Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-334: 16-Jun-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 334
10 - 16 June 2006
CONTENTS:
GUINEA: Police confirm 11 killed in strike violence
COTE D'IVOIRE: Militias fail to show for disarmament
CHAD: Spate of hijackings force aid cutbacks
NIGERIA: Polio surge thwarts global eradication plan
LIBERIA: Britain agrees to jail Charles Taylor if convicted
LIBERIA: Security Council draws back on arms embargo
CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Presidents Obasanjo and Biya shake hands on disputed
Bakassi peninsula
GUINEA: Police confirm 11 killed in strike violence
Police have confirmed that 11 people were killed during violence linked
to anti-government protests on Monday over high prices for fuel and rice
and poor payment of teachers.
Authorities on Thursday said they were investigating the causes of the
deaths as a nationwide strike entered its ninth day. The government and
main labor unions were continuing to meet on Friday.
Among those killed, police said, were two students - one in the northern
town of Labe and another in the southeastern town of Nzerekore. This
conflicts with local press reports that several students were killed
when a member of the security forces allegedly opened fire on student
demonstrators in Conakry.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53991&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA
see also:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53964&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53907&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53874&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA
COTE D'IVOIRE: Militias fail to show for disarmament
Disarmament of pro-government militias in western Cote d'Ivoire failed
to start as planned on Friday after some 2,000 fighters, due to hand
over their weapons, failed to show up for the special ceremony.
The fighters, belonging to three pro-government militia groups, are
scheduled to disband and turn in their guns at the local court in the
western town of Guiglo, some 500 km northwest of the main city Abidjan,
said Honorine Kouman of the National Programme for Disarmament,
Demobilisation and Reintegration (PNDDR).
But by Friday afternoon, Jean-Paul Malan of the PNDDR in Guiglo, said he
was still waiting.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54001&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE
CHAD: Spate of hijackings force aid cutbacks
The drivers who navigate eastern Chad's craterous roads dodging cattle,
bathtub sized pot-holes, roadblocks, and since last year ruthless armed
carjackers, have no doubt where most of the aid agency vehicles stolen
at gunpoint have gone.
They say there is a well-known smugglers route that crosses the border
into Sudan around Tine, a Chadian town around 150 kilometres northeast
of Abeche. 28 aid agency vehicles have been seized since December 2005.
And once the highwaymen get over the border, "they do the easiest thing
and take them deep into Darfur," said one driver with two years
experience behind the wheel of UN refugee agency (UNHCR) jeep. "No doubt
about it, once you get into Darfur, it's just gone. Nobody will ever
find it."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53914&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=CHAD
NIGERIA: Polio surge thwarts global eradication plan
Health officials have confirmed a surge in polio infections in northern
Nigeria that threatens to undermine global efforts to eradicate the
crippling disease.
Edugie Abebe, head of Nigeria's National Programme on Immunisation (NPI)
announced on Thursday that 467 new polio cases have been recorded this
year, more than double the number of cases recorded in the whole of
2005.
"In 2005 we had about 224 wild polio viruses," said Abebe. "But so far
this year we have reported 467 cases and five states in northern Nigeria
contribute almost 90 percent of this figure," she added.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53990&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGERIA
LIBERIA: Britain agrees to jail Charles Taylor if convicted
The British government has said former Liberian President Charles
Taylor, who is in Sierra Leone awaiting trial on charges of war crimes,
could serve his prison sentence in the United Kingdom if he is
convicted.
Other European countries have refused to host Taylor. Liberia and the
United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone do not want Taylor
tried in West Africa because of security fears.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53969&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA
LIBERIA: Security Council draws back on arms embargo
The UN Security Council has voted to let weapons flow legally into
Liberia for the first time since 1992 to arm the country's newly trained
police and security forces.
The resolution, passed unanimously on Tuesday, said the move would
enable Liberian security forces to "assume greater responsibility for
Liberia's national security."
Other UN sanctions on lucrative timber and diamond exports remain in
place though newly elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf vowed to
maintain pressure to have those embargoes lifted, too.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53951&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA
CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Presidents Obasanjo and Biya shake hands on disputed
Bakassi peninsula
A decades-long border dispute over sovereignty of the Bakassi peninsula
was officially resolved when President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria
agreed to hand the narrow strip of land over to neighbouring Cameroon.
Talks to resolve the sometimes violent dispute were attended by Obasanjo
and President Paul Biya of Cameroon and lead by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan.
"With today's agreement on the Bakassi peninsula, a comprehensive
resolution of the dispute is within our grasp," said Annan after the
ceremony in New York late Monday. "The momentum achieved must be
sustained."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53912&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountryEMEROON-NIGERIA
IRIN-WA
Tel:+221 867.27.30
Fax: +221 867.25.85
Email: IRINWA@IRINnews.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International web: www.cidi.org
Disaster Information listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Africa www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/wafrica