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 180
14 - 20 June 2003


CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Ceasefire signed
COTE D'IVOIRE: Parties set to disarm and exchange prisoners
GUINEA-BISSAU: Parliamentary elections delayed yet again
NIGERIA: University teachers end six months

LIBERIA: Ceasefire signed

The Liberian government of President Charles Taylor and two armed
movements, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD)
and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), on Tuesday signed a
ceasefire agreement aimed at stopping violent fighting and paving way for
peace negotiations on the war-torn country's political future.

The signing, in the Ghanaian capital Accra, concluded a first phase of
talks aimed at establishing a ceasefire as a prerequisite to any further
talks about Liberia. The ceasefire went into effect at 1:00 GMT on
Wednesday. However on the same day LURD and MODEL accused the government
of violating the accord, accusations which were denied by Liberian
Information Minister Reginald Goodridge. On Thursday, diplomats attending
the Accra talks said the ceasefire was holding and that reported
skirmished were "the nature of ceasefires".

A ceasefire verification team is expected to travel to the capital
Monrovia, where fighting at one point had reached within five km of the
city centre. Monitoring and humanitarian assessment teams will travel to
the country in the coming weeks to appraise, among other things, the
population's needs, particularly the thousands of displaced people who had
been forced to flee their camps on the outskirts of the capital.

Humanitarian agencies, such as Save The Children Fund, the Red Cross and
World Vision announced this week that they would resume soon resume aid to
the needy populations. This week the governments of Ghana and Nigeria
evacuated their nationals from Liberia which has been in the throws of war
since 1989.

For IRIN coverage of Liberia, please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Liberia

COTE D'IVOIRE: Parties set to disarm and exchange prisoners

Another step towards peace in Cote d'Ivoire was taken this week as
representatives of the national army and rebel forces agreed to restrict
their fighters and to release prisoners of wars held since the conflict
started in September 2002.

In a meeting held in the Ivorian capital Yamoussoukro, the two sides
agreed to release the POWs after they had exchanged lists of captives.

Military sources said that the process of confining troops would not
actually begin until political decisions had been taken by the government
of President Laurent Gbagbo and rebels to make available the necessary
resources, such as transport, accommodation and food supplies.
Disarmament, which is expected after the quartering phase has concluded,
would be difficult to embark without the government granting amnesty to
those who took up arms for the rebel cause, military sources said this
week.

In total, 17 sites have been selected to confine the fighters can be
confined, nine for the rebels in rebel-head areas and eight in
government-controlled areas.

After a special cabinet meeting held on Monday, an official statement
announced that each ministry would send a team of officials to visit
rebel-held areas with a view to re-establishing state authority in these
areas.

For IRIN coverage of Cote d'Ivoire please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Cote_d_Ivoire

GUINEA-BISSAU: Parliamentary elections delayed yet again

The president of Guinea-Bissau has admitted that delayed parliamentary
elections due on July 6 will have to be postponed again, probably until
August or September, because the process of updating the electoral roll
has not yet been completed.

President Kumba Yala announced the widely expected delay to journalists as
he left for Lome on Thursday to attend the inauguration of Togolese
President Gnassingbe Eyadema for a further five-year term.

He did not give an exact date for the elections, which have now been
delayed three times. Portuguese state radio and Agence France Presse both
quoted Kumba Yala as saying that would depend on how soon the voter
registration process was completed.

The president had come under heavy pressure from opposition parties and
foreign donors to delay the election yet again to ensure that the poll was
efficiently organised, free and fair.

He dissolved the parliament of this small West African country in November
and called elections for February 23. But the date was subsequently put
back to April 20 and then July 6.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council appealed to Yala to "ensure the
transparency and credibility of forthcoming legislative elections" after
hearing from David Stephen, the senior UN official in Guinea-Bissau, that
it was not technically feasible for the vote to take place on July 6 as
planned.

Earlier this month, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed concern that
Guinea-Bissau had "embarked on a downward course." The cash-strapped
government owes several months of pay arrears to the army and civil
service. The president has made a series of abrupt changes to his
ministerial team amid rumblings from the armed forces. And the country's
supreme court has been without a president or vice-president for months.

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

NIGERIA: University teachers end six-month strike

Nigerian university lecturers ended on Monday a six-month strike they had
launched to demand improved government funding of education.

University lecturers went on strike in December, accusing the government
of President Olusegun Obasanjo of reneging on a June 2001 agreement to
improve the level of funding for education in general and universities in
particular. The strike was launched to protest a cut from 11.2 percent of
total government spending in 1999 to just 1.8 percent this year. UNESCO
recommends that education should account for 26 percent of government
spending.

Obasanjo has in turn accused the university professionals of making
unreasonable demands, saying that their demands would cost about US $3.3
billion of half of Nigeria's entire annual budget.

For IRIN coverage of Nigeria please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Nigeria


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