Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-322: 24-Mar-06
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
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci
WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 322
18 - 24 March 2006
CONTENTS:
BENIN: Political novice Boni Yayi set to become new president
GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Clashes leave villagers cut off as rebels lay
fresh mines
WEST AFRICA: Lack of institutional muscle threatens fight against bird
flu, say African leaders
NIGERIA: Landmark census dogged by old suspicions
CHAD: Capital city deserted after gunfire near presidential palace
triggers panic
GAMBIA: Attempted coup averted, government says
GUINEA: Big homecoming staged for President Conte's return
BENIN: Political novice Boni Yayi set to become new president
Boni Yayi, a former banker in his maiden bid for political office, has
won nearly 75 percent of the vote in the final round of Benin's
presidential election, according to provisional results from the
National Electoral Commission.
Yayi won 74.51 percent of votes in the second run-off round on 19 March
against 25.49 percent for veteran political leader Adrien Houngbedji,
the electoral commission (CENA) said late Wednesday after counting 97.20
percent of the ballot papers.
Turnout was 67.01 percent against 70.87 percent in the first round on 5
March.
The election of a new president - the fourth poll since the introduction
of multi-party politics in 1991 - marks a turning point for the tiny
West African nation wedged between Nigeria and Togo. It ends almost
three decades in office for President Mathieu Kerekou, who was
ineligible to run due to his age and to having completed two successive
terms. Doubts over whether he would relinquish the office at the end of
his mandate 6 April clouded the run-up to the poll.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52401&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=BENIN
GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL: Clashes leave villagers cut off as rebels lay
fresh mines
Fighting in the forests of Guinea Bissau near the border with Senegal
has left many civilians in distress, their villages wholly cut off,
Guinea Bissau military sources say.
And in a region where landmines from past conflicts have injured and
killed hundreds in recent years, Senegalese separatists in the past
several days have planted more mines, the sources say.
"Many civilians are in difficulty in the region of Varela," Colonel
Antonio N'daye said, referring to an area about 45 kilometres west of
Sao Domingos, the site of recent heavy clashes between the Guinea Bissau
military and rebels of Senegal's Movement for the Democratic Forces of
Casamance (MFDC).
The road between Sao Domingos and Varela is completely closed to
vehicles and pedestrians in part because MFDC forces are laying
landmines, N'daye said. Schools in Sao Domingos and area villages are
closed.
Only military remain in and around Sao Domingos, where Guinea Bissau
troops at the weekend began bombarding a faction of the MFDC, which
crossed over into the country after an attack by a rival rebel bloc last
week in Senegal's southern Casamance region.
One military official who declined to be named said MFDC rebels have
stolen food, livestock and other belongings from civilians in the Varela
area.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52356&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL
See also:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52327&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52423&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA-BISSAU-SENEGAL
WEST AFRICA: Lack of institutional muscle threatens fight against bird
flu, say African leaders
With four African countries stricken by avian flu - including one with a
human infection - UN agencies and African leaders have called for
sweeping measures to contain the deadly virus, notably the need to come
up with funds on the world's poorest continent.
Representatives of UN agencies and 46 African nations wrapped up a
three-day conference in the Gabon capital Libreville on Wednesday,
issuing an 18-point declaration on how to keep the virus in check.
The declaration calls for the creation in Africa of animal and human
testing facilities essential for tracing and controlling outbreaks,
saying current laboratory capacity is "weak or non-existent".
The document said: "weak national institutional capacities - seriously
hinder the implementation of preparedness and response plans".
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52404&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=WEST_AFRICA
NIGERIA: Landmark census dogged by old suspicions
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country yet nobody knows exactly how
many people live there. A five-day government census launched on Tuesday
seeks to end the guessing game.
Businesses, schools and offices stayed closed in the commercial capital
Lagos and a holiday hush fell over city streets as many residents heeded
government pleas to stay home and wait for the census enumerators.
Nigeria, the world's eighth largest oil producer, is a federal republic
and central government allocates resources among the states according to
population size. Previous headcounts have been mired in controversy and
estimates of Nigeria's population range from 126 million to 150 million
people.
