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 200
1 - 7 November 2003


CONTENTS:

MAURITANIA: Presidential elections held
CHAD: Four executed by firing squad
COTE D'IVOIRE: More violence in the west
GUINEA: Rights group says Guinea flouted embargo
LIBERIA: Peacekeepers open major highway to the north
MALI: World Bank funds energy sector
NIGERIA: Five policemen killed by sea pirates 
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: AFP journalist held
GAMBIA: More children dying despite anti-malaria campaign
CAMEROON: Airline grounded as top officials are dismissed
SENEGAL: Protest against growing political violence
SIERRA LEONE: Evidence of marked progress in human rights


MAURITANIA: Presidential elections held
 
Over 1.1 million Mauritanians were expected to vote in presidential
elections on Friday. On the eve of the polls, Mohamed Khouna Ould
Haidalla, the main opposition challenger to President Maaouiya Ould
Sid'Ahmed Taya, was briefly detained by police following government
allegations that he was plotting a coup against Ould Taya.

Ould Haidalla, 72, is a former army colonel who was military head of state
from 1980 until 1984. He was overthrown by Ould Taya in a bloodless coup,
but is seeking a comeback through the ballot box with a powerful call for
change at the top. Ould Taya, 70, is seeking a further six-year term after
being in power for 19 years.

The polls opened at 0700 GMT on Friday and were due to close 12 hours
later. The first official results from the election are expected on
Monday. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the votes cast, a
second round run-off between the two front runners will be held on 21
November.

Besides Ould Haidalla, the main opposition candidates were Messoud Ould
Boulkheir, a representative of the Harratin black Moorish community and
Ahmed Ould Abdallah, a half-brother of the country's first president,
Moktar Ould Daddah, who died last month. For the first time in Mauritania,
a woman, Aicha Mint Jedane, was running for presidency.

On Wednesday, police used teargas to break up an opposition demonstration
in the capital, Nouakchott. Several hundred demonstrators had gathered for
a protest march called by the three main opposition leaders. Police said
the authorities received no notification about the march, which was held
in protest against a police raid on the home of presidential candidate,
Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah.

Mauritania, a desert-country, gained independence from France in 1960. It
has 2.5 million inhabitants living in over one million sq.km. In 1981, it
abolished slavery and 10 years later adopted Islam as the official state
religion. Its military has played a key role in politics since its first
president, Moktar Ould Daddah, was overthrown in a 1978 coup.

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


CHAD: Four executed by firing squad

Chad executed four men sentenced to death for the murder of a Sudanese
businessman by a firing squad on Thursday in the capital N'Djamena. It was
the first official execution to take place in the land-locked central
African country since 1991 and was immediately condemned by the Chadian
League of Human Rights (LTDH).

Dobian Assinger, LTDH president told IRIN by telephone that the four men
were sentenced to death on 25 October after a three-day trial and were
denied the right to appeal. President Idriss Deby ignored a plea to
commute the sentences which was sent to him by human rights activists and
lawyers on 30 October, he added.

For the full story go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37687&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CHAD


COTE D'IVOIRE: More violence reported in the west

Further reports of violence and lawlessness emerged from the interior of
Cote d'Ivoire on Thursday. A spokesman for the 4,000-strong French
peacekeeping force in the country told IRIN that four people were found
shot dead with their hands tied behind their back near the government-held
town of Bangolo, 500 km west of Abidjan. Bangolo is close to the front
line with rebel forces that occupy the north of the country.

Eyewitnesses in the rebel-held north said another 14 people were shot dead
in four days of fighting between rival factions of the rebel movement in
the northern town of Ferkessedougou, near the frontier with Burkina Faso.

Between Saturday and Monday about 500 immigrant cocoa farmers in Gagnoa,
were forced by gangs of youths to abandon their farms after refusing to
join local cooperatives which would have paid them a low price for their
beans.

The developments came ahead of a special summit of the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS) in the Ghanaian capital Accra next
Tuesday, to discuss the Ivorian crisis. President Gbagbo, Ivorian
opposition leaders and the leaders of the "New Forces" rebel movement in
the north are all due to attend the meeting.

