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 135
10 - 16 August 2002


CONTENTS:

GHANA: State of emergency extended in northern district
BENIN: Stranded fishermen return from Gabon with IOM help
WEST AFRICA: EC funding for Guinea, Benin in 2002-2007
SIERRA LEONE: Call for war-victims fund; TRC cuts budget; IDPs go home
LIBERIA: Government, rebels claim to hold northern town
COTE D' IVOIRE: Cholera kills 19 since start of the year
NIGERIA: Impeachment threat; militias denounced; women occupy oilfield
NIGER: Human rights advocate jailed
SAHEL: Drought, food insecurity and floods


GHANA: State of emergency extended in northern district

Ghana's parliament on Monday approved a four-week extension of a state of
emergency - including a curfew from 21:00 to 05:00 (local time/GMT) - in a
northern area whose king and 29 other people were killed in March. The
extension was the fourth since the state of emergency was first imposed.
The area it covers includes the town of Yendi, where the king of the
Dagbon traditional area was killed on 27 March, reportedly by members of a
rival clan. The affected area also includes Tamale, Ghana's third largest
town.
[For more on Yendi, see GHANA: IRIN Focus on the Yendi crisis
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29302]

BENIN: Stranded fishermen return from Gabon with IOM help

Some 720 fishermen and their families went back to Benin from Gabon over a
one-week period that ended on 12 August, the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. They returned aboard a Belgian air
force plane that made four trips between Libreville and Cotonou. IOM
partly funded the operation, carried out in cooperation with the
authorities of Benin, Gabon and Belgium.

According to IOM, the fishermen were left homeless after Gabonese
authorities ordered the destruction of the illegal fishing settlements in
which they lived just outside Gabon's capital, Libreville. The authorities
reportedly said the settlements were razed and their occupants evicted to
flush out criminals living there.

[For more information, see BENIN: IOM helps return 720 stranded fishermen
from Gabon http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29320]

WEST AFRICA: EC funding for Guinea, Benin in 2002-2007

The European Commission has announced that it will provide the equivalent
of about US $217 million to Guinea and about US $269 million to Benin
under cooperation programmes covering 2002-2007.

Of the 221 million euros which the EC announced on Tuesday for Guinea, 90
million euros has been earmarked for improvements to roads. About 25
million euros will go towards rural development, including water-related
infrastructure, and 33 million euros will be used for budgetary support.

The five-year package also includes 63 million euros to help cushion
external shocks such as drops in export earnings resulting from falling
prices. Benin will receive 67 million euros for the same purpose out of a
275-million-euro package that the EC announced on 9 August.

Some 208 million euros will go to road transport, health and macroeconomic
and institutional support under that programme, aimed mainly at supporting
Benin's poverty reduction efforts through sustainable economic and social
development and facilitate the country's integration into the world
economy.

[For more information, see
GUINEA: EC to support five-year programme
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29325] and
BENIN: EC announces new cooperation programme
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29326]

SIERRA LEONE:  Call for war-victims fund; TRC reduces budget; IDPs return
home

The Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) urged Sierra Leone's government
this week to create a war-victims fund, one of the institutions provided
for by a peace agreement the government signed with Revolutionary United
Front rebels in 1999 in Lome, Togo.  The Sierra Leonean NGO said in a
statement on Tuesday that this would improve the lives of the target group
and help them to be productive and self-reliant.

The CGG said the plight of some people who suffered as a result of the
war, such as rape victims, was disheartening as they were stigmatized, had
unseen scars, underwent daily psychological torture and often could not
afford proper medical care. Others, such as amputees, were not only
physically handicapped but also unable to cater for their families. The
war-victims fund "therefore is and should be an integral part of any
poverty-alleviation scheme embarked on," the group said.

TRC

Postwar institutions that have already been set up include the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, which announced this week that it had reduced
its 12-month operational budget of US $10 million by at least 25 percent
to accommodate funding gaps.

TRC spokesman Ozonnia Ojielo told IRIN the reduced budget had been
submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for approval
pending the launch of a fresh funding appeal. It included reductions in
staffing and programme activities, he added.

So far the TRC has received only about US $1.5 million, mainly from
international donors. Commissioners have met several donors to request
more support. They have also asked Sierra Leone's President Ahmed Tejan
Kabbah to provide office space and residential accommodation, donate cash,
and help arrange support from various ministries and agencies.

