U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

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e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci


WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 307
3 - 9 December 2005


CONTENTS:

COTE D IVOIRE: Banny sworn in as new prime minister
NIGERIA-SUDAN: Darfur talks stumble over fresh rebel demands
NIGERIA: At least 12 dead in clashes over separatist protest
LIBERIA: No impunity for rapists, vows president-elect
BENIN: Lives go up in flames as petrol-smuggling rises
SIERRA LEONE: Politician's bid to form rival party makes waves


COTE D'IVOIRE: Banny sworn in as new prime minister

Charles Konan Banny was sworn in as interim prime minister of Cote
d'Ivoire, facing the daunting task of restoring the war-divided country
to peace in just 11 months.

Banny took over from predecessor Seydou Diarra at a special handover
ceremony in the main city Abidjan. Diarra headed a power-sharing
government that was to have resolved the country's three-year conflict,
but failed. Cote d'Ivoire has been divided in two since 2002, with
rebels holding the north and the government in control of the south.

The new prime minister now takes over a deadlocked peace process and
will have to organise a long delayed programme of disarmament, resolve
the sensitive issue of who is entitled to citizenship, and organise
presidential elections -- all before an October 2006 deadline.

An attempt to hold elections on 30 October failed due to the
intransigence of the factions on all these issues, forcing the UN to
extend President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate for 12 months by special
resolution.

Under the terms of UN resolution 1633, Banny will have "full authority
over the cabinet" and has been promised assistance from a specially
appointed group of international monitors who will submit progress
reports to the UN.

On Tuesday, that working group held its second monthly meeting chaired
by UN envoy for Cote d'Ivoire Pierre Schori and Nigerian Foreign
Minister Oluyemi Adeniji. A communique said that the working group has
drawn up a timetable for electoral preparations, which awaits approval
by Banny before it can be published.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50541


NIGERIA-SUDAN: Darfur talks stumble over fresh rebel demands

Negotiations to end Sudan's Darfur conflict hit new snags in the
Nigerian capital, Abuja, after rebels set out new conditions for peace,
including a demand for the vice presidency.

Rebels said their demands were "the minimum which Darfurians should
have," Ahmed Hussein, spokesman for the Sudanese Liberation
Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said
on Wednesday.

In addition to the vice presidency, the rebels want Darfur's borders
returned to what they were at independence in 1956 to encompass Karal
al-Thoum, Al-A'Troon and Wa'hat al-Sharafi, areas were incorporated into
northern Sudan by Khartoum in the 1990s.

Hopes had been high of a major breakthrough at the seventh round of
peace talks in Abuja, as it is the first time the two rebel groups have
presented a joint position.

The Sudanese government delegation declined to respond to the rebel
demands and called for talks to be broken down into small informal
committees "in the hope that we can narrow the gap," spokesman Umar
Rahama said.

More than a year of negotiations between rebels and the Sudanese
government have failed to yield an acceptable settlement to fighting
that has killed more than 180,000 people and forced some 2 million
people from their homes.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50573


NIGERIA: At least 12 dead in clashes over separatist protest

A secessionist protest left at least 12 people dead after violence
erupted on the second of a two-day stay-home strike in southeast
Nigeria, according to residents and witnesses.

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra
(MASSOB) called for schools, businesses and offices to shut down on
Monday and Tuesday in the ethnic Igbo-dominated areas of the southeast
to back a demand for secession and protest the detention of their
leader, Ralph Uwazurike, who is on trial for treason.

While most people complied on the first day, leaving streets deserted in
key towns of the southeast, which is home to many of Nigeria's over 30
million Igbos, more residents went about their daily affairs on Tuesday.

But attempts by MASSOB supporters to enforce the strike led to clashes
with police in the cities of Owerri, Onitsha and Awka, in which at least
12 people were killed, residents and witnesses said.

MASSOB spokesman Uchenna Madu accused the police of opening fire on
unarmed protesters and declared the strike a success. But Felix Ogbaudu,
a top police official in the region, denied his officers had opened fire
on protesters. Instead he accused MASSOB members of shooting and killing
people who defied the stay-at-home call.

