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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 289
6 - 12 August 2005


CONTENTS:

MAURITANIA: AU "reassured", new rulers name government
COTE D IVOIRE: South African mediators say laws comply with peace plan,
   rebels upset
GUINEA-BISSAU: Vieira officially declared president
LIBERIA: Public demonstrations banned, security stepped up as election
   date nears
NIGER: No famine - but hungry for help
MALI: Desert blooms with first rains but hunger continues
NIGERIA: Planned census facing boycott threats


MAURITANIA: AU "reassured", new rulers name government

African Union envoys said that they were reassured after meeting
Mauritania's new military rulers but said the country's suspension from
the continental body would stand until there were free and fair
elections.

"The AU did say that it is ready... to co-operate with the government in
Mauritania," said Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adeniji, who headed
the delegation sent in after senior military officers toppled President
Maaouya Ould Taya in a bloodless coup last week.

"There is something of a national consensus... but Mauritania will not
be restored (to full AU membership), that is clear, until there are
elections, until there is a democratic system," Adeniji added, urging
the junta to make good on its promises.

The Military Council for Justice and Democracy, who brought 21 years of
authoritarian rule to an end by seizing power while Ould Taya was out of
the country last Wednesday, has pledged to hold a constitutional
referendum within a year to be followed immediately by legislative
elections.

Fresh presidential elections will come within two years and no-one in
the junta or caretaker government will stand.

As the diplomatic flurry subsided and the AU delegation left town,
Mauritania's new rulers went about consolidating their grip on power by
announcing a new cabinet on Wednesday, composed of civil servants,
politicians and businessmen.

None of the cabinet serving at the time of the 3 August coup have been
recalled to the ministries, but some opposition leaders, who have so far
supported the putchists, voiced concern that many of the new ministers
hail from Ould Taya's party and that no opposition members have been
given a portfolio.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48538


COTE D IVOIRE: South African mediators say laws comply with peace plan,
rebels upset

South African mediators have deemed that laws passed by Ivorian
President Laurent Gbagbo last month do conform to the country's peace
plan, dealing a blow to rebels who had refused to start disarming saying
the laws were inadequate.

As part of a plan thrashed out in Pretoria at the end of June to end
Cote d'Ivoire's three-year crisis, Gbagbo used special constitutional
powers to pass a series of laws dealing with nationality, citizenship
rights and the composition of the Independent Electoral Commission.

Rebel leaders were then supposed to start sending their 40,500 fighters
to cantonment sites ahead of an eventual handing over of weapons but
they failed to do so, saying that Gbagbo's laws were not in keeping with
the spirit of the Pretoria deal nor its forerunner, the Linas-Marcoussis
accord of 2003.

But a South African delegation, including Defence Minister Mosiuoa
Lekota, sent in over the weekend judged the laws to be in keeping with
the peace process.  The decision puts the ball back into the court of
the rebel New Forces.

However, their immediate reaction was that nothing had changed as far as
relinquishing their weapons was concerned.

"These laws do not conform to the letter and the spirit of
Linas-Marcoussis and yet they are asking us to go ahead and disarm. It's
not possible," said rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate, expressing his
surprise at the mediators' announcement.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48500


GUINEA-BISSAU: Vieira officially declared president

Guinea-Bissau's electoral commission has formally declared one-time
military ruler Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira the president of the small
West African country, dismissing his challenger's claims that last
month's ballot had been fraudulent.

Malam Mane, the electoral commission's head, confirmed provisional
results that Vieira had garnered 52 percent of the vote in the 24 July
poll, with Malam Bacai Sanha, the candidate of the ruling African Party
for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) trailing in
second with 48 percent.

This presidential election was supposed to set the seal on
Guinea-Bissau's return to constitutional government after a civil war in
1998-1999 that was followed by several years of political instability
and administrative chaos. But the process has not been as smooth as
desired.

The final election results had been due to be published last week but
the announcement was delayed after a complaint by Bacai Sanha's party,
which cried fraud and demanded recounts in the capital Bissau, and
districts to the east and west.

On Tuesday the electoral commission concluded that although there had
been some voting irregularities, they would not have had a major impact
on the final outcome.

