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

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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 289
30 July - 5 August 2005


CONTENTS:

MAURITANIA: New military rulers face worldwide condemnation
GUINEA-BISSAU: Cape Verde president to mediate in poll deadlock
NIGER: WFP asks donors to triple funding to over $57 million
MALI: World ignoring food crisis says Oxfam
COTE D IVOIRE: Diplomats say Gbagbo laws comply with peace deal
BENIN: Togolese refugees continue to trickle in, but funds do not


MAURITANIA: New military rulers face worldwide condemnation

Mauritanians woke to a new dawn on Thursday following the bloodless
ousting of President Maaouya Ould Taya, with many in triumphant mood but
anxious to hear more from the Military Council for Justice and
Democracy, which staged the coup but promised to stand down within two
years.

In a statement carried on the state news agency, the council said it was
composed of 17 members from the various branches of the armed forces,
with all but one carrying the rank of colonel, and would usher in
civilian rule within two years.

Named at the council's head was Col Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, who took part
in the putsch that brought Ould Taya to power in 1984 and who had served
at his side as the nation's security chief for almost two decades.

Ould Taya was forced to land in Niger. News of the coup broke on
Wednesday as he made his way back from the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi
Arabia.

The African Union said it was suspending Mauritania's membership of the
53-nation group "until the restoration of constitutional order in the
country."

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48458



GUINEA-BISSAU: Cape Verde president to mediate in poll deadlock

Cape Verdian President Pedro Pires flew into Guinea-Bissau on Thursday
to try to end a dispute surrounding last month's presidential elections,
for which definitive results have still not been published.

Provisional results, released last week, handed victory to Joao Bernardo
"Nino" Vieira, the former military ruler of Guinea-Bissau, with Malam
Bacai Sanha, the candidate of the ruling African Party for the
Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) trailing him by
four percentage points.

The National Electoral Commission was bound by law to issue the final
results not more than 10 days after the election, which was held on 24
July. But that deadline passed on Wednesday without anything being
published, leaving people in a tense Guinea-Bissau wondering what is
going on.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48459



NIGER: WFP asks donors to triple funding to over $57 million

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is asking donors for US $57.6 million
to feed people threatened by famine in Niger, more than three times the
amount requested last month.

The additional funding would help WFP provide food to 2.5 million people
- a new target the agency announced last week, up from 1.2 million.

The WFP appeal is in addition to $14.6 million requested last week by
the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to provide emergency health care and
nutrition programmes in the landlocked West African country.

"This is absolutely about saving children's lives," UNICEF information
officer, Kent Page, told IRIN on Wednesday from Maradi, Niger.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48439



MALI: World ignoring food crisis says Oxfam

The international community must wake up and stop an already bad food
crisis in Mali spiralling out of control, British-based aid agency Oxfam
said. But government officials shrugged off comparisons with
neighbouring Niger and said they were merely faced with a particularly
severe lean season.

In a statement, Oxfam urged donors to stump up much-needed cash to help
the estimated 1.1 million hungry people in Mali and avoid a last-minute
rush to save lives.

"Donors have a window of opportunity. They can help to avert a major
food crisis in Mali, but they must act now," said Natasha Kofoworola
Quist, Oxfam Great Britain's Regional Director for West Africa.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48438



COTE D IVOIRE: Diplomats say Gbagbo laws comply with peace deal

Controversial law reforms promulgated by Ivorian President Laurent
Gbagbo last month comply with the country's peace agreements, despite
criticism from opposition parties and rebels, diplomats told IRIN.

The six legal texts, passed by presidential decree on 15 July, were
revised by a delegation of independent legal advisors from Rwanda and
Burundi to make sure they were in keeping with the January 2003 peace
deal known as Linas-Marcoussis and a more recent accord hammered out in
Pretoria in June, an African diplomat told IRIN.

The legal advisors were sent by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who
is acting as mediator in the almost three-year-old crisis that has split
Cote d'Ivoire into a rebel-held north and a government-run south.

But the opposition and the rebels say that the laws do not conform to
the spirit of the peace deals, and the rebels have held off sending
thousands of fighters to cantonment sites ahead of a planned disarmament
because of this.

Sunday's deadline to begin moving 40,500 rebels back to barracks came
and went without a single New Forces fighter moving, despite two days of
talks between government and rebel military commanders on the so-called
pre-regroupment operation.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48440



BENIN: Togolese refugees continue to trickle in, but funds do not

People are still fleeing Togo more than three months after disputed
presidential polls and the refugees, who now number 40,000, are showing
no sign of wanting to go home, the UN refugee agency has said as it
repeated an appeal to donors for money.

Since the eruption of violence in April after a disputed presidential
poll, 24,500 Togolese refugees have crossed the eastern frontier into
Benin, and a further 15,500 have gone west into Ghana - scattering
through the border regions in both countries.

Although the rate of new arrivals has fallen from the several thousand a
week at the height of Togo's political crisis, there are still about 200
people a week being registered in Benin, said UNHCR spokesperson in
Geneva, Jennifer Pagonis. No new refugees have been reported in Ghana
since late May.

While the total number of refugees continues to climb, UNHCR is
struggling with a funding shortfall. It needs a total of US $4.7 million
for its operations in Benin and Ghana, but has so far received only
$1.75 million and has been forced to dip into its own reserve fund for
another $1.5 million.

"That leaves us with a shortfall of $1.45 million," said Pagonis. "There
are no signs that the refugees are intending to return home in the
immediate future and it is crucial that donors respond to our request
for funds to assist this population."

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48413


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


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