Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-314: 27-Jan-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
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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 314
20 - 27 January 2006
CONTENTS:
COTE D'IVOIRE: UN staff being evacuated as sanctions loom
COTE D'IVOIRE: Using the media to orchestrate violence
NIGERIA: Oil-rich Niger Delta faces "shocking" new wave of violence
CHAD: AU balks at Habre extradition, asks African jurists to study case
CHAD: UN scales back in east after local officials kidnapped
CAMEROON: New anti-corruption drive leaves many sceptical
COTE D'IVOIRE: UN staff being evacuated as sanctions loom
Nearly 400 UN staff are to be evacuated from Cote d'Ivoire by the
weekend as consensus mounts within the UN Security Council on slapping
sanctions against Ivorian leaders seen as whipping up violence and
blocking peace efforts, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
African leaders generally have approved the idea of targeted sanctions
against such individuals, although South Africa, a key mediator in the
Ivorian peace process, has expressed some reticence, a diplomat said.
The sanctions committee is to meet on Monday morning, a UN source said.
Meanwhile almost 400 of the some 2,000 staff working for the UN and UN
humanitarian agencies in Cote d'Ivoire are being temporarily relocated
to Banjul, Gambia and Dakar, Senegal, with departures through Saturday,
a diplomatic source said.
In New York, UN special envoy for Cote d'Ivoire Pierre Schori told
reporters late on Thursday that the evacuations were "a temporary
measure."
"We have been under attack," he said, referring to the anti-UN riots
last week that saw the country's economic capital Abidjan grind to a
standstill for four days as youths loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo,
known as the Young Patriots, went on the rampage demanding that 10,000
UN and French peacekeepers quit the country.
Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51401
COTE D'IVOIRE: Using the media to orchestrate violence
As the United Nations this week considered slapping sanctions on Cote
d'Ivoire leaders undermining peace efforts, Eugene Djue, leader of the
'Patriots' Union for the Total Liberation of Cote d'Ivoire", this week
warned this could be a trigger for war.
To get their supporters out into the streets last week, youth leaders
aired hate messages on radio and state TV, a favoured medium for
whipping up political sentiment in Cote d'Ivoire since the country
descended into civil war after a failed coup in September 2002.
The battle for control of the airwaves has been at the centre of the
struggle for power in Cote d'Ivoire, with factions notably seeking a
hold over state radio and television broadcaster Radiodiffusion
Television Ivorienne (RTI).
Several people died in last week's protests, hundreds of UN peacekeepers
were forced to beat a retreat, UN offices, compounds and vehicles were
torched and ransacked, and there has been severe disruption to
humanitarian aid to more than three million people.
Reacting to this first wave of violence ever targeted at a UN
peacekeeping mission in West Africa, the Security Council last week
demanded "the immediate end of this violence and of all hate messages in
the media, in particular the attacks against the United Nations."
Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51365
NIGERIA: Oil-rich Niger Delta faces "shocking" new wave of violence
Foreign oil companies accustomed to high tension in Nigeria's oil-rich
Niger Delta are being forced to grapple with a new level of violence one
industry official called "shocking."
In the past two decades, the multinational corporations producing
Nigeria's oil in the impoverished southern region have grown used to
disruptions caused by protests or sabotage by locals who feel
dispossessed of their oil wealth by the central government.
But in the past 14 days Nigeria has been confronted by something
different: militants vowing to cripple oil exports and kidnappers with
political demands. One new militant group has said it has now resolved
to take control of the region's oil resources by force.
Armed groups frequently take oil workers hostage, but up to now have
usually freed them after payment of a ransom.
But gunmen who seized four foreign oil workers from the offshore EA oil
platform run by Royal Dutch Shell more than two weeks ago are insisting
on the release of regional militants and political leaders detained by
the Nigerian government.
Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51397
CHAD: AU balks at Habre extradition, asks African jurists to study case
The African Union for now has sidestepped a decision on the legal fate
of ex-Chadian leader Hissene Habre, opting to create a panel of African
jurists to advise on bringing him to trial for alleged political
killings and torture.
But human rights campaigners anxious to see him placed on trial believe
his extradition to Belgium in line with a September 2005 court request
remains the best solution to see justice done.
At its summit in the Sudan capital Khartoum, the AU passed a resolution
calling for a panel of "eminent African jurists" to rule on how and
where he should be tried. The committee is to report back at the next AU
meeting in the Gambian capital, Banjul, in July.
While Habre lawyers say extradition is no longer an option since last
year's Senegalese ruling, HRW was quick to point out this week that the
Belgian arrest warrant and extradition request still stand, and that
African leaders have not ruled out a handover.
Reed Brody said judging Habre in Africa, as many African leaders have
urged, would pose a huge challenge. "Creating an ad hoc African tribunal
to try Habre would entail enormous political will, years of delay and
costs of at least US $100 million."
Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51333
CHAD: UN scales back in east after local officials kidnapped
Nearly 200 aid workers pulled out of two humanitarian bases in eastern
Chad at the weekend after unknown armed men kidnapped government
officials and two aid groups had jeeps stolen, the UN refugee agency
said.
The armed men stormed a meeting in the town of Guereda as UN officials
were giving local authorities an update on the 200,000 Sudanese refugees
currently sheltering in 12 camps in Chad. They abducted five people
including the top government official of Guereda and the head of the
local branch of the military police.
Aid officials said there would be a 20-percent reduction in humanitarian
staff in the area, with 90 people from the UN and other aid agencies
being evacuated from Guereda, and a further 80 from nearby Iriba. All
have relocated to the regional headquarters in Abeche.
On top of the kidnapping, two international NGOs have had vehicles
stolen recently, one of which was later spotted across the border in
Sudan. Robberies have also occurred in the area.
Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51293
CAMEROON: New anti-corruption drive leaves many sceptical
The Cameroon government has launched a nationwide campaign to wipe out
corruption, but citizens and diplomats are watching this latest of
several endeavours with a dubious eye.
President Paul Biya's government launched the anti-corruption drive on
18 January, two weeks after sacking two magistrates accused of graft -
the first such move in Biya's 23 years in power. The wave of
anti-corruption fervour began as the Cameroon leader rang in the New
Year denouncing the scourge and vowing to do away with it.
Weeks later the National Anti-Corruption Observatory launched a
nationwide information and awareness campaign against graft. The drive
is aimed at educating civil society on tackling corruption through
roundtable discussions, debates and conferences.
But Cameroon has had an anti-corruption body in place for eight years
and this is not the first such national campaign in the country of 15
million. Civil society and diplomats remain sceptical. "The fight
against corruption in Cameroon, if it is to be sincere and effective,
must not be limited to merely an awareness campaign," the prominent
newspaper Mutations said the day of the launch.
Full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51385
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