The TRC was established in July and intends to conduct public hearings
from October. It is meant to serve as a forum where both perpetrators and
victims of abuses during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war can "tell their
stories in an effort to heal the wounds of war". It plans to produce an
impartial record of violations of human rights and humanitarian law,
address impunity, help victims, promote healing and reconciliation, and
prevent any repetition of abuses. [See 'SIERRA LEONE: Truth commission
reduces operational budget'
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29317]

Victims of abuses have included journalists who, according to the
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have been targeted by both
government and rebels. CPJ said on Thursday in a special report on Sierra
Leone that 15 reporters were killed in the 10-year war, which ended at the
beginning of 2002. [The report can be read at
http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2002/sierra_leone_aug02/sierra_leone_aug02.ht
ml ]

Displaced ex-refugees go back home

Meanwhile, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) said it had completed the return to their home areas of former
refugees who had stayed in host communities after going back to Sierra
Leone from Guinea.

Between March 2001 and February 2002, UNHCR had helped more than 10,000
returnees to settle in the southern area of Bari Chiefdom. The ex-refugees
had been unable to go back to the eastern districts of Kono and Kailahun
because these were still under rebel control. After security returned to
their areas, they were gradually helped to go back home. UNHCR said the
last group of 269 ex-refugees left Bari Chiefdom for their home areas on 7
August.

[For more information, see SIERRA LEONE: Displaced returnees finally go
home
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29321]

LIBERIA: Government, rebels claim to hold northern town

Liberia's government said on Thursday it had recaptured the northern town
of Voinjama from the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and
Democracy (LURD), which had been using it as a field headquarters, but the
rebels denied losing the Lofa County capital, located 270 km north of the
capital, Monrovia.

Diplomatic sources said the government had driven back the rebels towards
the Guinean and Sierra Leonean borders, and that the two forces were also
fighting in Bong County, which is east of Lofa and also borders on Guinea.

[ See LIBERIA: Voinjama reportedly recaptured by government troops
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29362]
News agencies reported on Friday that the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) was planning to convene a peace meeting on Liberia
that would include President Charles Taylor and the LURD rebels. ECOWAS
Executive Secretary Mohammed Ibn Chambas was quoted as saying the talks
could take place in Dakar, Senegal. [See WEST AFRICA: Liberia peace
meeting planned for Dakar
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29385]
Fighting since 1998 between LURD and pro-government troops has displaced
thousands of Liberians. Helping to protect the displaced is the aim of a
US-$500,000 project linking UNDP and relief groups.

The project hopes to improve camp management, and strengthen systems for
reporting, monitoring and following up rights abuses, UNDP said, adding
that armed groups infiltrating the camps had abused and exploited many
people, especially women and children. The project also aims to promote
awareness of human rights among displaced people and host communities
where camps are located. It would include training government officials,
police and security forces to reinforce the state's ability to spread
understanding of and respect for the civil rights of all citizens.

The project is being carried out by UNDP-Liberia and other bodies,
including NGOs and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA).

[See LIBERIA: Rights initiative to help protect displaced
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29292]

COTE D'IVOIRE: Cholera kills 19 since start of the year

WHO reported this week that 581 people contracted cholera in 11 districts
in Cote d'Ivoire this year, and 19 of them died. The UN agency said on
Tuesday that there had been a marked increase in the incidence of the
disease since July. Local health authorities were implementing measures to
control the outbreak, while the WHO country office has been providing
medical supplies, it said.

[For more see http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29343]

NIGERIA: Impeachment threat; militias denounced; women take over oil
facility

Significant developments in Nigeria this week included a threat by the
lower house of parliament to impeach President Olusegun Obasanjo, a
meeting in central Nigeria on ways to end communal violence, and the
occupation by women in the west of the Niger Delta of an oil facility.

Impeachment threat

Nigeria's House of Representatives passed a motion on Tuesday calling on
Obasanjo to resign within two weeks or face impeachment. A spokesman for
the president said he would not heed the motion, which was moved by an
opposition party but supported by some parliamentarians from the ruling
People's Democratic Party (PDP). A PDP spokesman later said the party was
determined to impose discipline and punish members who supported the
motion, which was the latest twist in a prolonged power struggle between
Obasanjo and the legislature.
[For more information see NIGERIA: Obasanjo asked to resign or face
impeachment - http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29331]
NIGERIA: Obasanjo rejects resign-or-be-impeached ultimatum -
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29361]  and
NIGERIA: Focus on challenges to the cohesion of the state
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29002]

Militias denounced at meeting on communal violence

Participants in a meeting held on 12 August to discuss ways to end a year
of ethnic and religious turbulence in central Nigeria's Plateau State
denounced the emergence of militia groups as a factor that fuelled
conflict.

The meeting in the state capital, Jos, was organised by the governor of
Plateau State and attended by more than 80 participants who included
government officials, politicians, human rights activists, traditional and
religious leaders and members of affected communities. Participants called
for tolerance among the various ethnic communities in the state in order
to reduce the sort of friction that has often led to violence.

