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 319
25 February - 3 March 2006


CONTENTS:

NIGER: New cases of bird flu suspected, government calls for help to
   fight H5N1
BENIN: Campaign winding up for historic but problem-fraught poll
GUINEA: Grinding poverty drives unprecedented general strike
COTE D'IVOIRE: In groundbreaking talks, faction leaders recommit to
   peace
COTE D'IVOIRE: After years of delay students in north sit exams
NIGERIA: Delta militants free six foreign hostages, three still held


NIGER: New cases of bird flu suspected, government calls for help to
fight H5N1

New suspected cases of bird flu have emerged in three locations in
Niger, days after the country became the third in Africa to be confirmed
to be infected by the deadly H5N1 virus.

Dead birds have been found in the towns of Goure and Dogo - in the
centre-south of the country near the border with infected states in
Nigeria, and in N'Guigmi farther east, which also shares a border with
Chad. Tissue samples from the three areas are on their way to the
capital Niamey to be sent to a laboratory in Italy for testing.

The same lab on Tuesday announced that the bird flu virus was found in
domestic ducks from Magaria, Niger, near the border with Nigeria, the
first African country to be struck.

Government spokesperson Mohamed Ben Oumar told Radio France
Internationale on Thursday that authorities plan to destroy poultry
within a three-mile radius of infected areas, and put all birds in a
10-mile radius under "high medical surveillance."

Niger - among the world's poorest countries - has a plan to fight bird
flu, but not the means. The government called on the international
community this week to help, saying it needs essential equipment such as
protective clothing including masks and boots, vaccines, disinfectant
and diagnostic kits. The government says even the vehicles and
refrigeration units it has available are not sufficient to handle the
bird flu threat.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51987&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGER


BENIN: Campaign winding up for historic but problem-fraught poll

The billboards are up, the candidates are on the campaign trail, the
bands are playing and the voodoo priests are praying for peace. In two
days Benin votes for a new president in a poll whose run-up has been
fraught with problems.

The 5 March elections will bring down the curtain on two of the tiny
country's most celebrated politicians - incumbent President Mathieu
Kerekou, who has served two consecutive five-year terms, and his
longtime rival, ex-president Nicephore Soglo. Both have outlived the
70-year constitutional age barrier to run for the presidency.

Their parting opens the floodgates to a bevy of would-be presidents,
with 26 candidates - two of them women - currently criss-crossing the
country in search of support.

"Things will change! Things must change," "The right man," "He knows the
country best," say posters plastered across the country of seven
million. Political parties brought musicians and dancers out to drum up
support and hired as escorts scores of the country's iconic motorcycle
taxis, or "zemidjans", their drivers turned out in crisp neat new
uniforms for the occasion.

Despite weeks of financial problems in organising the poll and a series
of glitches in the voter registration process, the two-week campaign
winding up on Friday has been essentially trouble-free.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51988&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=BENIN


GUINEA: Grinding poverty drives unprecedented general strike

Mineral-rich and free of conflict, Guineans should be able to enjoy a
relatively high standard of living compared to war-torn or
resource-deficient neighbours. Instead, life in the normally hectic
capital ground to a halt this week due to an unprecedented general
strike called over desperately low wages and soaring prices.

The strike, which began on Monday, slowing the usually traffic-clogged
seafront capital to a Sunday-like hush, was still largely in effect five
days later on Friday despite government appeals to people to return to
work.

"The people suffer from poverty. They work and work, but the money they
get is not enough. For us taxi drivers the price of petrol is just too
expensive so I decided to strike," said Mamadou Cherif Diallo, who works
the tumbledown city built on a skinny peninsula home to around a quarter
of the country's nine million people.

On Tuesday, stone-throwing youths trying to enforce the stoppage
targeted the cavalcade of President Lansana Conte. His bodyguards
returned live fire, killing an innocent bystander. Anxious to keep a lid
on potential trouble, the government stepped up negotiations with unions
to end the strike, but its efforts largely failed.

