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 209
3 - 9 January 2004


CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: Rebels return to government
LIBERIA: LURD commanders want leader replaced by his wife
CHAD-SUDAN: UNHCR to open first camp next week
NIGERIA: 10,000 displaced by Islamic militants
GHANA: $145-million worth of cocaine seized at Tema
GUINEA-BISSAU: World Bank to provide US $13 million to government


COTE D'IVOIRE: Rebels return to government

"New Forces" rebels on Tuesday participated in their first cabinet meeting
since their withdrawal from government in late September 2003. The
meeting, under the chairmanship of President Laurent Gbagbo, however was
not attended rebel leader and communication minister Guillaume Soro.

The cabinet meeting was the first of two consecutive ones that were held
this week. A third meeting originally planned for Thursday was canceled.

Discussions centered on nationality, identity, land reforms, eligibility,
and other measures to restore peace and stability to the country.  These
issues have been divisive in Ivorian politics, and President Gbagbo has
proposed holding referendums to settle these issues. However no date has
been set yet, and political experts and university scholars are already
arguing if holding a referendum is the best procedure to settle the issue.

The rebels issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that they had some
"doubts" over the planned referendum.

In a communiqué on Thursday, the government announced the abolition of the
hitherto mandatory resident's permit and the creation, in a near future,
of a "higher national commission on identification."

Prior to the outbreak of violence in September 2003, the Gbagbo government
had begun a population census to determine who was a citizen and who was
not. The process was violently criticized by critics and opponents who saw
in it an exclusionary policy.

The rebels' return coincided with the deployment of French soldiers in
northern Cote d'Ivoire to provide more security to residents and operating
NGOs, and forms part of confidence-building in prelude to a national
disarmament, demobilization programme to be conducted this year.

The World Bank announced on Tuesday that it would contribute US $57
million to reconstruct Cote d'Ivoire's war-affected school system, while
France announced a $1.9 million contribution. The announcement came a few
days after national education minister Michel Amani N'guessan announced
that some 46,000 students, who remained in rebel-held territories, would
sit their delayed exit exams starting later this month.

While schools in government-controlled areas started on time in October,
rebel-held schools are due to begin the 2003 school year this February.

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


LIBERIA: LURD commanders want leader replaced by his wife

In a strange twist of events, forty commanders of Liberia's main rebel
movement, Liberians United For Reconciliation and Democracy, signed a
statement calling for the replacement of LURD chairman Sekou Conneh by his
wife, Aisha Keita Conneh.

Aisha is reputed to be the fortune teller of Guinean President Lansana
Conte, a main backer of the LURD.

The commanders wrote that they wanted Conneh replaced because he had
failed them.

But on Thursday, LURD Secretary General Joe Gbalah told IRIN that the
commanders had no authority to dismiss Conneh.

"The war for which LURD was formed has ended and in three months time LURD
will be disbanded. LURD does not have a military high command and the
commanders are subjected to the political leadership under our laws,"
Gbalah said.

Diplomats in Monrovia said the confusion within LURD's ranks should not
derail the peace process.

Earlier this week, transitional chairman Guyde Bryant succumbed to
pressure from rebel movements that they be attributed 51 of 86 assistant
minister positions in government.

Since the signing of the Liberian peace agreement in August in Ghana,
LURD, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) and fighters loyal to
former president Charles Taylor have been lobbying for a greater share of
top government jobs.

On the military front, United Nations soldiers fanned out this weekend to
Tapeta and Tubmamburg, the towns are held respectively by MODElL and LURD.
The military mission is expected to reach in the coming days the eastern
town of Zwedru, near the border with Cote d'Ivoire.

Since late December, UN soldiers have been allowed to deploy outside of
the capital Monrovia to provide greater security to Liberians. The UN has
already deployed men in LURD-stronghold Gbarnga and MODEL-stronghold
Buchanan.

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


CHAD-SUDAN: UNHCR to open first camp next week

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it would open its first
camp for some 9,000 Sudanese refugees on 15 January in the eastern Chadian
village of Farchana.

The Farchana camp would be the first one to accommodate the over 95,000
Sudanese refugees who have crossed into Chad as they run away from violent
clashes in Darfur region between the government and rebel movements.

The agency has deployed an emergency team in eastern Chad to also examine
the feasibility of establishing two other camp sites in the region. A
UNHCR official told IRIN on Friday that the agency is also considering
setting up transit sites to accommodate the refugees as they wait to be
transferred to a permanent site.

In the meantime, UNHCR, World Food Programme and partner agencies have
begun been conducting since 2 January food distribution as well mats,
kitchen utensils, jerry cans among others items to some thousand of
refugees in the area.

The WFP is however awaiting response to an international appeal it
launched in December for US $13 million to cater to the refugees' food
needs throughout the year.

According to the agencies, some 30,000 refugees crossed the border in the
sole month of December, and they speculate that the flow is constant as
the situation is still volatile.

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


NIGERIA: 10,000 displaced by Muslim uprising

Recent clashes in northeastern Nigeria between state security and Islamic
militants have led to the displacement of some 10,000 people.

In Yobe State, half of the population of the small village of Kanamma has
fled, while large numbers have also disappeared from their homes in the
nearby localities of Geidam, Babangida and Dankalawar, state officials
said.

Since mid-December, an extremist Islamic organization known as 'Al Sunna
Wal Jamma' (Followers of the Prophet) has been causing havoc in the north,
as it had attacked three police stations, occupied a primary school where
they raised flags with "Afghanistan" written on them in Plateau State. The
group, who expresses admiration for the defunct Taliban movement in
Afghanistan, wants to create an Islamic state that would be regulated by
Islam's penal code, the Sha'riah.

It has also been active in neighbouring Plateau and Borno states where
authorities used police and military to flush them out.

But by the end of the week, Nigerian police reported that seven militants
were killed in a village near the order with Cameroon.

Officials said the group is mainly made up of students of universities and
polytechnic schools.

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


GHANA: $145-million worth of cocaine seized at Tema

Ghanaian narcotics officials this week announced the seizure of 674 kg of
cocaine worth US $145 million in the port city of Tema and arrested seven
men in connection to what officials is the largest drug bust in Ghana.

Those arrested included one American, three British nationals, two
Ghanaians and one German.

According to officials, the drug was destined to Europe. The narcotics
control board said they had been investigating the drug cartel, which
doubled as a fishing company, for the last two years. They added that in
recent years Ghana, and West Africa in general, had become a major transit
point for the smuggling of cocaine and heroin in Europe.

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


GUINEA-BISSAU: World Bank to provide US $13 million to government

The World Bank announced on Tuesday that it would provide US $13 million
of emergency aid to Guinea-Bissau's transitional government to help it pay
compensation for damage to private property caused during the 1998-99
civil and to finance a demobilization programme for former combatants.

The Bank had previously said that it would not provide fresh aid for the
West African nation until it had agreed on a new economic programme with
the IMF. But it softened its stance following a presentation by
transitional leader Henrique Rosa when he visited Washington in November.

Legislative elections, which had been scheduled but never took place under
now deposed president Kumba Yala, are to be held on 28 March, and the
World Bank said it would support the new government that emerges from the
poll.

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


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