U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 318
18 - 24 Febrauary 2006


CONTENTS:

NIGERIA: More than 120 people killed in sectarian violence
WEST AFRICA: 12 nations band together to fight off H5N1 threat
LIBERIA: War-battered nation launches truth commission
SENEGAL: On the lookout for bird flu in world's third biggest reserve
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-CHAD: 4,000 more Central Africans flee
   violence this month alone
MAURITANIA: Panel launched to track use of new oil revenues


NIGERIA: More than 120 people killed in sectarian violence

At least 123 people have been killed in five days of sectarian violence
across Nigeria, after protests over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad
fuelled underlying religious and ethnic tensions.

Two-thirds of the deaths in the past six days have occurred in the
mainly Christian southeast city of Onitsha, where groups of armed youths
took to the streets to seek revenge against Muslims in reprisal for
deadly attacks on Christians last weekend in the predominantly Muslim
north.

At least 80 people were slaughtered during two days of violence in
Onitsha, leading Nigerian human rights group Civil Liberties
Organisation (CLO), said on Thursday. "We counted at least 60 dead on
Tuesday, and on Wednesday no less than 20," Emeka Umeh, who heads CLO in
Anambra State, told IRIN.

In northeast Nigeria last weekend, protests over the caricatures of the
Prophet Muhammad turned violent, claiming 18 lives in the city of
Maiduguri. On Monday and Tuesday at least 25 people were killed in
Muslim attacks on Christians in the northern city of Bauchi.

With Nigeria's population of 126 million people roughly split between a
predominantly Muslim north and a Christian majority south, analysts say
the cartoon controversy has simply served as a spark for this latest
episode of sectarian violence.

"For one there are so many bottled up animosities, but worst of all is
that there are so many young people who are idle and looking for the
opportunity to vent their anger," said Okey Nwiwu, a political science
teacher who says Nigeria is a tinderbox waiting to be set alight.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51890


WEST AFRICA: 12 nations band together to fight off H5N1 threat Twelve
West African nations have pledged to work together to fight the deadly
H5N1 virus and called on the international community to back a joint
emergency fund dedicated to the battle against bird flu.

In a statement issued after two days of talks in the Senegalese capital,
the group of nations - two of them bordering Nigeria, the only
bird-flu-hit country in Africa to date - agreed on "the need for a
concerted and coordinated approach in setting up national campaigns"
against the virus.

To this end they agreed to set up immediately a 12-member ministerial
tracking committee and designate a group of experts who will meet by end
March in the Malian capital Bamako to draw up proposals for a regional
response to the threat of avian influenza. The experts are to submit
their plan at an April meeting in Abuja to be organised by the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The signatories - Benin, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea,
Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo - also
proposed the creation of an emergency regional intervention fund
deposited at the African Development Bank.

"We appeal to the international community to contribute to this fund,"
the statement said.

Coordination is a good way forward, a European diplomat who asked not to
be identified, told IRIN. "A joint effort means there is a single
representative to talk to, a single structure and a financial system."

The talks opened on Wednesday as Nigeria confirmed that the highly
pathogenic strain of the virus had spread to a seventh state in Nigeria,
including the capital.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51888


LIBERIA: War-battered nation launches truth commission

The Liberian government has officially launched a truth and
reconciliation commission to probe human rights abuses over the past
quarter-century in the war-wounded country.

The nine-member commission - created under the 2003 peace agreement
ending Liberia's civil war - will examine abuses from January 1979 to
October 2003.

In inducting the commission on Monday, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
called the commission the people's "hope."

"We must make collective restitution to those victimized, rehabilitate
the victimizers, while at the same time visiting some form of
retribution upon those whose violations qualify as crimes against
humanity."

Sirleaf said, "This commission is our hope - to define the past on our
behalf in terms that are seen and believed to be fair and balanced, and
bring forth a unifying narrative on which our nation's rebuilding and
renewal processes can be more securely anchored."

