U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 151
30 November - 06 December 2002


CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: Conflict persists as humanitarian crisis looms
SIERRA LEONE: Special court judges sworn-in
WEST AFRICA: Mixed food security prospects
GAMBIA: Malnutrition high among children
NIGERIA: Electoral body registers 22 new parties
GUINEA-BISSAU: Portuguese radio banned
NIGER: Mutineers escape from prison
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Expert to collect information on freedoms
CHAD: Hissène Habré's immunity lifted
WEST AFRICA: River blindness campaign ends


COTE D'IVOIRE: Conflict persists as humanitarian crisis looms

Conflict in Cote d'Ivoire continued this week with reports of fighting in
the western parts of the country. The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, warned that a humanitarian crisis looms and urged
Cote d'Ivoire's neighbours to keep their borders open to innocent
civilians caught in the fighting.

On Monday, Liberia had closed its border as a "precautionary measure".
Still at least 400 people arrived daily in Liberia this week from the
western Ivorian towns of Danane, Man and Toulepleu - the scene of renewed
fighting since 28 November. The three towns near the Liberian and Guinean
borders host around 45,000 of refugees. French troops had earlier
evacuated foreigners from Man. On Thursday, news reports said more people
were fleeing Man, government troops had dislodged the rebels and bodies
littered the streets.

In Paris, the Foreign Ministry hailed a Tuesday meeting in Bamako, Mali,
chaired by President Amadou Toumani Toure, of Ivorian President Laurent
Gbagbo and Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore. On Wednesday, Toure
went to Lome, Togo to brief the Ivorian talks mediator Togolese President
Gnassingbe Eyadema on discussions with Gbagbo and Campaore. The presidents
called for the rapid deployment of a regional peacekeeping force to
replace French troops.

However a regional summit of the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) that was planned for 7 December in Ghana "to discuss the
continuation of the process" was put off. In Addis Ababa, the African
Union expressed grave concern at the persistence of the Ivorian crisis.

The Ivorian crisis started as a mutiny on 19 September but has divided the
country in two - the south controlled by government and the north the
Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI) rebels. On 28 November, two
new rebel groups, the Movement for Justice and Peace and the Ivorian
Populaire Movement of the Great West captured four western towns,
including Toulepleu which loyalist troops were battling to regain on
Thursday, and Touba.

In Lome, talks between government and the MPCI continued but see-sawed
this week because of the fresh clashes. The European Union reported on
Monday it was donating 500,000 euros (US $497,305) towards costs of the
ECOWAS mediation efforts.

To provide an in-depth analysis of the crisis, background, implications
and ongoing efforts to resolve it, IRIN published a web special which is
available at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?
ReportID=31248&SelectRegion=West_Africa&S electCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE

Other stories on Cote d'Ivoire this week are available at:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry
=Cote_d_Ivoire


SIERRA LEONE: Special court judges sworn-in

Eight judges for Sierra Leone's Special Court were sworn-in on Monday in
the capital, Freetown, in a ceremony marking the establishment of the
world's newest international criminal justice body. Geoffrey Robertson of
Britain was elected president of the court. "The Court is now fully
constituted," Behrooz Sadry, Acting Special Representative of the UN
Secretary General said.

Those sworn-in were Judge Emmanuel O. Ayoola (Nigeria), Judge Pierre
Boutet (Canada), Judge Benjamin M. Itoe (Cameroon), Judge Hassan B. Jallow
(The Gambia), Judge George Gelaga King and Judge Rosolu John Bankole
Thompson (Sierra Leone) Judge Geoffrey Robertson (England) and Judge
Renate Winter (Austria).

At the UN Security Council, a global ban on the direct and indirect
importation of all rough diamonds from Sierra Leone was on Wednesday
extended for another six months. Rough diamonds under the control of the
Sierra Leonean government would continue to be exempt under the
certificate of origin regime started in July 2000.

For full stories on Sierra Leone this week go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry
=Sierra_Leone


WEST AFRICA: Food security prospects mixed

Food security prospects in West Africa as at November 2002 were varied
with below average harvests anticipated in Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and
Mauritania, near average production expected in Chad, the Gambia, Mali and
Senegal and above-average output foreseen in Burkina Faso and Niger, the
Food and Agriculture Organization reported this week.

Prospects were favourable in Benin, Nigeria and Togo but less favourable
in Ghana, following below normal rains in September and October. In
Liberia, agricultural activities were disrupted by renewed civil strife.
In Côte-d'Ivoire, a reduction in rice and other cereal production is
forecast as a result of unfavourable weather and conflict.

The full story is available at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31226&SelectRegion=West_Africa&S
electCountry=WEST_AFRICA


THE GAMBIA: Malnutrition high among children

A survey in The Gambia in October found that acute malnutrition among
children aged 6-59 months was 11.2 percent - above the 10 percent ceiling
used in African countries to indicate an alarming situation, FAO and the
World Food Programme said on Tuesday. Boys seemed more malnourished than
girls, at 12.5 and 9.8 percent respectively and stunting among those in
the weaning period (12-23 months) was 16.2 percent. Morbidity was very
high and over 50 percent had suffered from malaria in the two weeks before
the study.

