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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Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci


WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 311
31 December 2005 - 6 January 2006


CONTENTS:

CHAD: President Deby seeks regional support amid tensions with Sudan
COTE D IVOIRE: Annan wants more peacekeepers on ground
NIGERIA: Thousands of prisoners awaiting trial to be freed
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Foreign Minister denies pocketing Moroccan aid
   money
LIBERIA: Soldiers refuse to quit camp needed for new army
GUINEA: Opposition party withdraws from parliament


CHAD: President Deby seeks regional support amid tensions with Sudan

Chadian President Idriss Deby has stepped up a diplomatic offensive,
calling on fellow African leaders to support Chad against what he called
the "subversive plots" of neighbouring Sudan.

The Chadian leader made the remarks at a special summit of the
six-nation Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) in
the capital, N'djamena this week, which he convened amid mounting
tensions with Sudan, whom Deby accuses of deliberately trying to
destabilise Chad.

"I hope that countries [in the region] will be on our side to fully
inform the international community of the gravity of Sudan's subversive
plots against Chad," Deby said at the opening of the summit.

The Chad government, reeling from a wave of army desertions since
October, declared a "state of belligerence" with Sudan after a rebel
attack on 18 December in the eastern border town of Adre. Chad blamed
the attack on Sudan, saying it is financing, arming and equipping
Chadian rebels.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50946


COTE D'IVOIRE: Annan wants more peacekeepers on ground

The UN peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire is overstretched and needs
thousands of reinforcements as long-delayed elections near, and there
remains "the possibility that another major violent crisis might occur",
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

In his latest report on the divided West African nation, Annan
recommended that an extra 3,400 soldiers and 475 policemen be sent in,
boosting the peacekeeping force by some 50 percent.

Currently almost 6,900 blue-hats officers, alongside 4,000 peacekeepers
from former colonial power France, patrol the buffer zone which cuts a
swathe between the government-run south and the rebel-held north. And
around 700 police officers help keep the peace in urban areas and train
local officers.

But Annan says even more are needed, and hopes the UN Security Council
will sign off on reinforcements when the current mission's mandate
expires on 24 January.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50961


NIGERIA: Thousands of prisoners awaiting trial to be freed

Nigeria plans to free some 25,000 inmates, many of whom have been
awaiting trial for years, in a bid to decongest overcrowded and
unhygienic prisons and improve its human rights record.

"The issue of awaiting trial inmates has become an endemic problem in
Nigeria," said Justice Minister Bayo Ojo after a cabinet meeting late
Wednesday. "The conditions of the prisons are just too terrible. The
conditions negate the essence of prison, which is to reform."

According to government figures, two thirds of Nigeria's 45,000
prisoners have not yet had a trial - in some cases because their files
have gone missing, in others because witnesses were unavailable.

A government-commissioned survey published last year found that suspects
were dumped in violent, overcrowded cells and left with no legal
assistance, no trial date and no hope of getting out - a process which
has long drawn the ire of human rights groups.

Under the new government scheme, inmates who have spent between three
and ten years waiting for a trial will have their cases reviewed for
immediate release. Prisoners who have already been in jail longer than
they would have been if convicted are also eligible, as are the elderly,
those infected with HIV/AIDS and other terminally ill prisoners.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50962


SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Foreign Minister denies pocketing Moroccan aid
money

The foreign minister of Sao Tome and Principe has denied allegations
that he misappropriated nearly US $500,000 of Moroccan aid money, but he
has raised a political storm by saying it was spent by the president
bypassing government controls.

Returning from a visit to the United States, Foreign Minister Ovidio
Pequeno told reporters on Thursday that Morocco gave the money directly
to President Fradique de Meneses to spend at his discretion.

"It was a one-off direct aid payment to the Presidency of the Republic
worth 4.5 million dirhams (US $497,000) for the purchase of goods,
equipment and official vehicles, not an institutional aid payment to Sao
Tome and Principe within the context of bilateral cooperation," he said.

On 31 December, the news magazine Equador accused Pequeno, a close
associate of the president, of misappropriating 450,000 euros of
Moroccan aid money. Equador said he diverted the money into an account
controlled by the Sao Tome embassy in Gabon without the knowledge of
Prime Minister Maria do Carmo Silveira and then into a series of other
bank accounts in Europe.

The prime minister ordered an immediate inquiry and dispatched a team of
auditors to the embassy in Libreville to check its financial dealings.

Pequeno's comments appear certain to embitter the already tense
relations between the president and the government, which is dominated
by the MLSTP-PSD, the largest party in parliament. Sao Tome faces
parliamentary elections in March and presidential elections in
September, in which Meneses is expected to seek a second five-year term.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50966


LIBERIA: Soldiers refuse to quit camp needed for new army

More than 2,000 former Liberian soldiers are defying a government order
to vacate a military camp outside the capital, Monrovia - a barracks
authorities say is needed for training a new army after 14 years of war.

In early December, the transitional government led by Charles Gyude
Bryant ordered the soldiers to quit Camp Schiefflin by the end of the
year, as part of a programme to revamp the country's armed forces. But
the soldiers have refused.

"I am not leaving this barracks to go anywhere," 70-year-old Master
Sergeant Yapkawolo Gbellee said, explaining that he spent 44 years in
the Liberian army and has lived at Camp Schiefflin for a decade.

Gbellee is insisting on 22 months' salary arrears, pension rights and
official decoration for his military service before he will leave the
camp.

The International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL) - comprising western
and African governments and organisations that helped broker the
county's 2003 peace deal - has rejected the soldiers' stand and set a
new evacuation deadline of 7 January.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50947


GUINEA: Opposition party withdraws from parliament

Guinea's parliamentary opposition has announced it will withdraw from
the national assembly in protest at last month's municipal elections,
which it says were nothing short of "electoral robbery."

The Union of Progress and Renewal (UPR) is the only opposition party
represented in parliament, holding 20 of 114 seats. Remaining posts
belong to politicians allied with or members of the ruling Party for
Unity and Progress of president Lansana Conte, who has held power for 21
years.

"Without going back over how the polls were organised and held, I would
like to say again that there were no elections in Guinea on 18 December,
[but] rather an electoral robbery during the entire process," UPR
executive secretary Yaya Keita said in a statement.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50969


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