U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 303
5 - 11 November 2005


CONTENTS:


LIBERIA: Sirleaf heads for victory as authorities study Weah's complaint
TOGO: Official inquiry says 154 died in political violence
CHAD: Government to scrap unique measure for sharing oil wealth
MAURITANIA: Junta pledges presidential poll earlier than expected, in
   March 2007
GUINEA-BISSAU: New government named but national unity still a long way off
COTE D IVOIRE: Opposition divided over nominations for prime minister job
WEST AFRICA: Rampant cholera prompts UN regional appeal


LIBERIA: Sirleaf heads for victory as authorities study Weah's complaint

Liberia's electoral authorities have begun investigating allegations of
fraud filed by soccer star George Weah, as his rival, Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf, consolidated her lead in the final round of the race
for the presidency.

With results in from almost 90 percent of polling stations across the
West African nation, Sirleaf had 59.2 percent of the votes, an 18 point
lead over Weah, and the prospect of becoming Africa's first elected
female president within her grasp.

But Weah, who topped the first round on 11 October with an eight point
margin, has claimed that the second-round ballot on Tuesday was not free
and fair, and shown ballot papers that he said were tampered with.

The National Elections Commission said it had received a formal
complaint from Weah's Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party on
Thursday.

"I want them to intervene," Weah told IRIN.

Frances Johnson-Morris, the head of the commission, said an invesigation
would begin immediately.

"It's too soon to say the effect. Let's wait and see the magnitude of
the complaint before we begin to see if it will affect the outcome," she
told a press conference.

But at Weah's party headquarters, scores of supporters were adamant
about what would happen if the former AC Milan and Chelsea striker lost.

"No Weah, no peace," they chanted, jumping up and down as Weah pulled
into the compound, fresh from meetings with UN officials and the
Nigerian and Ghanaian ambassadors. "We want justice," the crowd yelled.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50038&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA

See also:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50038&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49988&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49962&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA



TOGO: Official inquiry says 154 died in political violence

A much-awaited official probe into the political violence that rocked
Togo earlier this year says 154 people were killed and 654 hurt, and
calls on the government to punish those responsible.

"Those who carried out and ordered these acts of violence must be
charged," said the 90-page report issued Thursday after a more than
four-month-long inquiry in which the eight-member committee interrogated
more than 1,800 people.

Set up in May on the orders of then newly-elected President Faure
Gnassingbe, the National Commission of Inquiry placed the blame squarely
on the shoulders of the government, political leaders, the army and the
police and in a series of proposals called for a sweeping overhaul of
the country's institutions and practices.

Among those questioned by the commission were some of the almost 30,000
Togolese who fled to escape persecution in the wave of violence that
shook the country spanning the death 5 February of its leader of 38
years, president Gnassingbe Eyadema, to the disputed April election of
his son, Faure Gnassingbe.

A separate United Nations inquiry released in September estimated that
400 to 500 people had been killed when the opposition took to the
streets to protest that Gnassingbe's election had been rigged. Scenes of
urban warfare subsequently unfolded as armed militia and security fought
the rioters.

Asked to comment on the difference in figures, the head of the National
Commission of Inquiry said its work had produced a list of names while
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had produced an estimate.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50060&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=TOGO


CHAD: Government to scrap unique measure for sharing oil wealth

Brushing aside international concern, cash-strapped Chad has decided to
scrap a key component of its model law on oil revenues requiring the
government to set aside petrodollars for the well-being of future
generations.

The government of Chad, newcomer on the burgeoning African oil scene,
approved draft legislation to amend law 001, which lays out
unprecedented provisions for avoiding the misappropriation of oil
revenues and ensuring funds go toward reducing poverty.

Despite concerns raised by the World Bank, sponsor of the Chad-Cameroon
oil project, the government said it needed to tap the revenue now to
deal with fiscal problems and bolster the country's security.

President Idriss Deby late last month dissolved the presidential guard
days after scores of troops deserted the army.

"Chad is facing great financial difficulties," Communications Minister
Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor told IRIN on Wednesday. "We need these funds
now to assure development and peace in the country."

Doumgor said the draft legislation now goes to parliament for debate and
a vote.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50008


MAURITANIA: Junta pledges presidential poll earlier than expected, in
March 2007

Mauritania's military leaders offered a fresh sign of their commitment
to democracy on Thursday by pledging to hold presidential elections
months earlier than expected, in March 2007.

The junta seized office last August promising a new era of openness and
democracy slated to climax with a handover to an elected president after
two years.

Speaking to political and civil society leaders and the media, Prime
Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar said a presidential poll is
scheduled for 11 March 2007, following municipal and parliamentary
elections as well as a constitutional referendum.

Members of the ruling Military Council for Justice and Democracy (MCJD)
itself have pledged not to run for the presidency.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50039


GUINEA-BISSAU: New government named but national unity still a long way
off

Guinea-Bissau has got its new government after nearly two weeks of
institutional paralysis, but with the volatile country's largest
political party left on the outside looking in, promises of national
unity look to have gone unfulfilled.

"This government doesn't have the parliamentary base it needs," a
spokesperson for the country's former ruling party said on Thursday. "It
won't be able to last for long."

The tiny West African nation had been without a government since late
last month when President Joao Bernardo Vieira sacked Prime Minister
Carlos Gomes Junior with whom he had been feuding for months.

The president's decision to replace Gomes Junior with a close ally and
former campaign director enraged the sacked prime minister and his
African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde
(PAIGC) which, as the largest contingent in parliament, claimed the
constitutional right to nominate a new prime minister.

Speaking after his inauguration last week, new Prime Minister Aristides
Gomes promised to form a government of consensus that would include all
the country's political forces.

But PAIGC members were conspicuously absent from the list of 27 new
ministers.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50040


COTE D'IVOIRE: Opposition divided over nominations for prime minister
job

One week after a lapsed deadline to find a new prime minister to lead a
battered Cote d'Ivoire back to stability, the armed and unarmed
opposition are locked in bitter disagreement over who to propose for the
top job, newspapers close to both groups reported.

The rebels say their leader, Guillaume Soro, should be prime minister as
they control half of the country.

But the former ruling Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI), a
heavyweight within the opposition coalition known as the G7, is dragging
its feet and has come up with half a dozen more possible candidates.

President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria visited Cote d'Ivoire last week,
in his capacity as chairman of the African Union, to try to force some
action.

But after his departure, Nigerian aides were only able to draw up a list
of 16 possible candidates.

The new prime minister is expected to be named on 15 November.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49961


WEST AFRICA: Rampant cholera prompts UN regional appeal

The United Nations is asking donors for US $3.2 million to help six West
African countries fight cholera, which the UN says has killed at least
700 people and stricken over 42,000 in the region since June.

This is the first appeal of its kind for West Africa, where cholera
appears every rainy season but where unusually heavy rains this year
sent infections skyrocketing. The movement of populations throughout the
region - including religious pilgrimages and rural-to-urban migration -
also contributes to the spread.

"We must contain cholera in the sub-region and assist health care
systems to eradicate this epidemic, in order that it not become a
chronic problem or spread to neighbouring countries like Chad, Nigeria
and Cameroon," said Herve Ludovic de Lys, head of the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for West Africa.

About half the funding - which will bolster ongoing efforts by
governments and UN humanitarian agencies - is earmarked for
Guinea-Bissau, a country of about 1.5 million where cholera had killed
320 people and stricken 20,415 as of mid-October, according to the UN
World Health Organisation (WHO).

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49963


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


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