more information, please refer to the following reports:
1. Amnesty-USA Full Report
2. Worldbank Full Report
3. Inspection Panel website
4. IAG-GIC website
5. Cameroon Chad Pipeline Monitoring Project


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