MASSOB wants to recreate the short-lived Republic of Biafra over which a
bloody civil war was fought in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970, during which
over one million people died, largely of starvation.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50538


LIBERIA: No impunity for rapists, vows president-elect

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who will be Africa's first female president when
she takes office in Liberia next month, on Monday promised no rapist
would go unpunished during her tenure.

New legislation making rape illegal for the first time in Liberia was
passed by parliament amid a flurry of rape cases and accusations that
have flooded the local media.

"Nobody will abuse our girls and women and get away with it; any law on
rape especially the rape bill just passed into law will be totally
implemented under our government," Sirleaf said in a live radio
interview.

Liberian women's rights groups, led by the Association of Female Lawyers
of Liberia, drew up the legislation in response to what they said was a
growing number of cases of rape and sexual assault.

Though statistics are unavailable, more and more cases have been
reported in the local media since civil war ended two years ago.

Rape was common during Liberia's 14 years of civil conflict where
warlord rebel leaders pressed drugs and weapons on disenchanted youths
and encouraged fighters to 'pay themselves' by looting, raping and
pillaging.

Under the new law, rapists can be sentenced to between seven years or
life imprisonment, depending on the gravity of the case. Accused rapists
will not be granted bail. Previously there was no legislation against
rape per se, though gang rape was considered an offence.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50500


BENIN: Lives go up in flames as petrol-smuggling rises

At a busy crossroads in the Benin capital just over a week ago, four
people turned into human torches and shops and traffic lights were
scorched in the latest of a string of accidents blamed on contraband
petrol.

For the past eight months, this tiny West African nation has been
severely short of petrol products due to soaring world prices and
hitches in domestic supply. But with Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil
producer, as its neighbour, cheaper petrol is flowing easily if
illegally across the border, easing shortages but in some cases causing
a flood of grief.

One of the worst such incidents took place during the morning rush hour
on 1 December in the heart of the capital, Cotonou, not far from the
busy central Dantokpa market.

Street hawkers were going about their business and a blind beggar was
wishing passers-by and drivers a good day as he asked for a coin. The
last drops of rain from a flash morning shower were evaporating in the
sun.

As the traffic light turned red a petrol smuggler from the border town
of Porto-Novo drew up on a motorbike, hauling several 50-litre cans of
contraband petrol, locally known as "Kpayo petrol," which he planned to
deliver to the nearby market. But a motorbike taxi - called a Zemidjan -
came skidding to a stop, bumping into the plastic cans. They burst open
easily as they are fragile due to repeated heating to expand their
capacity.

The petrol leaked onto the spark plug, igniting a ball of fire that
burnt alive the blind man and the smuggler. The Zemidjan driver and a
young girl selling paper handkerchiefs on the street died on the way to
hospital, while a passer-by and a Nigerian hawking cell phone
accessories suffered third-degree burns after bystanders poured engine
oil over them to douse the flames.

The traffic lights too were scorched and several nearby stalls gutted.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50605


SIERRA LEONE: Politician's bid to form rival party makes waves

The leader of a breakaway political party is making waves in Sierra
Leone as the country begins to look ahead to presidential elections and
watches the final exit of a once 17,500-strong UN peacekeeping mission.

Charles Francis Margai was arrested on conspiracy charges this week,
sparking a fiery reaction from supporters in the capital, Freetown, with
one vowing people would "cause havoc" if the presidential hopeful
remains in detention.

Margai's shake-up of the political scene marks a potential rift in the
Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who
must give up the helm after the 2007 election.

Margai, who broke from the SLPP when it rebuffed him as its man for the
presidential poll, was charged with 11 counts related to an unauthorised
campaign rally last month in the town of Bo.

As news of Margai's arrest on Wednesday spread across Freetown, crowds
of supporters assembled, at one point trying to storm the Criminal
Investigations Department (CID), prompting riot police to fire tear gas.

Snubbed by the SLPP, Margai - the son of one president and nephew of
another - left the party in a storm in early October and announced the
formation of the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC). But he
has been unable to register his party with the Political Parties
Commission.

Minutes before his arrest Margai told IRIN in an interview that
President Kabbah was "dragging his feet" in making the appointments
necessary for the parties commission to function, thereby helping his
chosen successor, Vice President Solomon Berewa, gain an early start in
the campaign.

"Before registering, we can't hold rallies, but we can inform our allies
on what we plan to do on an individual and personal basis," Margai said.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50607


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