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 163
15 - 21 February 2003


CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: Refugees fear for safety, fighting continues in the west
LIBERIA: Fighting resumes around Monrovia
GUINEA-BISSAU: Opposition leaders and human rights official released
NIGERIA: Fresh spill reported in Ogoniland
MAURITANIA: US $300,000 from OPEC for food aid
BURKINA FASO: Meningitis kills 401 since October
LIBERIA: World Vision distributes food to IDPs


COTE D'IVOIRE: Refugees fear for safety, fighting continues in the west

A group of Liberians demonstrated in front of the Abidjan offices of the
UN High Commissioner pressing the agency to evacuate them to a new host
country, saying their security was no longer guaranteed in Cote d'Ivoire.

In the last week, Liberian refugees, who make up the largest refugee
community in the country, have publicly displayed their frustrations
saying they are harassed, intimidated and suffer other unlawful acts from
security agents and some locals. They want the UN refugee agency to
evacuate them to a safer country. The growing animosity towards Liberian
refugees stems from the fact that some Liberian mercenaries have fought in
the current Ivorian crisis alongside the insurgents.

UNHCR has so far failed to get Cote d'Ivoire's neighbours or any other
African country to host the refugees, who number some 40,000 including
7,000 refugees who live in the Nicla camp in Guiglo, near the western
frontline.

On Thursday, Amnesty International rallied to the cause of the refugees,
urging the Ivorian authorities and UNHCR to find a solution. In the
meantime, the UN refugee agency continued its voluntary repatriation
programme back to Liberia. So far more than 2,000 Liberians have returned
with UNHCR assistance.

However on Wednesday as the French capital Paris played host to this
year's France-Africa Summit, fighting broke out in the central-western
town of Zuenoula between the national army and fighters of the main rebel
group, the Patriotic Movement for Cote d'Ivoire. According to the Ivorian
national army, 10 soldiers were wounded while one was missing.

Army spokesman Lt-Col Jules Yao-Yao had said this week that the army could
accept the rebels to participate in a new government "if that was the
price to pay for peace" in the country. He however said the army would
prefer that the defence and interior ministries be given to some "neutral"
persons rather than the rebels.

Contention over the composition of a new government has raised protest on
both sides. Government supporters have said that they cannot accept rebels
to sit in government, much less control the national security ministries.
The MPCI insists that these two ministries had been promised to them in
Paris in late January and they would not renegotiate them.

On Wednesday, President Laurent Gbagbo met with the military commanders of
the national army and the French and West African armies to iron out some
misunderstandings that had been circulating in the press in the capital
which accused the French soldiers of, among other things, spying on the
Ivorian government and aiding the rebels. "Let the French soldiers do
their job", Gbagbo said, adding that they were not supporting the
rebellion. France has deployed about 3,000 soldiers for the protection of
its citizens and ensure respect for the ceasefire.

Also on Wednesday, a group of "Young Patriots" demonstrated in front of
the military base in Abidjan, contradicting a government directive that
suspended it. According to youth leader Charles Ble Goude, the
demonstration went ahead to show the world that in Cote d'Ivoire there
existed a public opinion that could express itself regardless of what the
authorities say.

For detailed IRIN coverage of the Ivorian crisis go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Cote_d_Ivoire

LIBERIA: Fighting resumes around Monrovia

Since the resumption of fighting between Liberia's national army and the
Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), over 7,000
people have fled to neighbouring Sierra Leone. The fighting spread last
week to previously unaffected towns, some of them fairly close to the
capital, Monrovia.

Several new fronts, according to the Defence Ministry had opened in recent
days. However the government had been able to flush LURD fighters from
some areas and reinforced security around Monrovia through deployment of
more troops and "stop and search" operations.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs this week said
the new movement of displaced people could complicate the situation in
Sierra Leone.

According to internally displaced persons, local militias loyal to the
government entered IDP camps in an attempt to enroll civilians. In other
news, the United Nations has re-appointed a four-member expert panel to
review Liberia's compliance with sanctions imposed in 2001.

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

GUINEA-BISSAU: Opposition leaders, human rights official released

After Monday's release from detention of six opposition activists by
Guinea-Bissau President Kumba Iala, human rights defender, Joao Vaz Mane,
was released on Wednesday after three weeks in detention. In recent weeks,
the government had clamped down on opposition activists and critics, as
political tension mounts in the run-up to parliamentary elections.

Government critics have said that the current climate was not conducive to
holding transparent elections.

On Thursday, an official of the National Electoral Commission cast a doubt
on the elections being held on time on 20 April, citing a lack of
"physical conditions", Portuguese news site Lusa reported on Thursday.
According to Lusa, some opposition leaders were adamant in maintaining the
proposed date.

The major opposition parties last week formed a coalition against the
ruling Social Renovation Party of President Iala. But on Wednesday, a
presidential aide accused the opposition of holding "secret meetings" in
the aim of destabilising the country and said they would not be tolerated.

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

NIGERIA: Fresh spill reported in Ogoniland

An explosion at an abandoned oil well belonging to oil transnational giant
Shell has created a major oil spill in the Ogoni ethnic minority area of
Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, local rights activists said on
Thursday.