Liberia's war was marked by brutal killings and mass rape, with rebels -
many of them forcibly recruited children - committing atrocities against
unarmed civilians. The war killed hundreds of thousands of people and
forced over a million to flee.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51842


SENEGAL: On the lookout for bird flu in world's third biggest reserve

As soon as Moussa Diouf saw the bird lying sick on the ground, the young
man from a village on the edges of Senegal's giant Djoudj bird reserve,
dropped it in a plastic bag and dashed off post-haste to the main
rangers' office. Diouf was worried the bird might be carrying "the new
sickness".

But the head ranger smiled on opening the bag. "It's a common sparrow
which is moulting and has become vulnerable because it can't fly very
far," said Major Ibrahima Diop, who heads a squad of 43 rangers working
in the Djoudj reserve, a national showcase of 16,000 hectares of
low-lying mangrove swamp.

Situated 60 kilometres north of the major Senegalese city of Saint
Louis, the Djoudj reserve straddling the Mauritanian border each year
from November to May plays host to some 300,000 birds seeking shelter
from the European winter.

When international health authorities last October warned of the danger
of migratory birds spreading the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, the
Senegalese government moved to bolster surveillance in the country's
many bird parks.

Rangers working in the Djoudj reserve visited the seven villages nearby
to offer pointers on bird flu and also began an information campaign on
avian flu for the 20,000 people who visit the park each year to get a
glimpse of its 370 species of birds, as well as hyenas, warthogs,
monkeys and crocodiles.

But monitoring has been intensified since 8 February, when the first
cases in Africa of H5N1 were confirmed in Nigeria.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51843


CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-CHAD: 4,000 more Central Africans flee violence
this month alone

Men, women and children from the Central African Republic are continuing
to flee into Chad daily, with at least 4,000 pouring in so far this
month to escape violence that refugees say has killed 50 people in
February alone, and shows no signs of subsiding, the UN refugee agency
said.

"Every day refugees are arriving in Chad," a UNHCR official in the
capital N'djamena told IRIN on Wednesday. The agency is racing to
relocate the 200-odd daily arrivals from the border area to camps in
southern Chad, UNHCR said in a 21 February statement.

Some refugees say CAR government soldiers are attacking civilians they
suspect of being linked to rebel groups. Refugees told UNHCR that at
least 50 civilians have been killed in the violence since the beginning
of February, the agency said. New refugees recount daily random attacks
by armed bandits and rebels, as well as government soldiers in northern
CAR - a region long gripped by violence and lawlessness where regional
governments months ago launched joint military operations in an effort
to restore stability.

"Many refugees report that they fled attacks by government forces on
civilians whom CAR troops suspected of supporting various rebel groups,"
UNHCR said. Refugees also recounted village raids by rebel groups who
loot cattle and food as well as "forcibly recruit young men."

  The latest influx brings to about 15,000 the number of Central Africans
seeking refuge in Chad since June 2005. They join some 30,000 people
living in camps in southern Chad since fleeing unrest in CAR in 2003.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51865


MAURITANIA: Panel launched to track use of new oil revenues

On the eve of Mauritania's oil production launch, the transitional
government has installed a committee to oversee the use of revenue from
oil and other natural resources to ensure it benefits the people.

"The time has come" for the average citizen to reap the benefits of the
nation's resources, the head of government said on Wednesday at an
opening ceremony in the capital Nouakchott.

With Mauritania set to begin pumping oil any day, the world is watching
to see whether the country will achieve what many others have pledged
and failed to do - ensure that oil money reduces poverty and improves
the lives of the masses.

In inaugurating the committee, Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar
said: "The government is determined to take the necessary measures to
prevent [the misuse of revenues as seen in other countries] and to
guarantee that natural resource income contribute to economic
development and the reduction of poverty."

In addition to its newfound oil stores, Mauritania has mineral resources
such as iron ore and copper, and some of the richest fishing waters in
the region. But the country's wealth historically has not meant big
benefits for the general population.

The new committee is part of the government's endorsement of the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - an international
mechanism for improving transparency and accountability in the use of
natural resources. Analysts say the junta's oft-stated commitment to
EITI is a good sign, but that there must be national enforcement
mechanisms in place for it to really count.

Since seizing power in a bloodless coup in August 2005, the junta has
repeatedly vowed to bring forth a new era of openness and transparent
democracy.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51889


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