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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 297
24 - 30 September 2005


CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Postponing poll not our decision to make, says elections body
COTE D'IVOIRE: West African leaders try to revive flagging peace efforts
TOGO: UN report says at least 400 people died in political violence
CHAD-SUDAN: Deby accuses Janjawid of killing his civilians, vows punishment
WEST AFRICA: Cholera cases up 40 percent across West Africa: WHO
NIGERIA: Oil facilities open again as militiamen withdraw threat of attacks
AFRICA: France tinkers with its African troop deployment


LIBERIA: Postponing poll not our decision to make, says elections body

The first elections since Liberia's civil war will have to be delayed if 
a court ruling is implemented, but only the signatories of a 2003 peace 
deal can set a new date for the poll, the country's electoral chief has 
said.

Some 1.35 million Liberian voters are due to head to the polls in just 
over a week, but the 11 October election date has suddenly been thrown 
into doubt after the Supreme Court upheld the appeals of two candidates 
barred from running for president.

"If this ruling is upheld and the candidates insist, the elections will 
have to go beyond 11 October," Frances Johnson-Morris, the head of the 
National Elections Commission, told reporters.

"However... we do not have the authority to shift the election date," 
she added. "The signatories to the comprehensive peace agreement decided 
the date and they have the authority to change it."

The peace deal was signed by Liberia's three warring factions, 18 
political parties and several civil society groups on 18 August 2003 
under the auspices of the 15-nation regional bloc, ECOWAS. It brought 
the curtain down on 14 years of civil war.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49323



COTE D'IVOIRE: West African leaders try to revive flagging peace efforts

West African leaders gathered for a one-day extraordinary summit on 
Friday aimed at reviving flagging efforts to bring peace to divided Cote 
d'Ivoire although the country's president refused to attend.

Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo boycotted the talks after accusing the 
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) of bias towards the 
rebels, who seized control of the northern half of the cocoa-rich nation 
three years ago.

Friday's talks are to be followed by a wider African Union (AU) summit 
on 6 October, with the United Nations Security Council due to consider 
the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire a week later on 13 October.

"Our job is to analyse failings of a process that looked promising at 
first, to find remedies so as to make progress towards peace and 
reconciliation," ECOWAS chairman, and Niger President, Mamadou Tandja 
told reporters ahead of the closed-door meeting.

On the eve of the talks, the UN envoy to the once prosperous and 
peaceful Cote d'Ivoire warned that the country once again stood 
teetering on the brink of war.

"We are far off from national reconciliation and this dangerous 
atmosphere explains why ECOWAS, the AU and the UN are becoming 
involved," Pierre Schori told reporters in Abidjan, the de facto 
capital, before heading to the Nigerian capital for the summit.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49322



TOGO: UN report says at least 400 people died in political violence

Between 400 and 500 people were killed and thousands wounded in Togo 
during political violence earlier this year and state authorities must 
shoulder most of the blame, according the United Nations.

In a long-awaited report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 
Louise Arbour, referred to "the massive nature and gravity of human 
rights violations as evidenced by the high number of victims -- between 
400 and 500 dead and thousands wounded."

Previous estimates of the death toll had ranged from the Interior 
Ministry's 69, to Western diplomats saying that more than 100 people had 
been killed and the Togolese League of Human Rights putting the number 
of dead at more than 800.

"The principal responsibility for the political violence and the 
violations of human rights (resided with) the state security apparatus," 
Arbour said in her 49-page report, written on the basis of a visit by 
her agency to Togo in mid June. "The reactions of the security forces 
were excessive in relation to the demonstrations and actions of the 
opposition militants."

But while the UN report laid the bulk of the responsibility at the 
state's door, opposition activists did not escape criticism. Opposition 
groups carried out serious acts of violence that took numerous victims 
and looted and destroyed property belonging to suspected members of 
ruling party, the report said.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49238



CHAD-SUDAN: Deby accuses Janjawid of killing his civilians, vows 
punishment

Chadian President Idriss Deby has blamed the Sudanese militia known as 
the Janjawid for this week's over-the-border-assault that killed dozens 
of civilians in eastern Chad.

"We are now absolutely certain that it is the Janjawid that carried out 
this incursion, as in the past, for reasons we do not know," Deby told 
Radio France Internationale. "What is sure is that they cannot go 
unpunished."

Chad has said that armed men in military uniform launched an attack in 
the eastern Ouaddai province, killing 36 herders and stealing livestock. 
Eight insurgents and two Chadian soldiers were killed in an ensuing 
clash, a government statement said.

Deby said it was too early to say whether the attackers were backed by 
the Sudanese government.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49294



WEST AFRICA: Cholera cases up 40 percent across West Africa: WHO

Cholera cases have shot up by about 40 percent overall across West 
Africa in the past month as unusually heavy rains help spread the 
waterborne disease, the UN World Health Organisation says.

As of 23 September, cholera had killed at least 759 people in eight 
countries in the region so far this year, compared with a toll of 517 
deaths late last month. And the total number of registered cases 
according to a tally of WHO data stood at least at 43,638 compared to 
31,259 the previous month.

The infectious disease, which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting and 
can kill in 24 hours, hits the region each rainy season. But this year's 
heavy downpours have driven up infection rates.

The eight countries listed by WHO in its latest cholera update are 
Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and 
Senegal.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49241



NIGERIA: Oil facilities open again as militiamen withdraw threat of 
attacks

Two oil facilities in Nigeria, shut by militiamen protesting their 
leader's arrest, have reopened, according to oil company officials, 
after the groups withdrew their threats to dynamite installations and 
kidnap foreign workers.

Oil giant Chevron said production had resumed at its two plants that had 
been forced to close down as insecurity mounted in the wake of the 
arrest of Moujahid Dokubo-Asari, the leader of the Niger Delta People's 
Volunteer Force (NDPVF).

"We have reopened Idama and Robertkiri due to an improved security 
situation," said Chevron spokesman Deji Haastrup.

The NDPVF said in an official statement that it was suspending its 
threat to attack oil installations and foreign oil workers. The new 
stance came on the heels of a statement by Dokubo-Asari's lawyer, urging 
his client's supporters to remain calm.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49259



AFRICA: France tinkers with its African troop deployment

Adjusting to new realities on the ground, France plans to re-deploy its 
thousands of African-based troops in a scheme it says will bolster the 
continent's own home-grown peacekeeping forces.

The French Defence Ministry said it would reshuffle the deployment of 
some 7,000 soldiers to fit in with the way the African Union (AU) has 
divided up the continent into geographical zones.

"This is a very important shift which corresponds to changes made by the 
Africans themselves, since the AU intends to organise itself into 
sub-regions," defence spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau told a press 
conference in Paris.

However, some analysts say that while the shift may deflect charges of 
neo-colonialism, France still has a long way to go before relinquishing 
a military toehold in Africa.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49310


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2005


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