"We have had enough," said Diallo. "This has been going on for years. I
don't know how old I am but I'm more than 25 and still not married and I
can't marry because I don't have the money. "It's a big, big problem for
me and my friends," he complained. "A man must marry but I barely make
enough to feed myself, never mind maintain a wife and children."

Guinea is rich in diamonds, gold, bauxite (aluminium ore), iron ore and
uranium, not to mention the agricultural potential of this country,
which is the source of West Africa's two main rivers and spans the dry
Sahel region to the north to lush tropical rainforest in the south.
While average income per capita is US $2,097 according to UN figures,
the majority of people earn less than US $1 a day.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52006&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA


COTE D'IVOIRE: In groundbreaking talks, faction leaders recommit to
peace

The five key players in Cote d'Ivoire's conflict have renewed their
commitment to peace efforts after holding their first face-to-face talks
at home since war broke out more than three years ago.

While there were few concrete agreements, Tuesday's four-hour meeting
behind closed doors broke new ground and brought fresh hopes of a
breakthrough in stumbling efforts to reunify the West African nation,
divided between a rebel-held north and government south since 2002.

Winding up the talks, interim Prime Minister Charles Banny read a
statement saying the country's political heavyweights supported UN
resolution 1633, the blueprint for peace outlined by the international
community in late 2005 to help end Cote d'Ivoire's conflict.

However, Banny called the talks primarily to thaw relations among
President Laurent Gbagbo, rebel leader Guillaume Soro, and the two main
opposition leaders Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara. The
face-to-face meeting of the four faction leaders plus Banny had been
scheduled for Monday but was delayed by one day by a row over security.
Notwithstanding, Banny described the atmosphere as "fraternal."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51958&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE


COTE D'IVOIRE: After years of delay students in north sit exams

Students in the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire, their educations
stopped cold by conflict, have begun sitting school exams after more
than two years of doubt.

The exams opened to mixed reactions in the northern city of Korhogo,
most students and parents happy to move past years of limbo, but others
complaining that after such a long wait the government - who announced
less than two weeks ago that the exams would go forward - should have
given more notice.

Issiaka Soro, one of nearly 9,000 students expected to sit the final
secondary school leaving exam, the "baccalaureat," said, "I am very
happy that the exams are being held. Of course, my most ardent wish is
to succeed, because we have been in limbo for too long."

After years of utter uncertainty for more than 90,000 students, oral
exams began in the north on Monday, with teachers from around the
country present to supervise, along with officials of the UN Children's
Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Mission in Cote d'Ivoire. Written tests are to
take place 2 March to 4 March.

Some students and parents said after such a long hiatus they were caught
off-guard by the government announcement two weeks ago that exams would
go forward and their results would probably show it.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51957&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=COTE_D_IVOIRE


NIGERIA: Delta militants free six foreign hostages, three still held

Armed militants in Nigeria's turbulent oil-producing region have freed
six foreign oil workers after 11 days in captivity but the group is
holding on to three others, continuing threats of more attacks to
cripple oil exports.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Wednesday
initially released 69-year-old US national Macon Hawkins to a group of
visiting journalists, and later released five others - two Egyptians,
Shalky Aly and Faysal Mohamme; two nationals of Thailand, Damsak Mhaduho
and Arak Suwanna; and Filipino Anthony Santos.

The group said they released Hawkins due to his age and poor health and
the remaining five because they were considered "low-value" hostages
whose countries have no interest in the oil region. The three still
being detained are two US nationals and a British citizen.

The released men appeared haggard but not injured, and said they were
treated well by their captives.

All nine hostages, employees of US oil service company Willbros Inc.,
were seized on 18 February from a barge used in laying pipelines on the
Forcados River.

MEND is demanding that President Olusegun Obasanjo free two ethnic Ijaw
leaders held for alleged offences against the state. The group is also
insisting on local control of oil wealth and wants Shell to pay $1.5
billion in compensation for pollution damage; a Nigerian court last week
ruled that Shell must make the payment.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51978&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=NIGERIA


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