The rebels joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in
April, but withdrew their nine ministers from its 41-member cabinet on 23
September in protest at Gbagbo's failure to delegate meaningful powers to
the government.

The Burkina Faso President, Blaise Compaoré, will attend the extraordinary
ECOWAS summit on Cote d'Ivoire. The meeting follows weeks of intense
diplomacy, during which Ivorian political and rebel leaders visited
President John Kufuor in Accra, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in
Abuja and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in Dakar.

Cote d'Ivoire has faced political problems since September 2002 when
mutinous soldiers staged a coup attempt. The rebel soldiers retreated,
seizing control of the north and west of the country. In January, they
signed a French-brokered peace agreement which President Laurent Gbagbo
acknowledged and joined a broad-based government of national
reconciliation in April.

Meanwhile, Japan announced a 1.4 billion FCFA (US $2.5 million) grant to
help Cote d'Ivoire establish a permanent schools-feeding programme that
will enable thousands of poor children in rural areas to get a hot meal at
lunchtime.

The school-feeding programme, which is backed by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) would
involve the use the fast-growing New Rice for Africa (NERICA) rice, which
can be cultivated with less fertiliser and chemicals.

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


GUINEA: Rights group says Guinea flouted arms embargo

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Guinea of violating a United Nations arms
embargo on Liberia by supplying weapons to Liberian rebels who launched
intensive attacks on the capital, Monrovia, in July. In a paper titled:
'Weapons Sanctions, Military Supplies and Human Suffering: Illegal Arms
flow to Liberia and the June-July 2003 shelling of Monrovia', HRW said the
rebels indiscriminately shelled civilian areas, killing scores of them and
injuring at least 2,000 others.

The paper was released a day before the UN Security Council discussed a
report by a UN panel of experts investigating sanctions-bursting in
Liberia. HRW said it investigated the supply of the mortar rounds fired by
LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy), and found that
the rebel offensive was possible only because fresh arms supplies arrived
through Guinea.

Guinea's Ministry of Defence, it said, ordered mortars and other
ammunition from Iran and arranged their onward transport to LURD. "Guinea
has blood on its hands," Lisa Misol, arms researcher with HRW said. "By
supplying munitions to the Liberian rebels, it not only breached an arms
embargo, but also became an accomplice in egregious violations of the laws
of war."

Meanwhile Guinea's ruling Party for Unity and Progress (PUP) scoffed at
opposition parties for deciding to boycott December's elections. It also
dismissed an announcement by the European Union that it would neither
finance the election nor send observers to witness it.

On Monday, Guinea's eight-party opposition coalition, the Republican Front
for Democratic Change (FRAD), had announced the boycott saying the 21
December elections were illegal. The boycott leaves incumbent President
Lansana Conte, who is seeking another seven-year term after 19 years in
office, without a serious opponent.

Last weekend, Conté warned would-be coup-makers in the Guinean army to
give up any ambitions they might have to take power. The president told
his audience, which was largely made up of men and women in uniform, that
'small noises of a soldier president' had begun making the rounds at Camp
Alimamay Samoury, the military headquarters, where his office is located.

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


LIBERIA: Peacekeepers open major highway to the north

UN peacekeepers in Liberia opened the main highway leading from the
capital, Monrovia, to Sanniquelle, the provincial headquarters of Nimba
county in northern Liberia near the border with Guinea and Ivory Coast.

The Force Commander General Daniel Opande said the UN peacekeepers (UNMIL)
negotiated the reopening of the highway with both former government and
LURD fighters, both of whom had occupied it. The road provides easy access
from Monrovia to the border points of the Guinean Forest region and
northwestern Ivory Coast.

"It is now opened, you can drive freely and go to Sanniquelle and come
back...we have traveled on the route all the way from Sanniquelle and
Ganta. The first of the civilians who wanted to go their way, were on this
route on Monday," he said.

