U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 154
21 - 27 December 2002


CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: Fighting, displacement continue
COTE D'IVOIRE: UN Secretary-General appoints humanitarian envoy
LIBERIA: ICRC helps reunite children with families
NIGERIA: Unexploded ordnance threatens civilians - rights group
NIGERIA: Election dates set
SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL completes first phase of withdrawal

COTE D'IVOIRE: Fighting, displacement continue

Fighting continued this week between loyalist forces and rebels in western
Cote d'Ivoire, causing thousands of people to flee to safer zones within
the country and to neighbouring Guinea and Liberia.

Armed forces spokesman Col Jules Yao Yao confirmed on Friday that there
had been fighting around Man, the largest town in the west, which has
changed hands on a number of occasions in recent weeks.

As at 19 December, some 24,000 people displaced by the fighting had sought
refuge in and around the western town of Duekoue, located in the Daloa
area about 350 km northwest of Abidjan.

An estimated 32,000 Liberians and 16,000 Ivorians fled to Liberia since
the fighting began in western Cote d'Ivoire on 28 November, according to
UNHCR.

And OCHA reported from Guinea that according to Guinean authorities, about
33,000 people - including some 24,000 Guineans - fleeing the instability
in Cote d'Ivoire crossed the border into Guinea between 27 September and
18 December.  However, it said obtaining complete, reliable data was
difficult because a coherent data-recording system covering all entry
points along the 610-km border between Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire was not
yet in place despite efforts by the Guinean authorities, UN system and
NGOs.

UNHCR planned to evacuate tens of thousands of Liberians trapped by the
fighting in Man, the largest town in the west, and other areas near Cote
d'Ivoire's western border. The UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees
Kamal Morjane said in Geneva on 20 December that UNHCR wanted to take them
to a third country but was negotiating in the meantime with the Ivorian
government to identify an area west of the commercial capital, Abidjan,
where they could be temporarily relocated. UNHCR said it was hard to tell
how many Liberians remained in western Cote d'Ivoire.

The rebels in western Cote d'Ivoire belong to two groups that emerged in
late November, the Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP) and the Ivorian
Popular Movement of the Great West (MPIGO).  MJP and MPIGO met on 23
December with the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI), which
operates mainly in the north and centre of the country, to discuss the
possibility of an alliance. The three rebel groups decided not to create
the alliance right away.

MPCI had been involved in negotiations with the government following a
ceasefire which the rebel group signed on 17 October, just under a month
after a 19 September mutiny marked the start of its insurgency. The
governmental delegation that had been participating in the talks returned
to Cote d'Ivoire last weekend. Delegation head Laurent Dona Fologo said
the talks had failed thus far. He said they had not ended but had been
suspended for the Christmas holidays.

The UN Security Council urged the belligerents, in a statement on 20
December, to resolve the conflict by peaceful means. It condemned all
"attempts to use force to influence the political situation in Cote
d'Ivoire and overthrow the elected government" and expressed concern at
reports of serious human rights violations in the country.

A delegation from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
is currently in Cote d'Ivoire on a one-week fact-finding mission that is
scheduled to end on 30 December. [For IRIN reports on Cote d'Ivoire please
go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Cote_d_Ivoire]

COTE D'IVOIRE: UN Secretary-General appoints humanitarian envoy

UN's Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie was on Friday
designated Secretary-General Kofi Annan's humanitarian envoy for the
crisis in Côte d'Ivoire.

Her appointment came in light of the deteriorating humanitarian situation
in the country and its negative impact on the subregion, UN news reported
a UN spokesman as saying. The spokesman said McAskie's mission would
enhance the profile of the humanitarian effort in Côte d'Ivoire and ensure
that the work of the UN county team was part of a more coherent UN
approach to the crisis. McAskie was expected month beginning 10 January,
UN News added.

LIBERIA: ICRC helps reunite children with families

Nine unaccompanied Liberian children who had been living as refugees in
Tabou, southwestern Cote d'Ivoire, were repatriated on 19 December by the
International Committee families, ICRC reported.

ICRC also said its delegations in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire
had registered hundreds of unaccompanied Liberian minors this year. The
children had been given the opportunity to write brief personal messages
to their families in Liberia for delivery through the Red Cross network.
Each of these messages were usually accompanied by a photograph, ICRC
said.
[For IRIN reports on Liberia, please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Liberia]

NIGERIA: Unexploded ordnance threatens civilians - rights group

Unexploded ordnance continued to threaten lives in the southern oil town
of Odi, three years after it was attacked and destroyed by soldiers, a
Nigerian human rights group, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), said on 23
December.

ERA said a 12-year-old boy was injured in the third week of December when
a rocket exploded while his family was clearing debris from their old
home, Which had been destroyed during the November 1999 attack on Odi. The
group said other residents were equally at risk and called on the Nigerian
authorities to clear the area urgently of all leftover ordnance.

Troops had invaded Odi in December 1999 on the orders of President
Olusegun Obasanjo after armed militants there killed 12 policemen. The
soldiers ransacked the town, destroying every building except a church and
a bank and killing more than 200 people. Obasanjo said afterwards the
soldiers "exceeded their brief" but refused to apologise for the killings.

In a report released last week, Amnesty International said the attack was
one of two incidents in which the Nigerian military acted with impunity
against civilians with the tacit approval of the government. The other was
in October 2001, when reprisal attacks were carried out on villages in the
central state of Benue for the killing of 19 soldiers.
[For IRIN reports on Nigeria please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Nigeria ]

NIGERIA: Election dates set

General elections will be held in Nigeria between 12 April and 3 May 2003,
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced on Friday.

INEC Chairman Abel Guobadia said the election of the federal parliament
would take place on 12 April, to be followed on 19 April by the
presidential poll and state governorship elections. The election of
regional legislatures would be held on 3 May, he said.

INEC has registered 30 political parties for the elections, the highest
number since the presidential system was introduced in Nigeria in 1979.


SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL completes first phase of withdrawal

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) has completed the
first phase its troop withdrawal from Sierra Leone, a UNAMSIL official
confirmed to IRIN on Tuesday. According to the official 600 members of the
military force had returned home by last week in a withdrawal process that
started in October. "The next phase will be effected in January," the
source said.

In September, the UN Security Council decided that the 17,000-member force
would be reduced by 600 soldiers by the end of December and by 4,500 by 31
May 2003. It is expected that by December 2004 only 2,000 peacekeepers
would remain in Sierra Leone.
[For IRIN reports on Sierra Leone please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Sierra
Leone]


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