Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-229: 11-Jun-04

Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-229: 11-Jun-04

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 229
5 - 11 June 2004

CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Diamond and timber sanctions to stay
COTE D'IVOIRE: Ceasefire violated
NIGERIA: Another troubled week
SIERRA LEONE: Norman reinstates defense team
GABON: Price of AIDS testing and drugs slashed
BURKINA FASO: WHO calls for yellow fever campaign

LIBERIA: Diamond and timber sanctions to stay

The UN Security Council ruled on Thursday that peace in Liberia is still
too fragile for sanctions on diamond and timber exports to be lifted.

The UN imposed trade sanctions on Liberia between 2001 and 2003 to stop
former president Charles Taylor using foreign exchange earnings from
timber and diamonds for arms purchases to fuel conflict at home and back
rebel movements abroad in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire.

Transitional leader Gyude Bryant pleaded with the Security Council on 3
June for the sanctions to be lifted now that the Liberia's 14-year civil
war was over. He said the logging and diamond mining industries were
vital for reviving the country's shattered economy, adding that the
sanctions were hurting Liberia as it struggled with an 85 percent
unemployment rate and the near-total destruction of schools, hospitals,
roads and most economic infrastructure.

However, a UN panel of experts published a report that recommended keeping
the sanctions in place for the time being. It cited widespread corruption
in the new government and its failure so far to establish effective
control over large swathes of the interior. It found that while there was
no proof of weapons being smuggled into Liberia or diamonds and timber
being smuggled out, the government was not yet able to track diamonds and
the country's Forestry Development Authority did not function outside the
capital, Monrovia.

"Organised, international smuggling networks remain in place and could be
reactivated at any time," it said.

Chayee Doe, the younger brother of former Liberian president Samuel Doe,
died on Wednesday, two days after being named the new leader of the
country's main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and
Democracy (LURD), family sources said on Thursday.

Sources said Doe, 37, had died after brain surgery in the American state
of Delaware on Wednesday. He was flown to the United States after
collapsing in the Liberian capital Monrovia last week and never regained
consciousness.

Former chairman Sekou Conneh, who had led LURD since it took up arms
against former president Charles Taylor in 1999, was suspended
indefinitely. His removal marked the climax of a long-running leadership
battle between supporters of Conneh and his estranged wife. The critics of
Conneh's leadership, who were mostly military field commanders, accused
him of taking decisions single-handedly without their approval and of
forgetting the men who had fought in the bush after the signing of a peace
agreement in August last year.

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

COTE D'IVOIRE: Ceasefire violated

The Ivorian army, in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, clashed with an unknown
group of armed men who attacked their military positions in the country's
"no fighting zone", at the same time clashing with French and UN
peacekeepers.

The clash, the first since the signing of a ceasefire nearly a year ago
between the national army and the rebels, led to the death of 5 government
soldiers and 15 assailants, and a number of wounded. The army, in
collaboration with the foreign troops, also captured fifteen assailants.
In retaliation, the army used MI-24 helicopter gunships to hit a car
convoy of rebels that also left several wounded.

The national army accused the "New Forces" rebels of mounting the attack.
They denied any involvement.

News of the attack led to violence in Abidjan on Monday afternoon, as
hundreds of pro-Gbagbo supporters rallied violently in front of the French
embassy. French soldiers used to teargas to repel them. "White" residents
were also targeted as roadblocks went up in the business district with
young men checking for ID and looking to hurt anyone who was of French
nationality. UN officials told IRIN that 38 UN vehicles were damaged by
angry youth.

Amid the tumultuous weeks, President Laurent Gbagbo has spent the week in
the US, where he held private meetings with UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, members of the US Congress, and businessmen. Prime Minister Seydou
Diarra has been at the helm. He also met with the G7 opposition alliance
and foreign diplomats in view of resolving the country's 2-month long
political impasse. Gbagbo is to return to Abidjan on Tuesday.

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

NIGERIA: Another troubled week

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on Wednesday on the town of Numan in
Nigeria's eastern Adamawa State. Police were given orders to shoot
troublemakers on sight after two days of deadly clashes between Christians
and Muslims leaving 10 dead.

Fighting broke out on Tuesday over a dispute about the construction of a
new mosque next to the house of a Christian tribal chief in the mainly
Christian town on the banks of the Benue River. The clashes continued on
Wednesday before police reinforcements brought the situation under
control.

The fighting in Numan is the latest episode of religious violence in
Nigeria's Middle Belt region, wedged between the predominantly-Islamic
north and largely-Christian south.

Last month, the Nigerian Red Cross quoted residents of Yelwa in Plateau
State as saying more than 600 Muslims were killed there when militiamen
from the mainly Christian Tarok ethnic group launched an attack on the
small town. The Yelwa massacre provoked the reprisal killing of
Christians in Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria. President
Olusegun Obasanjo subsequently declared a state of emergency in Plateau
State to clamp down on the religious violence.

