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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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 208
27 December 2003 - 02 January 2004


CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: French peacekeepers to deploy more widely in north
LIBERIA: UN troops deploy in Buchanan and Gbarnga
GABON: Bongo aims to vaccinate 80 percent of children in 2004
MALI: Government moves softly against female circumcision
MAURITANIA: Imams join low-key campaign against AIDS


ALSO SEE:

WEST AFRICA: Sierra Leone and Liberia settle, other conflicts still bubble
Full story at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38659&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=WEST_AFRICA


COTE D'IVOIRE: French peacekeepers to deploy more widely in north

French peacekeeping troops will deploy more widely in the rebel-held north
of Cote d'Ivoire, French Defence Minister Michele Aillot-Marie said on
Wednesday noting that the rebels had agreed that neutral forces move into
their territory.

Alliot-Marie who held an hour-long meeting with the Ivorian President
Laurent Gbagbo, said France would maintain its military force in Cote
d'Ivoire at its present strength of 4,000 men, and would not increase it
in the run-up to a planned programme of disarmament, demobilisation and
rehabilitation. The forces would, however, remain in the country until
after the next presidential elections due to take place in 2005.

In a series of confidence-building measures over the past two weeks, the
government army and the rebels have both pulled back their heavy artillery
from the front line and have dismantled dozens of check points on main
roads.

Alliot-Marie's visit capped a series of positive developments in Cote
d'Ivoire's fragile peace process in December.

The rebels have promised that all their nine ministers would turn up for
the next cabinet meeting on 6 January. They suspended their participation
in the government of national unity on 23 September.

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


LIBERIA: UN troops deploy in Buchanan and Gbarnga

UN peacekeeping troops penetrated deep into the rebel-held interior of
Liberia for the first time on Wednesday to establish new bases in the
rebel-held towns of Buchanan and Gbarnga.

A column of 125 Bangladeshi troops riding in a column of 10 trucks and
armoured vehicles drove from the capital Monrovia to the port city of
Buchanan, 120 km to the southeast. Another contingent headed northeast to
the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD)-held town of
Gbarnga.

Abou Moussa, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Liberia, said that
humanitarian agencies would move into Buchanan in force following the
deployment of UN peacekeepers.

LURD had prevented UNMIL troops from entering Tubmanburg, a LURD military
headquarters town 50 km northwest of Monrovia, on 25 December.

However, a contingent of 125 Pakistani troops was allowed to establish a
camp at Kley Junction, 15 km short of Tubmanburg, two days later.

LURD fighters rejoiced and set fire at checkpoints they formerly guarded
as the first column of UN troops rolled down the road to Kley Junction on
Saturday, accompanied by General Daniel Opande of Kenya, the UNMIL Force
Commander.

Until recently, UNMIL lacked the troops strength to deploy much beyond
Monrovia and its immediate surroundings. But the recent arrival of 2,000
more troops, including contingents from Pakistan and Ethiopia, has lifted
the force to more than 7,000 men, enabling it to become more adventurous.
UNMIL is due to reach its full strength of 15,000 men in late February or
March.

LURD's deputy military chief of staff, General Oforie Diah, told IRIN on
Monday that his forces were also starting to remove checkpoints in rural
Liberia to allow for what he called "unhindered deployment of UN troops".

Pro-Taylor commanders in north central Liberia also told IRIN by satellite
phone on Sunday that almost all checkpoints in Nimba county had been
dismantled to prepare for UNMIL's deployment there.

But MODEL's military commander warned the UN that it was behind schedule
in a programme to disarm, demobilise and rebabilitate an estimated 40,000
former combatants from all three warring factions in Liberia.

UNMIL launched a disarmament programme for troops loyal to former
president Taylor in Monrovia on 7 December, but was forced to suspend it
10 days later after nine people were killed in riots by fighters demanding
a cash payment for handing in their guns.

The disarmament programme is due to resume on 20 January, by which time
UNMIL will have more troops on the ground and will have set up separate
camps to process LURD and MODEL combatants.

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


GABON: Bongo aims to vaccinate 80 percent of children in 2004

President Omar Bongo demanded that Gabon improve its dismal record on
child immunization, despite complaints by the health minister that there
was insufficient money in the budget to finance a comprehensive
vaccination programme.

Bongo said on television earlier last month that his government would take
measures to ensure that vaccination coverage rates improved dramatically
to 80 percent in 2004, a figure last reached in 1990.

Official statistics show that only 17 percent of children under six years
old were fully immunised against polio, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping
cough, tuberculosis and measles in 2002. Four percent of Gabonese children
received no vaccinations whatsoever.

But Health Minister Faustin Boukoubi complained to the Senate last Friday
that since 1998 the health budget had been insufficient to cover even 20
percent of the needs of Gabon's 1.2 million population.

The health budget has been raised by 2.5 percent to 35.4 billion CFA
(US$68 million) in 2004. Health officials said 442 million CFA ($838,000)
was earmarked for vaccination campaigns last year, but that was only a
quarter of the amount needed.

For IRIN coverage of Gabon see
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Gabon


MALI: Government moves softly against female circumcision

The government of Mali has agreed to take firm but low profile action to
counter the widespread practise of female circumcision, otherwise known as
female genital mutilation (FMG).

Nine out of 10 girls in this poor West African country suffer the total or
partial removal of their clitoris before or shortly after they reach
puberty in a ceremony that has formed part of social life for centuries.

Given the popularity of this custom among Mali's 12 million people, the
government has not so far come forward with a law to ban the practise,
even though it can lead to serious health problems, some immediate and
others which occur later at childbirth.

However, the government-backed National Programme against Excision and the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) held a meeting in Bamako with
religious and civil society leaders recently to review progress in
combatting the practise and develop new strategies.