Bacai Sanha was unconvinced, however, and said he would go to the
Supreme Court to contest the results.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48540


LIBERIA: Public demonstrations banned, security stepped up as election
date nears

The Liberian government has banned all public demonstrations and UN
peacekeepers have stepped up security as the West African nation
prepares for October polls designed to return it to democracy after 14
years of civil war.

"The decision to ban public demonstration is intended to ensure that the
national security of the state is stable and guarantee an election free
of violence," Justice Minister Kabineh Janneh said on Monday, adding
that the ban was indefinite.

The government's action came after some supporters of George Weah, one
of 27 presidential aspirants, called for a mass street demonstration on
Monday.

The Yana Boys Association said they wanted to protest against a bid to
dismiss Weah's candidacy that has been lodged with Liberia's electoral
officials.

The National Elections commission has yet to rule on the complaint
against Weah, but it is due to publish the list of accepted candidates
for the 11 October poll next week.

"A scrutiny committee will review the applications and verify all
documentations," the commission said in a statement. "(It) will decide
the fate of candidates, whether to accept or reject, on August 15 by
publishing the final list of qualified candidates."

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48521


NIGER: No famine - but hungry for help

Hunger and disease is part of the daily life for the 1,500 people in
Zermo, a small village in eastern Niger, even when nature is kind to
them.

Some 1,000 km from the dusty capital, Niamey, the settlement of mud huts
sits on a small hill in a sea of sand, where subsistence farmers eke out
a meagre existence growing sorghum and millet and rearing a few cattle
and goats.

Haoua Maman sits on the floor in front of her hut with 15-month-old
Ibrahim in her arms. His limbs are just skin and bone and he is almost
too weak to breathe. Her breasts stopped giving milk when food in the
village ran out.

"I went to the local health centre in Ollelewa with Ibrahim to get
help," Haoua explained, "but there they asked for 700 CFA (US $1.4) for
a consultation, money I did not have." She made the 25 km journey back
to Zermo on foot, knowing that she and Ibrahim faced another day with an
empty stomach. "What can we do? The child will die, if God wants it."

Last year's drought and a locust invasion tipped the fragile balance
between survival and death, as livestock perished and the sorghum fields
were consumed by locust swarms.

Malnutrition is an endemic problem in Niger. While aid workers stress
this year's crisis in the south is not a famine, it has offered a
heart-wrenching glimpse into the extent of the deep-seated poverty of
the country's 12 million people.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48523


MALI: Desert blooms with first rains but hunger continues

The normally dusty Sahelian plains around Gao in eastern Mali are
vividly green after the first rains, but there's still not enough food
to go around. Aid workers have recorded a particularly high number of
malnourished children and an emergency food distribution programme has
swung into action.

In the village of Marsi, one in five children are malnourished according
to French NGO, Action Contre la Faim (ACF), which is delivering food aid
in the region.

Mohamed is 15 months old. He is malnourished and receiving food
supplements as part of the ACF programme.

"His only illness is that he doesn't have enough to eat," said his
mother, 45-year-old Fati Mohamed as she joggles Mohamed, her youngest of
seven children, in her lap. He's crying and irritable.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48487


NIGERIA: Planned census facing boycott threats

When Nigeria conducts a long-overdue national census in November, no
data will be collected showing the religious or ethnic origins of its
citizens. The authorities fear that highlighting those divisions in a
national headcount will only inflame tensions.

Africa's most populous country of more than 126 million people, split
between a mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south, is frequently
plagued by ethnic and religious upheavals.

A meeting of the advisory National Council of State, comprising the
country's 36 state governors and former heads of state, called by
President Olusegun Obasanjo in January, had advised against considering
religion and ethnicity in the census.

"After exhaustive discussion, it was resolved that, as it was not on the
questionnaire for the 1991 census, the issue of ethnicity and religion
would also not feature on the questionnaire for the 2005 national
census," the body said in a statement after the meeting.

However, rival religious and ethnic interest groups appear united in
their demand that religion, and ethnicity, should be considered.

Both Christian and Muslim groups have threatened to boycott the census -
a potentially massive blow to its credibility - if the government does
not review its position.


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


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