The activists of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP)
said the spill was heralded by an explosion on Tuesday night in Shell's
abandoned Yorla oil field.

Residents of nearby Kpaen community who got to the site at dawn, said they
found a ruptured wellhead spraying a combination of crude oil, gas and
water, polluting adjoining farmlands and creeks.

"It is a major spill and our immediate concern is how to contain the
situation," Ledum Mitee, MOSOP president, told IRIN.

Shell officials confirmed the incident but said the broken wellhead was
capped by its engineers late on Wednesday. Arrangements were now being
made to clean up the spill and remedy the environment, the company said in
a statement.

Shell pulled out of the Ogoni area in 1993 in the face of local hostility
in the wake of a campaign waged by MOSOP accusing the company of
environmental pollution and human rights violations in collusion with
Nigeria's then military rulers.

MOSOP founder, Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer and environmentalist, was hanged
with eight other Ogoni activists in 1995 on the orders of late military
ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha. The execution was followed by what was widely
considered a flawed trial on murder charges, and the international outrage
it elicited put the Ogoni cause on the world map.

Shell said in its statement it was seeking negotiations with Ogoni leaders
to enable it return to the area to service and secure their long-abandoned
facilities. A similar oil spill in 2001 left large tracts of land, streams
and creeks polluted.


MAURITANIA: US $300,000 from OPEC for food aid

The OPEC Fund for International Development has donated US $300,000 to the
World Food Programme to help the agency purchase and deliver emergency
food ratios to hundreds of thousands of Mauritanians threatened with
starvation after three consecutive years of drought, WFP announced on
Monday.

Some 420,000 people are threatened with food shortage as Mauritania stands
as the worst hit country in West Africa's Sahel region. Cape Verde, The
Gambia, Mali and Senegal have also recorded pockets of food shortages. The
OPEC donation raised to 10 percent the amount of contributions confirmed
to the agency in response to a $28 million appeal for the region, the food
agency said.

For IRIN stories on the Mauritanian food crisis go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Mauritania

BURKINA FASO: Meningitis kills 401 since October

Meningitis has killed 401 people out of 2433 cases in Burkina Faso since
the beginning of the 2002-2003 meningitis season in late October,
Souleymane Sanou, head of meningitis control in the health ministry said
on Thursday.

Sanou, speaking in an interview on the national radio, said analyses of
the cases show persistance of the new W135 meningitis strain which was
first reported a year ago. Before that time, Burkina Faso was only
affected by the A and C strains.

Five health districts out of 53 in the country, had been declared
meningitis epidemic areas, the official said. These included Batie in the
Southwest, Manga, Po in the south Pama and Diapaga in the east. Each of
these districts had reported 10 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

"They are epidemic spots and we are undertaking in the next days a
reactive vaccination of people in affected areas," Sanou said. Some
150,000 doses of the 500,000 trivalent (A,C,W135) vaccine doses sent last
week by the World Health Organization (WHO) to contain the epidemic would
be allocated to these areas, he added.

He added that the decision by the government to resort to "reactive
vaccination" was due to the limited quantity of vaccine doses available,
which would not be enough to conduct a preventive campaign for Burkina
Faso's 11 million people.

In December the government requested the WHO to assist with enough W135
vaccine doses to face any meningitis upsurge when first cases appeared.
WHO was able to secure 500,000 doses for Burkina out of three million for
all the countries of the African meningitis belt which range from Ethiopia
in the east to Senegal in the west.

The new W135 meningitis strain has killed 1474 persons out of 12794 cases
in Burkina Faso since last year.

Officials said 40 percent of the population carry the meningitis strain
but it particularly fatally affects those with weak body systems.

Meningitis is a disease whose symptoms include nausea and headache and
which can progress rapidly to cause serious neurological damage, deafness,
coma and death. Unless it is treated quickly, up to half of those infected
die. Even with treatment, as many as 20 percent of patients do not
survive.

LIBERIA: World Vision distributes food to IDPs

World Vision Liberia has commenced distribution of World Food Programme
(WFP) food to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in three camps in
Montserrado County, World Vision reported on Thursday.

The food consists of bulgur wheat, peas, vegetable oil and salt. It is
being distributed to 23,295 displaced families in Sawegbeh, VOA-1 and
Zuannah town camps.

World Vision Switzerland provided a matching fund of US $54,000 towards
defraying the operational cost of $75,000 for the six-month food aid
project, while Taiwan contributed $2,000. WFP would cover additional costs
of transporting, storing and handling the food.

World Vision's commodity officer, Andrew Omwenga, said so far the
distribution had gone on smoothly. The Liberia Refugee, Repatriation and
Resettlement Commission, which oversees emergency relief work in the
country, commended World Vision Liberia for the distribution.

Omwenga however appealed for additional food and urged donors to increase
their funding to enable humanitarian agencies to prepare adequately for
anticipated influxes of IDPs fleeing into the camps from renewed rebel
attacks in parts of the country.


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Email: IRIN-WA@irin.ci

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