Nigerian labour unions called off a three-day-old general strike on
Friday, citing "substantial compliance" by the government with a court
order to cancel the fuel price increases which had triggered the stoppage.

The Nigeria Labour Congress began the strike on Wednesday in response to a
20 percent hike in petrol, diesel and kerosene prices that took effect on
29 May. The NLC was giving the government seven days to ensure that fuel
dealers across this oil-rich country of 126 million people reverted to the
old prices. Union leaders had defied a high court order, issued late on
Tuesday, which instructed them to shelve the strike while at the same time
directing the government to reverse the price rises.

In other news, at least 50 people died in a clash between government
troops and Ijaw militants near the oil city of Port Harcourt in
southeastern Nigeria at the end of last week, witnesses and a local human
rights organization said.

In medical news, Nigeria will receive US $58 million this year for
programmes aimed at treating HIV/AIDS and curbing the spread of the
pandemic, half of which will be channeled through faith-based
organisations, Randall Tobias, Global Coordinator of the U.S. Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief, said during a visit to Nigeria last week.

He said a large chunk of the funds for Nigeria would be channeled through
about 110 non-governmental organisations that had already been identified.
About half of these groups were "faith-based organisations who have some
very important capabilities of reaching well into the country," he added.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with an officially estimated 126
million people. Of these, more than six million are officially estimated
to infected with HIV

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

SIERRA LEONE: Norman reinstates defense team

Sam Hinga Norman, Sierra Leone's former interior minister, who faces eight
counts of crimes against humanity, said on Thursday he wanted to rehire
the defence team he publicly sacked at the opening of his trial last week.

Norman sacked his legal team last Thursday and asked to defend himself. He
is on trial with two other top leaders of the Civil Defense Forces, a
pro-government militia that fought the Revolutionary United Front rebel
movement during the country's war. But earlier this week the Special
Court's three appeal judges - from Cameroon, Canada and Sierra Leone -
rejected Norman's request to defend himself single-handedly. They ordered
the court's registrar to appoint standby counsel for the defendant, who
was deputy defence minister at the time the alleged offences were
committed.

For Sierra Leone coverage please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Sierra_Leone

GABON: Price of AIDS testing and drugs slashed

The government of Gabon announced this week a cut in the price of
anti-retroviral drugs and testing for people living with AIDS.

Under the new policy, ARV drugs are now given free of charge to pregnant
women and children under 12, while students and unemployed people living
with AIDS pay just 2,000 CFA ($4) per month. Civil servants now pay 5,000
CFA ($10) per month for the treatment. The grant from the Geneva-based
Global Fund has also allowed the government to cut the cost of AIDS
screening. In the capital Libreville, which is home to half the population
of Gabon, the PNLS has launched a centre for voluntary and anonymous HIV
testing which charges students 1,000 CFA (US$2) and all others 2,500 CFA
(US$5).

Both measures were introduced in April following an announcement by the
Global Funds to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that it would grant
the West African country US $3 million grant to help fight AIDS.
Oil-rich Gabon has a prevalence rate of 7.7 percent for a total population
of 1.2 million residents. For the past three years, subsidised
anti-retroviral therapy has been available at a cost of between 10,000 and
15,000 CFA francs (US$20-30) per month. At present, 1,600 people receive
subsidised antiretroviral therapy in Gabon.

The Geneva-based Global Fund has not yet disbursed its grant to Gabon, but
Malonga said the knowledge that this money was on its way had given the
government confidence to further slash the price of anti-retroviral
treatment and AIDS testing.

For Gabon coverage please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Gabon
For HIV/AIDS coverage please go to http://www.plusnews.org/

BURKINA FASO: WHO calls for yellow fever vaccination

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday called for an immediate
yellow fever vaccination campaign in the southwestern town of Bobo
Dioulasso, saying 89 suspected cases of the mosquito-borne disease had
been recorded there so far this year and six of those people had died.

WHO strongly supported a government appeal to donors for money to carry
out the immediate vaccination of 740,000 people in and around the city.
The vaccination campaign would cost 515 million CFA francs (nearly US$1
million), of which the Burkinabe government would contribute 36 percent,
he added.

Koumare said the risk of an epidemic was particularly serious in Bobo
Dioulasso because yellow fever vaccination coverage in the city was
reckoned to be low at about 60 percent. Recent vaccination campaigns had
targeted children under the age of five and there had had been no major
campaign to inoculate the adult population of Burkina Faso against yellow
fever since 1984, he added.

For Burkina Faso coverage please go to
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Burkina_Faso

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WEST AFRICA IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 229 5 - 11 June 2004