President Olusegun Obasanjo in a national broadcast on radio and
television on Tuesday urged Nigerians to support the census as a
necessity for social and economic planning insisting that the "exercise
bears no hidden agenda," contrary to widespread suspicions.
"I wish to stress once again that census-taking is not politics and
should therefore not be a contest for political supremacy," Obasanjo
said. "People must therefore desist from misrepresenting the purposes of
the exercise for their own selfish interests."
The census comes at a tense time in Nigeria, a country prone to ethnic,
religious and political upheaval. Already this year has seen scores of
people killed in religious violence and an unprecedented number of oil
workers have been taken hostage by angry youths demanding a greater
share of the oil wealth for their impoverished villages that sit above
the crude deposits in the Niger Delta.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52354&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGERIA
CHAD: Capital city deserted after gunfire near presidential palace
triggers panic
Schools, businesses and offices were deserted in the Chadian capital,
N'djamena, Wednesday after shooting near the presidential palace sent
people fleeing.
Gunfire heard between 10:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday near the
presidential palace prompted people to flee workplaces and pull their
children from schools, one Chadian said from home after quitting his
office.
"The shooting caused panic. Everyone thought it was a coup," he said.
But the government swiftly issued a communique saying there was only a
minor incident over "a misunderstanding related to salaries" and that
the entire country "is under the control of the government security and
armed forces."
The statement, signed by communications minister Hourmadji Moussa
Doumgor, said all had returned to calm, "contrary to tendentious and
alarmist rumours spreading about the trouble seen this morning in the
capital." Broadcasting the statement on state radio in the early
afternoon, the government appealed to citizens to stay calm and return
to their normal activities.
Wednesday's events come amid heavy tension in Chad, where on Monday
government forces attacked a rebel post in the east and days earlier the
government announced it had thwarted a coup plot against President
Idriss Deby.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52382&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CHAD
See also:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52355&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CHAD
GAMBIA: Attempted coup averted, government says
The Gambian government has thwarted a coup attempt, a presidential
communique said on Wednesday, but it is business as usual in the capital
Banjul.
"Security forces yesterday discovered that a group of army officers led
by Colonel Ndure Cham, former chief of defence staff, were at an
advanced stage in their plot to overthrow the constitutional government
of The Gambia," said the statement from the office of the president.
"All those involved are presently in custody and helping the security
forces in their investigation, except the leader who is still at large,"
it added. An un-named military source told IRIN at least 12 people had
been arrested.
On news of the trouble, President Yahya Jammeh cut short a trip to
nearby Mauritania, returning to Banjul under cover of darkness some time
Tuesday night or Wednesday morning with an escort of Mauritanian
military commandoes, another military source said.
The government meanwhile called for calm. "The general public is hereby
assured that there is no cause for alarm and the situation is firmly
under control," the statement said.
But most residents of Banjul were unaware of the overnight trouble and
shops, schools and businesses were open as usual on Wednesday.
President Jammeh seized power of Gambia, a tiny sliver of land on
Africa's western coast surrounded entirely on its land borders by
Senegal, in a bloodless coup in 1994 when he was just 29 years old.
Since then, he has won two elections and the most recent in 2001 earned
a thumbs-up from international monitors.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52380&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GAMBIA
GUINEA: Big homecoming staged for President Conte's return
Government ministers and leading business men turned out in force Friday
to welcome President Lansana Conte back home to Guinea's capital
Conakry, after spending nearly a week in Switzerland where he received
medical treatment.
Since Conte collapsed on an overseas trip in 2002, questions about the
state of the president's health have abounded, and more than once he has
been reported close to death's door.
On Friday, a motorcade of over 100 gleaming cars packed with Guinea's
most influential government and business leaders, swept through
pot-holed streets lined with security forces to the airport to meet the
president, a diabetic who turns 72 this year.
Conte waved from his car at children who had skipped school in their
hundreds to catch a glimpse of the president and some 300 female praise
singers dressed in the white and green of Conte's ruling party sang of
his greatness.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52430&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA
See also:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52357&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52325&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA
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