The participants recommended that training about how to combat FMG be
incorporated into the government training programmes for teachers and
nurses. They also called for a national summit meeting be held to publicly
debate the problem of female circumcision.

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


GUINEA-BISSAU: Electricity restored two weeks after power station fire

Electricity has been restored to the capital of Guinea-Bissau two weeks
after a fire badly damaged the main switch board of the the city's only
power station.

Wasna Papai Danfa, the director general of the state run electricity and
water company EAGB, told the private radio station Radio Bombolom on
Monday night that regular supplies of electricity and water to the city of
Bissau could now be maintained. EAGB relies on electric pumps to fill the
overhead tanks that feed the city's taps by gravity.

The fire on 16 December interrupted electricity and water supplies only a
month after they had been normalised by the transitional government of
President Henrique Rosa, which came to power after a bloodless coup on 14
September.

By Tuesday, power had been restored to all homes with electricity, but
there was still no street lighting.

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


NIGERIA: Authorities clamp down on Islamic militants

Authorities in Plateau State, northern Nigeria, have banned a radical
Muslim group while in neighbouring Yobe State, security forces were
deployed to quash recent anti-police violence caused by a little known
Muslim sect, officials said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Plateau State governor ordered the ban of the Council of
Ulamma, or the Muslim Council of Elders, on grounds that the group
preaches religious hatred and intolerance. The Council is an authoritative
religious body in the state and influences affairs concerning the Muslim
community.

The ban came one day after the council accused in newspaper adverts state
authorities of anti-Muslim bias, an accusation which stemmed from a deadly
raid carried out by Plateau State security forces on a compound in the
state capital, Jos, believed to be the base of an extremists Islamic
group, known as the Maitatsine sect.

During the 18 December raid, four people were killed and more than 120
were arrested. According to authorities, most of the arrested have been
released.

In neighbouring Yobe State, authorities beefed up security by deploying
anti-riot squads to quash the activities of a local radical Muslim group
which in the past week ransacked two police stations and took over a
primary school which they renamed 'Afghanistan'.

Residents said more than 200 members of the sect attacked two police
stations - one in Geidam and another in Kanamma - recently, killing a
policeman and taking away arms and ammunition.

Police officials declined to give details of casualties but confirmed
there had been violent disturbances involving an extremist Muslim group in
the area.

On the legal front, three former ministers in President Olusegun
Obasanjo's government were among five top officials charged in court in
the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Tuesday with bribery and corruption
related to a multi-million dollar contract awarded to a French firm.

Former internal affairs minister Sunday Afolabi, his immediate successor,
Mahmud Shata, and Husseini Akwanga - until recently minister of labour -
were slammed with 16 counts each of bribery and corrupt enrichment.

Also charged were Okwesilieze Nwodo, former national secretary of the
ruling People's Democratic Party, and Turrie Akerele, a former permanent
secretary in the ministry of internal affairs.

The accused were alleged to have collected hefty bribes running into the
hundreds of thousands of dollars from an agent of French company SAGEM
S.A. to facilitate the US $214 million contract given the firm in 2001 to
execute a national identity card project. If convicted, the accused face
between five and seven years in jail for each count.

All the accused pleaded not guilty. The judge granted them bail after they
agreed to surrender their passports to the court.

The case, which is set to resume on January 23, is the first since
Obasanjo launched an anti-corruption crusade in 1999 with the setting up
of an anti-graft body. It is widely seen as a key test of his resolve to
deal with the national malaise.

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


MAURITANIA: Imams join low-key campaign against AIDS

Authorities in Mauritania recently persuaded religious leaders to start
preaching about the dangers of AIDS and the need to stop its spread.

While refusing to endorse the use of condoms through sermons in the
mosque, Muslim clerics agreed to spread the message that fidelity in
marriage could help to protect people from infection.

The government has also pledged to make antiretroviral drugs available in
2004 to the 500 Mauritanians registered as living with AIDS to improve
their quality of life.

According to the National Council for the Fight against AIDS (CNLS), which
was only created last year, one percent of the desert nation's 2.5 million
population is HIV positive.

However, voluntary AIDS testing of pregnant women has shown an HIV
prevalance rate of 2.6 percent and some activists reckon the real figure
for the nation as a whole is much higher.

Imams, preachers and other Muslim clerics have agreed to press home the
message that individuals must practise fidelity in marriage, although
Islamic law allows men to have up to four wives. They are also outspokenly
opposed to homosexual sexual relationships.
 
On the political front, former Mauritanian president Mohamed Khouna Ould
Haidallah was released from prison after receiving a suspended prison
sentence for plotting to overthrow the current head of state, Maaouiya
Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.

The five-year suspended sentence, handed down by a criminal court in
Nouakchott on Sunday night, left Ould Haidalla a free man. But it
effectively barred him from mounting a fresh challenge to Ould Taya
through the ballot box.

Ould Haidalla led a military government in this Islamic desert state of
2.5 million people from 1980 to 1984, when he was overthrown by Ould Taya
in a coup.

The 63-year-old former army colonel tried to make a comeback by
challenging Ould Taya in Mauritania's 7 November presidential election.

But he and 14 of his followers were arrested and charged with treason the
day after Ould Taya was officially declared the winner.

Lawyer Brahim Ould Ebety, who was part of the 53-member defence team, said
on Monday that the sentence had automatically stripped Ould Haidalla of
his civic rights.

For the next five years, Ebety said, the former president would be barred
from voting, holding public meetings and taking part in the political
process.

Opposition leaders have accused Ould Taya, who has ruled Mauritania with
an iron hand for nearly 20 years, of rigging the elections and staging a
political trial to remove Ould Haidalla from the scene.

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


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