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 Round-Up 296
17 - 23 September 2005


CONTENTS:

NIGERIA: Militants shut oil facilities as leader appears in court
COTE D'IVOIRE: UN scolds Ivorian leaders, brandishes threat of sanctions
CAMEROON: Quarter of a million people face food shortages in north
LIBERIA: UN extends peacekeeper mandate but wants plan for troop drawdown
MALI: Union sends warning with one-day strike
SENEGAL: Cholera, malaria threaten thousands after worst floods in two
   decades


NIGERIA: Militants shut oil facilities as leader appears in court

Militants loyal to Moujahid Dokubo-Asari said they had taken over
several oil facilities in the Niger Delta on Thursday, as Nigerian
officials said the militia leader would be charged with treason.

Dokubo-Asari, the head of Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF)
who has repeatedly clashed with the Nigerian authorities over oil
issues, was arrested two days ago.

He appeared in court on Thursday where a judge ordered he be detained
for a fortnight while prosecutors prepared their case.

"This is the highest form of dictatorship," Dokubo-Asari, wearing a blue
robe, told reporters before he was whisked away in a police van.

Outside the court on Thursday, Justice Minister Bayo Ojo said formal
charges of unlawful assembly and treason, which carries the death
penalty, would be brought against Dokubo-Asari within two weeks.

Dokubo-Asari's NDPVF had threatened on Wednesday to unleash mayhem in
the Niger Delta, which accounts for nearly all of Nigeria's 2.5 million
barrels of oil a day, unless their leader was released. On Thursday, his
aides said oil facilities run by Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell had been
captured.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49197



COTE D'IVOIRE: UN scolds Ivorian leaders, brandishes threat of sanctions

With mediation efforts to end Cote d'Ivoire's three-year war floundering
yet again, the United Nations wagged a finger at leaders on both sides
of the divide and brandished the threat of sanctions.

The uncertainty surrounding the mediation by South African President
Thabo Mbeki is fuelling tension on the ground. At the same time it is
highlighting rifts among African nations involved in trying to bring
peace to the country that was once a regional haven of peace and
prosperity.

Upping the stakes in the drive for peace, the 15-nation UN Security
Council is sending one of its members, Greek Ambassador Adamantios
Vassilakis, to decide whether to impose sanctions on Ivorian leaders
deemed to be blocking the peace process.

Vassilakis, who is head of the council's sanctions committee, is
scheduled to visit in mid-October, just days before peace-sealing
elections are supposed to be held on 30 October.

In a statement late Wednesday, the UN said the ambassador's visit had
been arranged "so that the Council will be in a position to take
appropriate action in response to those who pose a threat to the peace
and national reconciliation process - or who are determined to be
responsible for serious violations of human rights."

According to Pierre Schori, the head of the UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire,
all sides are guilty of failing to fully commit to peace.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49198



CAMEROON: Quarter of a million people face food shortages in north

Almost a quarter of a million people in neglected northern Cameroon are
faced with serious food shortages and more than US $1 million is still
needed to ensure they all get emergency rations, the UN World Food
Programme said this week.

"For one month... WFP is providing an emergency ration of cereals to
237,700 people in the Far North province of Cameroon, the poorest part
of the country," the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

Free food will be handed out to everyone within affected communities.

Officials put the total cost of the emergency operation at US $2 million
but so far they have only 43 percent of the funds. The French government
has stumped up nearly US $900,000 but another US $1.1 million is still
needed.

Rains in northern Cameroon were poor last year, and food production fell
about 200,000 metric tonnes, the WFP said. For people in this
already-impoverished part of the country that meant their harvests only
covered six months of food supplies, instead of the usual eight. And
buying in more food became difficult after cereal prices went through
the roof.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49195



LIBERIA: UN extends peacekeeper mandate but wants plan for troop
drawdown

The UN Security Council has granted a six-month extension to the
peacekeeping force in Liberia, snubbing a request from Secretary General
Kofi Annan for a one-year renewal, and has called for a schedule for
troop reductions to be mapped out by early next year.

The war-scarred West African country, struggling to rebuild after 14
years of civil war, is home to the world's most expensive UN
peacekeeping operation, known as UNMIL.

Around 15,000 UN peacekeepers and 1,100 international police officers
are currently stationed in Liberia, helping provide security as the
country prepares for crunch elections on 11 October, the first polls
since the war ended in August 2003.

On Monday the UN Security Council unanimously voted to extend UNMIL's
mandate until 31 March 2006, rejecting recommendations made by Annan in
a report earlier this month.

Annan had asked for year-long extension, saying that although Liberia
was stable, many challenges remained. These included rehabilitating
former combatants, restoring state authority to the heavily-forested
country, strengthening the judicial system and restructuring the
security sector.

The Security Council also asked the UN chief to provide "recommendations
on a drawdown plan for UNMIL, including specific benchmarks and a
tentative schedule, in his March 2006 report."

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49157



MALI: Union sends warning with one-day strike

Mali's largest union sent a shot across the government's bows on Monday
by making good on a promise to hold a 24-hour strike, describing it as a
"warning" and vowing to press on until its demands were met.

"We got to this point because the government refused even to consider
our list of grievances," the National Union of Malian Workers' (UNTM)
secretary general Siaka Diakite told IRIN.

The strike, which by organisers' estimates affected 90 to 95 per cent of
the country, paralysed much of the administration although basic
services continued in the health, energy and telecommunications sectors.

Negotiations between the government and the UNTM, which represents 80
per cent of the country's civil servants, broke down late last week,
paving the way for the stoppage that had been threatened since the
beginning of the month.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49138



SENEGAL: Cholera, malaria threaten thousands after worst floods in two
decades

A month after the worst floods in 20 years washed out the impoverished
suburbs of Senegal's capital, Ibou Barro stands on his doorstep and
waves to his neighbour, wading through the still-flooded street, her
skirts hitched up to the thigh.

Swarms of tadpoles mill about in the rank greenish-brown water, clogged
with rotting scraps of food, that for the last four weeks has covered
the streets and courtyards of Medina Gounass, one of the many
overcrowded shantytowns on the outskirts of Dakar.

"If the waters don't recede we'll wind up drowned," said Barro.

Like many of the suburbs to have sprouted around the Senegalese capital
in recent years, Medina Gounass was built on swampy ground. So each
rainy season, the low-lying basin close to the water table becomes
flooded, to the surprise of newcomers among its 80,000 residents.

According to a preliminary study by city officials, an estimated 183,000
people may have sustained damage of some kind from the flooding.

In response, the Senegalese government has declared an emergency and
announced a US $96.5 million plan to relocate some 60,000 flood victims
and overhaul communities.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49180


IRIN-WA
Tel:+221 867.27.30
Fax: +221 867.25.85
Email: IRINWA@IRINnews.org

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2005


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
     Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                    guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Africa                      www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/wafrica