There has been intermittent inter-communal fighting in Plateau State since
September 2001, when ethnic and religious clashes between Muslims and
Christians Jos resulted in the loss of over 1,000 lives.
[For more information see NIGERIA: Plateau peace meeting denounces
militias -
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29294 ]

Women occupy oilfield

A new trend in the ongoing conflict between impoverished local communities
in southern Nigeria and oil transnationals continued this week with the
occupation of a ChevronTexaco oilfield in the southern state of Ondo by
women from the Ilaje community. A similar move in July in communities
farther to the east marked the first time women as a group had joined in
the occupation of oil facilities in Nigeria's Niger Delta region.
[For more, see 'NIGERIA: Oil transnational faces fresh protests by women'
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29379] and

'NIGERIA: IRIN Focus on the growing role of women in oil region crisis'
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29386 ]

NIGER: Human rights advocate jailed

A leading human rights advocate in Niger was jailed this week for
questioning the official death toll of clashes between mutineers and loyal
soldiers earlier this month. El Hadj Bagnou Bonkoukou, head of the Ligue
nigerienne des droits de l'homme (LNDDH), was arrested on Wednesday and
remanded into custody on Friday by a court in the capital, Niamey.

The government has accused him of divulging information that could
jeopardise national defence operations. On Tuesday, he had said that many
people had died in clashes between mutineers and loyalist forces as the
latter put down a mutiny that lasted from 31 July to 9 August in the
eastern region of Diffa and an attempted mutiny in Niamey. The official
death toll was two. El Hadj Bagnou had also asked the government to allow
the International Federation of Human Rights to carry out an
investigation.

On Friday, civil society organisations condemned his arrest, demanded his
liberation and denounced a presidential decree by virtue of which he was
arrested. The decree, promulgated on 5 August, bans the propagation of
information or allegations that could jeopardise national defence
operations.

Earlier in the week, NGOs and opposition groups had called on Niger's
government to  look into the root causes of the mutiny, including the
"precarious situation in which Niger's soldiers live."  Soldiers, the
NGOs said in a communiqué on 11 August, were also among the "victims of
the anti-social laws dictated by the Bretton Woods institutions".

[See 'NIGER: Human rights advocate detained'
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29388 ]
[See 'NIGER: Look into root causes of mutiny, NGOs and opposition urge'
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29297 ]

SAHEL: Drought, food insecurity and floods

Various sources this week reported droughts and food insecurity in parts
of West Africa's Sahelian region ' the area just south of the Sahara.

Livestock dying in Mauritania

World Vision International (WVI) said in a news release that hundreds of
thousands of people were threatened by "a record breaking drought" in the
Sahel, especially in Mauritania and Senegal, where livestock were already
dying and crops had been lost. It said Mauritania was the worst hit and
that even if it rained, the best that could be hoped for was a 40-percent
loss in crop production.

Little rain in Senegal

In Senegal, areas that usually received 24 inches of rain per year had
received only five inches as at Monday, WVI said, adding that government
and farmers throughout the country had expressed concern over the
"menacing" situation. Last week, a national day of prayer for rain was
held.

Sources at the World Food Programme's regional office in Dakar, Senegal,
told IRIN last week that other countries, including Niger, Burkina Faso,
Mali, had also received poor rainfall and that WFP had sent a team of
experts to assess the situation and formulate a response strategy.

Delayed sowing and food insecurity in Niger

In Niger, insufficient rainfall had prevented farmers from sowing their
crops in 619 villages as at 31 July, the Regional Centre for Training and
Application in Agrometeorology and Operational Hydrology (AGHRYMET Centre)
in Niamey reported in its latest bulletin. The worst affected areas were
in the east and west of the country.

AGRHYMET said there had been an increase in the prices of basic food
items, especially in Niamey and major towns in the affected areas. The
price of a 100-kg bag of millet, for example, had risen from 13,000 CFA
francs at the start of the year to between 20,000 and 25,000 CFA in these
towns. (US $1 is equivalent to 670 CFA francs).

Niger's Early Warning and Disaster Management Service declared many areas
food insecure, saying that some people were eating their emergency grain
stocks or had been reduced to one meal a day. In its latest monthly
bulletin, the service said there was an increase in malnutrition among
children under five years of age in the affected zones. In some villages,
entire families had migrated.

Niger declared a grain surplus of 297,000 mt at the last harvest and
officials blame the current shortages on hoarding as well as trade
liberalization, which boosted grain exports but led to an irregular supply
on the local market.

Flash flood kills four in northern Niger

National radio in Niger reported this week that four people died between 9
and 10 August when heavy rains caused a seasonal river to overflow,
damaging about 250 huts and houses made of baked mud in the northern town
of Agadez. On 24 July, five persons had died in Agadez when heavy rains
caused a wall to collapse on them.

[See MAURITANIA-SENEGAL: Hundreds of thousands threatened by drought, says
World Vision International
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29345 and NIGER: Floods,
drought and food insecurity reported
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29314 ]


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