U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci


WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 287
23 - 29 July 2005


CONTENTS:

COTE D IVOIRE: Gbagbo's reforms fail to match promises, opposition says
GUINEA-BISSAU: Vieira scores narrow victory over Bacai Sanha in
   presidential election
NIGER: WFP to more than double food aid recipients to 2.5 million
MALI: No risk of famine says government, but aid workers disagree
SENEGAL: Former prime minister charged with endangering state security


COTE D'IVOIRE: Gbagbo's reforms fail to match promises, opposition says

Crucial reforms implemented by President Laurent Gbagbo fall short of
what he promised in a South African-brokered deal that is due to pave
the way for presidential elections in October, the opposition and rebels
occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire said on Wednesday.

The G7 alliance, which groups the New Forces rebel movement and the four
main opposition parties in parliament, said three key reforms
implemented by Gbagbo by decree on 15 July fell short of what was
required.

These related to the law of nationality, the law of naturalisation and
the law that defines the powers and composition of the Independent
Electoral Commission.

"The G7 would like to reaffirm that these reforms do not fulfil the
agreement signed in Pretoria," G7 chairman Alphonse Djedje Mady told a
news conference in Abidjan.

He said the laws as promulgated by Gbagbo, without approval by
parliament, would restrict the number of people eligible to vote in the
October election and would limit the powers of the Independent Electoral
Commission to supervise the ballot effectively.

Over the weekend rebel leader Guillaume Soro raised fresh doubts whether
the long delayed programme of disarmament would finally start on 29
July, when 45,000 fighters are due to move to cantonments sites before
handing in their weapons.

Soro's announcement followed swift on the heels of an attack by
unidentified armed men on two police stations on the outskirts of
Abidjan on Saturday night who went on to briefly occupy the town of
Agboville, 80 km to the north.

Government loyalists have blamed rebels for the attack who in return
have accused Gbagbo-ists of staging the attack to disrupt the peace
process.


27 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48331&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE

25 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48289&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE

24 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48269&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE


GUINEA-BISSAU: Vieira scores narrow victory over Bacai Sanha in
presidential election

Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira, the former military ruler of Guinea-Bissau,
scored a narrow victory over Malam Bacai Sanha, the candidate of the
ruling PAIGC party, in the second round of the country's presidential
election, according to provisional results released on Thursday.

Malam Mane, the chairman of the National Electoral Commission, said
Vieira, of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and
Cape Verde (PAIGC), won a majority of 52 percent, with 216,167 votes in
last Sunday's ballot.

Bacai Sanha trailed over 19,000 votes behind him with 48 percent and
196,759 votes, he added.

Vieira, who ruled this small West African country from 1980 to 1999,
told reporters: "The results just announced demonstrate my
unquestionable victory."

But Bacai Sanha's campaign manager, Serifo Nhamado, said there were
"indications of fraud" in some parts of the country.

He demanded a fresh vote in the capital Bissau, Biombo district
immediately to the west of the city and Bafata district, 130 km to the
east.

However, political analysts said it was unlikely that the National
Electoral Commission would agree to this request. Final results have to
be declared by the 3 August.

28 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48351&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA-BISSAU

25 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48276&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA-BISSAU



NIGER: WFP to more than double food aid recipients to 2.5 million

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) will more than double the number of
people to receive food aid in Niger, aiming to reach 2.5 million men,
women and children in danger of starving, an agency official said.

Of the 3.6 million people the Niger government says are facing food
shortages, WFP now estimates that 2.5 million of them need food aid, WFP
country director Gian Carlo Cirri told IRIN from the capital, Niamey.

The WFP previously targeted 1.2 million people for food aid.

After months of urgent UN and government appeals western donors in the
past several weeks have begun to provide substantial funding for
emergency aid to Niger, where the UN humanitarian coordinator Jan
Egeland last week said "thousands of children" had already died for lack
of food.

WFP will help the weakest people first, Cirri said.

"We now think that about 1.6 million of the 2.5 million are extremely
vulnerable so they are our priority," he said.

WFP's assistance in Niger consists of free food distributions and
rations provided to therapeutic and supplementary feeding centres.

WFP expects to announce a revised budget appeal next week, agency
officials said.

Niger is moving into the final few months of the lean season - always
difficult in this landlocked semi-desert land, but particularly crushing
this year after locusts and a drought wiped out crops and pasture in
2004.


28 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48363&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGER

26 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48303&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGER



MALI: No risk of famine says government, but aid workers disagree

BAMAKO, 26 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - From her office in the capital Bamako, the
government's head of food security says there is no risk of famine in
Mali this year. But some aid workers operating in the arid north and
east of the country, disagree.

"Thank God, in Mali, we don't have a risk of famine," Food Commissioner
Lansry Nana Yaya Haidara told IRIN on Tuesday.

Mary Diallo, the head of the government's Early Warning System, agreed
that there was no crisis in Mali. "I am the first to become involved in
everything that concerns this situation... but rest assured the facts
contradict such a scenario," he said.

Both were speaking from a city in the wooded savannahs of southern Mali
which enjoyed good rainfall and a reasonable harvest last year and where
food prices have remained stable.

But according to the United Nations, over two million people in the
semi-arid zone further north, will need food aid to get by this year
following poor rainfall and an invasion of crop-eating locusts in 2004.

26 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48308&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=MALI


SENEGAL: Former prime minister charged with endangering state security

Former prime minister Idrissa Seck, an emerging political rival to
President Abdoulaye Wade, has been charged with endangering national
security and remanded in custody until his trial.

Seck, who served as Wade's prime minister from November 2002 until April
2004, was formally charged on Saturday after spending a week in police
detention.

During that time, Seck was questioned about allegations of massive
overspending on public works in the city of Thies, where he serves as
mayor.

The government has not spelled out publicly how Seck is supposed to have
endangered national security or whether the charges against him are
connected to allegations that he squandered 46 billion CFA francs (US
$84 million) on public works projects in Thies that were only budgeted
at 25 billion CFA (US $45 million).

Supporters of the 46-year-old politician have accused Wade of simply
bringing the charges in order to silence a political rival.

25 July 2005:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48285&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=SENEGAL


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


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