On Thursday, the Special Representative of the United nations Secretary
General for Liberia, Jacques Paul Klein, warned Liberian warring factions
against continuing to fight against each other and committing atrocities
against civilians. The warning followed reports of skirmishes since last
week in the eastern parts of Nimba County, near the border with Cote
d'Ivoire, between former government militias and fighters belonging to
Liberia's second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia
(MODEL).

"Recent skirmishes constitute grave violations of the Liberian Ceasefire
Agreement of 17 June 2003, and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed
by all parties in Accra on 18 August 2003," Klein said in a statement.

Meanwhile the International Crisis Group (ICG), warned that the period
from now until the start of disarmament in Liberia was the most critical
part of the war-ravaged country's peace-process. In a report released on
Monday, "Liberia: Security Challenges", the ICG said UNMIL, which should
see the deployment of 15,000 peacekeeping troops, needed to be urgently
supported to establish its presence throughout the country, especially in
turbulent areas like the northern Nimba county.

The UN plans to start demobilising and disarming the estimated 38,000
former combatants in Liberia's civil war in early December. By January
2004, UNMIL aims to open four cantonment sites, where up to 1,000 fighters
at a time would surrender their weapons and undergo a three-week screening
process. They would then be discharged, receive an undisclosed sum of
money and be passed on to other UN agencies which would supervise their
rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

In a related development, schools in and around the Liberian capital
Monrovia reopened on Monday for the first time in five months as the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) launched a "Back to school"
campaign targeting 750,000 children. Before the campaign, UNICEF
distributed "School-in-a-box" kits containing blackboards, chalk, exercise
books, pens, registration sheets, and other teaching materials.

Launching the campaign in Kingsville, 30 km north of Monrovia, Gyude
Bryant, the chairman (president) of Liberia's new transitional government,
said: "We are concerned that the education of our children and young
people offers a better prospect for a secure and stable Liberia."

UNICEF regional director for West and central Africa, Rima Salah, who was
in Liberia for the launch said in a statement: "We know that a child who
goes to school is a child who doest not go war. A child who goes to school
is a child who is protected against abuse and discrimination."

The campaign aims to eventually train 20,000 teachers and rehabilitate
3,700 schools across the country. Each school-in-a-box kit contains enough
materials for 80 children.

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


MALI: World Bank funds energy sector

The World Bank announced a US $40 million grant to Mali to improve access
to energy sources by the population. It will be channeled through the
Household Energy and Universal Access Project (HEURA) to accelerate the
use of modern energy services in rural and peri-urban areas of the
country, improve health and education and increase the productivity of
small and medium enterprises. Less than 10 percent of Malians have access
to electricity. The energy sector is mostly based on traditional fuels and
relies on unsustainable use of fuel-wood.

Meanwhile three journalists from an independent radio station in Ségou
were detained 10 days after being accused of defaming the local judiciary.
The director of 'Sido' radio, Mamatou Traoré, his assistant Chérif Haidara
and political analyst Katah Bah, were put in custody on 24 October after
the station criticised a court ruling against a village association which
had been in dispute with the Agricultural Bank of Mali (BNDA).

The case has been taken up by Mali's Higher Council of Communication
(CSC). The CSC's President, Moussa Keita, who said he had been in Ségou,
outlining his concerns to the authorities, said the arrests represented "a
serious abuse which signals a setback for press freedom in Mali", adding
that the detainees had been penalised "for simply practising their
profession".

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

NIGERIA: Five policemen killed by sea pirates

Five Nigerian policemen died when their patrol boat was attacked by sea
pirates in the southern Niger Delta on Tuesday. The police boat on an
anti-piracy patrol on River Nun in Bayelsa State was ambushed in the
morning, a police official in the state capital, Yenagoa said.

Dozens of people, including 12 policemen, have been killed this year in a
spate of pirate attacks in the waterways of Baylesa (part of the oil-rich
Niger Delta), which have severely disrupted river transport. The frequent
attacks have forced boat drivers off the worst stricken waterways
including River Nun, Forcados River and Tungbo Creek, crippling economic
activities in the area.

Meanwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed the head of the state
company which oversees Nigeria's oil industry on Monday. No reason was
given for the dismissal, which was announced in a terse government
statement.

Jackson Gaius-Obaseki was appointed group managing director of the Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) after Obasanjo won a four-year term
in 1999. He has been replaced with Funso Kupolokun, who has been a special
assistant to Obasanjo on petroleum industry matters. Obasanjo also named
Edmund Daukoru as his special adviser on petroleum and energy. Daukoru, a
former head of NNPC, replaces Rilwanu Lukman (the former secretary general
of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) who resigned on 1
November.

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


EQUATORIAL GUINEA: AFP journalist held

Rodrigo Angue Ngueme, the correspondent for the French news agency, Agence
France Presse (AFP) in Equatorial Guinea was arrested on Monday, days
after the government issued a strong statement denying rumours of a
possible coup plot. It accused foreign news agencies of spreading false
stories, which were "the fruits of their imagination".

Malabo's human rights record has been criticised in the past by media
watchdogs and human rights organisations. A Special Rapporteur of the UN's
Commission on Human Rights, Ambeyi Ligabo, went to Malabo in December 2002
to asses the human rights situation and the levels of press freedom. On
his return to New York, Ligabo called for a "parallel improvement in the
realisation of the whole spectrum of human rights" to accompany Equatorial
Guinea's oil-backed economic growth.

For the full story go:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37641&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=EQUATORIAL_GUINEA

GAMBIA: More children dying despite anti-malaria campaign

Health experts in the Gambia warned that more children were dying from
malaria despite an intensive campaign against the disease, that includes
the provision of heavily subsidised anti-malaria drugs by the government.
Mamo Jawla, Manager of the Gambia National Malaria Control Programme, said
that up to 2,000 children were dying each year of malaria, making it the
main cause of infant mortality.

The death rate, he said, increased with the rainy season that runs from
early June to the end of October in this tiny West African country of 1.3
million people. The rains fill up streams and rivers in the Gambian
interior and the extensive swamps around the capital, Banjul, where
mosquitoes which spread malaria breed.

For the full story go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37652&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GAMBIA


CAMEROON: Airline grounded as top officials are dismissed

Cameroon Airlines which is commonly known as Cam Air, cancelled all
flights without warning on Saturday, leaving thousands of passengers
stranded in cities across West Africa.

The national carrier, which has for years suffered from repeated economic
crises which have grounded its fleet on a number of occasions, is thought
to have failed to pay insurance premiums and staff salaries. Government
reacted by dismissing the managing director and company president. They
were replaced by two former ministers.

For the full story go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37620&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CAMEROON


SENEGAL: Protest against growing political violence

Several thousand people marched through the centre of Dakar on Thursday to
protest at several recent acts of political violence, which they said have
gone unpunished. The protest, organised by opposition leaders, trade
unionists and human rights activists, was triggered off by an attack on
outspoken opposition leader Talla Sylla on 5 October.

"We are marching against the generalised atmosphere of impunity, the
shortcomings of the state on security matters. It is unacceptable that,
with three years to go before the next elections, there should be
political violence," Ousmane Tanor, leader of the opposition Senegalese
Socialist Party said.

Senegal enjoys a reputation as one of the most tolerant and democratic
countries in Africa. It has had a stable multi-party political system
since independence from France in 1960.

For the full story go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37694&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=SENEGAL


SIERRA LEONE: Evidence of marked progress in human rights

The human rights situation in Sierra Leone has improved significantly over
the past one year, but the country still faces considerable challenges
such as punishing offenders of past and ongoing human rights abuses, a
report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR) released on Wednesday said.

It said concerns existed about the capacity of the armed forces and police
to provide security and protect the country, adding that instability in
neighbouring Liberia was an internal security risk factor for Sierra Leone
"which should not be underestimated". The report looks at gender-based
violence and women's rights, refugees, returnees and displaced people, and
examines charges against the Revolutionary United Front which committed
grave human rights violations during a 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone.

For the full story go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37695&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=SIERRA_LEONE


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Fax: +225 22-41-9339
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