For the full story go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31252&SelectRegion=West_Africa&S
electCountry=GAMBIA


NIGERIA: Electoral body registers 22 new parties

Nigeria's electoral body said on Tuesday it had registered 22 new
political parties, bringing to 28 the number to contest next year's
general elections. Three out of 25 parties that had applied for
registration failed to meet the revised guidelines issued by the body.
Fresh applications were called after court overruled as unconstitutional
several conditions used to deny the parties registration in June. The 2003
elections will be contested by the highest number of parties ever since
Nigeria adopted the presidential system of government in 1979.

An international human rights organisation, the Center for Research
Education and Development of Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights
(CREDO), welcomed the registration of Nigerian political parties "with
caution" but called for further political democratisation.

The full stories are available at:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry
=Nigeria


GUINEA-BISSAU: Portuguese radio banned

Authorities in Guinea-Bissau this week slapped banned the Portuguese radio
and television channel, Radiotelevisao Portuguesa (RTP). Reporters sans
frontieres protested the ban as "unjust and unjustified". The ban followed
a 30 November RTP report to mark the second anniversary of the death of
the former head of Guinea-Bissau's military junta, General Ansumane Mane
who was killed after an attempted coup against President Kumba Yala.

Crackdowns against the media are frequent in Guinea-Bissau. Two
journalists were held for questioning in June and on 5 August a radio
journalist was fined for reporting the concentration of power within the
president's ethnic group.

For IRIN stories on Guinea-Bissau go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry
=Guinea-Bissau


NIGER: Mutineers escape from prison

At least 80 mutineers in Niger who were arrested in August following the
Diffa rebellion, escaped from prison this week while being transferred
from a camp in Zinder, 700 km east of the capital, Niamey. A search for
the escapees was going by the close of the week.

The disgruntled soldiers mutinied in the eastern Diffa region between 31
July and 9 August, took military and civilian officials hostage and
demanded the dismissal of the chief of army general staff, Colonel
Moumouni Boureima. Government however put down the mutiny, arrested the
soldiers and clamped down on security in the region.

IRIN stories on the mutiny are available at:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry
=Niger


EQUATORIAL GUINEA: UN expert to collect information on freedoms

At the invitation of the government, UN human rights expert on freedom of
opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo, left for Equatorial Guinea on
Sunday to spend a week collecting information on freedoms. He was
scheduled to meet senior government officials and magistrates, human
rights officials, representatives of civil society, the media and the UN
system.

Ligabo was mandated by the UN Commission on Human rights to gather
information on discrimination, threats or use of violence and harassment
directed at anyone seeking to exercise or promote the right to free
opinion and expression. Equatorial Guinea has been criticised by the
international community in recent months over allegations of torture,
repression and harassment of its perceived critics.

This story and others on Equatorial Guinea are available at:
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry
=Equatorial_Guinea

CHAD: Hissène Habré's immunity lifted

The Chadian government this week waived former President Hissène Habré's
immunity in a move that would pave way for his prosecution in Belgium and
extradition from Senegal where he lives, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported
on Thursday. Habré, labeled an "African Pinochet", was indicted two years
ago on charges of torture and crimes against humanity before the
Senegalese courts. But it was ruled that he could not be tried there.
Chadian victims then filed charges against him in Belgium.

"This waiver is a clear green light for Habre's prosecution," said Reed
Brody of HRW, which helped the victims file the case. "We are one step
closer to the day when Habré will have to answer in a court of law for his
terrible crimes." Chadian Justice Minister Djimnain Koudj-Gaou wrote to
the Belgian judge investigating charges against Habré on 7 October stating
that: "Habré can not claim to enjoy any form of immunity from the Chadian
authorities," HRW said.

Detailed information on Hissène Habré's case can be found at
http://www.hrw.org/justice/habre/


WEST AFRICA: River blindness campaign ends

Some 30 years of work to eliminate river blindness as a public health
threat in West Africa, was marked on Friday in the Burkina capital
Ouagadougou with officials from the World Health Organization and others,
recognizing the achievements of bankers, fly catchers, pilots, chief
executives, community health workers and others, who have prevented
600,000 cases of blindness.

WHO said their efforts meant that 18 million people grew up free of river
blindness. The success of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme, had
enabled thousands of farmers to reclaim 25 million hectares of fertile
river land, enough land to feed 17 million people. "The accomplishments of
this programme inspire all of us in public health to dream big dreams
because we can reach 'impossible' goals and lighten the burden of millions
of the world's poorest people," WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland
said.

River blindness occurs when black flies injecting parasites into people
living near rivers which eat away their hosts' eyesight. When the campaign
began in West Africa, 10 percent of the population in high impact regions
were completely blind and 30 percent had severe visual handicaps.

Details of WHO's work to control river blindness are available at:
http://www.who.int/en/


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