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

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Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci


WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 173
26 April - 02 May 2003


CONTENTS:

NIGERIA: Oil workers evacuated as hostage crisis ends
TOGO: Olympio barred from presidential elections
COTE D'ÒIVOIRE- LIBERIA: Ceasefire agreementsigned
COTE D'ÒIVOIRE: US $85 million for war victim
LIBERIA: ICG calls for international effort
BURKINA FASO: Meningitis on the decline

NIGERIA: Oil workers evacuated as hostage crisis ends

Helicopters on Friday night began evacuating nearly 300 oil workers whom
striking colleagues had held hostage for 13 days on four oil rigs off the
coast of Nigeria, after a deal secured their release.

Following talks brokered by the umbrella Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), in
the capital, Abuja, all parties to the dispute reached an agreement to
evacuate the rigs immediately and hold further negotiations to resolve
outstanding issues.

The first batch of workers to be brought off the rigs by helicopter landed
in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's southeastern oil industry centre, by 1800
hours GMT, company officials said. Altogether 97 expatriates and 170
Nigerians had been held hostage by the strikers.

The dispute arose after members of the National Union of Petroleum and Gas
Workers Union of Nigeria (NUPENG)union demanded that Nigerian employees be
transported to and from offshore rigs by helicopter, like their expatriate
colleagues, instead of by ship. It escalated after five union leaders were
sacked.

The Nigerian navy sent ships to the area to evacuate the rigs by force if
necessary, but in the end they were not called upon to intervene.

IRIN coverage of Nigeria


TOGO: Olympio barred from presidential elections

Togo's best known opposition leader, Gilchrist Olympio, was declared
ineligible to contest presidential elections on 1 June because of
technical ommissions in his candidacy papers.

On Thursday, Togo's Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) made
public the list of the seven, out of eight, candidates who met all the
criteria to run for the presidency in Togo. Olympio, often referred to as
the "historic opponent" was the only one barred from running for the
polls.

Olympio's party, the Union of Forces for Change, said it planned to appeal
against the electoral body's decision, but added that it did not have much
faith in the judicial system.

IRIN coverage of Togo

COTE D'ÒIVOIRE- LIBERIA: Ceasefire agreementsigned

Representatives of the armed forces of Cote d'ÒIvoire and Liberia, Ivorian
rebels and French and West African peacekeepers agreed on Wednesday to
implement a full cessation of hostilities as a first step towards security
in western Cote d'Ivoire, rendered unsafe by military activity. However,
as at 18:00 GMT/local time on Friday, the agreement had not been
officially signed.

Wednesday'Òs meeting was a follow-up to one held last weekend between
presidents Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d^ÒIvoire and Charles Taylor of Liberia
during which both men agreed on the need to have a joint military presence
to secure their common border, with assistance from West African and
French troops stationed in Cote d'ÒIvoire. In recent weeks, the presence
of government troops of Liberia and Cote d'ÒIvoire, mercenaries and other
fighters has transformed western Cote d'ÒIvoire into a very volatile area.
Civilians and humanitarian workers have been killed and other people have
been kidnapped. Last week Felix Doh, leader of a rebel group based in the
west, the Mouvement Populaire du Grand-Ouest (MPIGO), died in an ambush.

The MPIGO and another western group, the Mouvement pour la Justice et la
Paix (MJP) told IRIN on Friday that they did not recognise Wednesday'Òs
agreement because they were not invited to the meeting. Rebel commander
Ousmane Coulibaly, speaking on behalf of both groups, said: "ÓIf we all
want to work towards peace, I believe the belligerents should have been
present at the meeting."

According to a communique issued by the Ivorian Defence ministry, Gbagbo
and Taylor as well as presidents Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo and John
Kufuor of Ghana still need to approve the final document.


COTE D'ÒIVOIRE: US $85 million for war victim

The United Nations Humanitarian Envoy, Carolyn mcAskie, ended her second
visit to Cote d'ÒIvoire since the beginning of the crisis with an appeal
for US $85 million to international donors for efforts to help millions of
West Africans affected by the Ivorian crisis.

The UN appeal, which would cover needs for the remainder of the year, is
contained in a a 200-page document called theÒ" Consolidated Inter-Agency
Appeal-Cote d'ÒIvoire Plus ^"Ò. According to UN agencies in Cote'd^ÒIvoire
and neighbouring countries, the money is needed to provide life-saving
humanitarian services for about three million people, including 750,000
displaced within Cote d'ÒIvoire and some 400,000 who have sought refuge in
five neighboring countries: Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and Mali.

Tuesday'Òs appeal marked the second such call for funds from the
international community since the beginning of the crisis. An earlier
appeal for $22 million netted only $9 million, mostly for food aid.

One day later, at the UN headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan pleaded for US $48 million to allow the West African
peacekeeping mission to remain in Cote d'ÒIvoire and to increase its size
from 1,200 to over 3,000 troops.

Annan made the plea at a Security Council meeting convened at the request
of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which sent the
foreign ministers of Guinea, Ghana, Cote d'ÒIvoire and Nigeria, along with
ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas to explain the latest
developments in the Ivorian crisis.

Annan also recommended the establishment of a small UN operation in the
county to complement peacekeeping efforts. It would cover military liaison
as well as human rights, civil affairs and media.

IRIN coverage of Cote d^ÒIvoire


LIBERIA: ICG calls for international effort

A concerted international effort is needed to end Liberia'Òs civil war
which once again has the potential to cause chaos across the west African
region, the International Crisis Group said in a new report titled
"ÑTackling Liberia: the eye of the regional stor."

The Brussels-based research group said the international community needed
to go beyond sanctions, embargoes and containment policies because these
had not stopped Liberian President Charles Taylor, in power since 1997,
from backing rebellions beyond his borders and becoming a regional threat.
It accused the Taylor's government of using Ivorian insurgents to fight
the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy.

The ICG also accused the government of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo of
supporting another group of Liberian rebels, which has extended its sphere
of operations westward from the border area. Sources in the Liberian
capital, Monrovia, told IRIN that the new group, the Movement for
Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), captured the strategic town of Greenville on
Saturday and attacked another eastern town, Tappita.

The movement of rebel elements along the border between Liberia and Cote
d'ÒIvoire was a"Ómagnet for mercenaries of many nationalities"^Ô ICG
said.

It said ECOWAS and the international community at large needed to deal
with the "Ógrowing tendency of leaders in West Africa to sponsor
rebellions abroad to protect their positions at home", adding that
"Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia and Cote d'ÒIvoire have all employed rebel
groups either to get rid of their domestic enemies or to remove
neighbouring leaders they do not like."

ICG called for a ceasefire between Liberian pro- and anti-government
forces and the creation of a UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia. Other
recommendations included extending the mandate of the UN expert panel on
Liberia so that it could investigate other West African leaders.

The ICG'Òs report is available www.intl-crisis-group.org

IRIN coverage of Liberia


BURKINA FASO: Meningitis on the decline

Burkina Faso'Òs health officials announced on Thursday that a meningitis
outbreak that has killed more than 1,000 people had begun to show signs of
lessening and that the country was no longer in an "Óepidemci^Ô situation.

Health minister Alain Yoda said the number of new cases reported per week
had declined from 441 to 296, adding that only five districts out of 53 in
the West African nation remained on "Óaler"^Ô with five to eight cases
reported per 100,000 inhabitants. The two million doses that the
government was able to obtain from the World Health Organization had
contributed to the decline, according to the minister. However, they were
only used to vaccinate people in the worst affected areas because the
ministry did not have enough doses to cover the whole country.

IRIN coverage of Burkina Faso


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