U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup No 77 of Main Events for West Africa covering the period 26 November - 3 December 1998
NIGERIA: Nation on eve of local elections
As Nigeria embarks on local elections on Saturday in another attempt to take the first step towards an elected president in February, militant Ijaw youths in Warri and civil servants in the southeast have threatened to disrupt the polls. Reuters reported the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) as saying they would disrupt the process in the Niger Delta if their demands for a local government went unheeded.
The civil servants, many of whom are to serve as election officials, threatened an indefinite strike if the minimum wage, overtime and salary arrears are not paid, BBC reported.
The polls are also threatened by a fuel shortage which observers feel could pose problems for voters and electoral officials if there is no transport in large communities. AFP reported that Indpendent National Election Commission (INEC) officials had complained that representatives of political parties had tried to buy voter cards in bulk.
Abubakar signs election decrees
Military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar signed three decrees on Tuesday, and guaranteed the independence of the electoral commission, signalling the go ahead for the elections. He also warned the military and police that coups undermined the army's cohesion and that "coup-makers no longer enjoy any acceptance", AFP and BBC reported. Since Nigeria's first coup in 1966, the country has been ruled by soldiers for all but four years.
US Congressman says important for Nigerian transition to succeed
US Democratic Congressman Donald Payne said on Monday it was important for Nigeria to succeed in its quest for democracy since it would have a positive impact on Africa. Speaking at a news conference in Abuja, Payne said "there certainly appears to be a real determination by the government and the people to move towards an elected government."
Foreign observers
The Atlanta-Based Carter Center announced that former US President Jimmy Carter would lead a team of international electoral monitors to all polls including the presidential elections. A 17-strong Commonwealth team will also be present, the organisation said in a statement last Friday.
Borders closed for elections
Nigeria's internal affairs minister, Musa Yakubu, was quoted by Radio Nigeria on Tuesday as saying the country's borders will be closed for the polls from noon local time today (Friday) to Saturday 6.p.m. (1700 GMT). The measure is designed to prevent foreigners from coming into the country to vote.
UN envoy says rights situation better but needs further improvement
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Nigeria, Soli Sorabjee, told a news conference in Lagos on Tuesday that the country's human rights situation had improved but many repressive decrees still had to be abolished. Acknowledging that Abubakar was "sincere and serious" in accomplishing the transition to democracy, Sorabjee said, "The important thing is to keep up the momentum."
However, some Nigerian human rights organisations criticised Sorabjee for being too lenient with the military authorities' stand on human rights in the country. Sorabjee was appointed Special Rapporteur in 1997 but this was the first time he had been allowed to visit the country, following the death of former leader General Sani Abacha. A UN official in Geneva said Sorabjee's trip was designed to strike a balance between establishing good contacts with the government and being open to a wide-range of civil society representatives.
SIERRA LEONE: Government declares war on corruption
Sierra Leone Attorney General Solomon Berewa said on Tuesday the government was "on the warpath against corruption" and would form a unit to fight public and private sector crime. The unit, which will include foreigners and would be "linked" to the president, will investigate anyone from the president on down. Berewa said during a news conference that corruption had increased since the May 1997 coup against President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and that the current government had recently uncovered a US $170,000 fraud in the Income Tax Department. Berewa said that government intended to apply emergency regulations to enable courts to investigate economic crime in government and state-owned firms.
Official says 125,000 infected with HIV
Some 125,000 Sierra Leoneans are infected with AIDS, the national coordinator for the control of the disease, Dr. Andrew Kosia, has said, AFP has reported. The figure, he said, represented 5.5 percent of the sexually active population in this nation of 4.5 million people. He said 300 people had died of the disease since 1987, when it was first reported in the country.
However, in a country fact sheet published in June, WHO estimates that 68,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 1997. WHO puts the number of dead at 54,000 since the beginning of the epidemic. In sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of AIDS is greater than anywhere in the world. According to the latest statistics released by UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and WHO ahead of World AIDS Day last Monday, two million Africans have died of the disease.
Rebels attack Mange in the west
Rebels in western Sierra Leone armed with rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked the strategic town of Mange on the road between Freetown and neighbouring Guinea on Monday killing at least 35 people, AFP reported, quoting aid workers. It was the second attack on the town in two months. Most of its 20,000 residents and another 5,000 from Port Loko, 20 km south of Mange, have fled.
GUINEA BISSAU: ECOWAS denies foot dragging over troop deployment
The 16-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Thursday denied news reports that it was dragging its feet over deploying peacekeeping troops in Guinea Bissau. Reuters on Wednesday quoted the president of Guinea Bissau's parliament, Malam Bacai Sanha, as saying "practically nothing" had been done to send the troops. But an ECOWAS official told IRIN that the four countries that had promised troops had still to make them available for transportation to the field of operations. Even then, the official said, the community was not equipped to move as many men and their material and support was being sought from other nations.
Junta member appointed new prime minister
Military Junta member Francisco Fadul has been appointed Guinea Bissau's new prime minister.
Fadul, a political adviser to Junta leader General Ansumane Mane, represents the junta on the Executive Joint Commission with government set up after the Abuja Peace Accord last month to oversee implementation of the agreement. The joint committee approved the structure of the unity government. Diplomats told IRIN that, in addition to the prime minister, the cabinet would comprise nine ministers and seven secretaries of state. Formation of the unity government is one of the elements of the accord.
Parliament had earlier voted to call on President Joao Bernardo Vieira to resign before a presidential election in March 1999. But diplomats told IRIN the assembly would not be able to enforce its wishes.
Humanitarian situation
UNICEF reported on Wednesday that the humanitarian situation in Bissau, capital of Guinea Bissau, was satisfactory but that few city residents were returning home. An OCHA official in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, told IRIN on Wednesday that residents were still hesitant to return because the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, had not yet arrived to replace Senegalese and Guinean troops in the country, as required under the Abuja agreement.
Nevertheless a Swedish diplomat in Guinea Bissau, citing a survey by the Bandim Health Project, told IRIN that 75 percent of residents in three of Bissau's neighbourhoods had returned to their homes after fleeing the civil war which began in June. The neighbourhoods of Badim, Belem and Mindara account for 20 percent of the city's total population, the diplomat said. In Guinea Bissau's second largest town, Bafata, 125,000 residents can look forward to clean safe drinking water now that relative calm has returned to the country. The logistics officer for the Emergency Department of Oxfam in Britain, Frazer Murray, told IRIN on Wednesday that the NGO had been able to instal safe water supply systems for the town and at the village community level. "We hope this will cut the diarrhoeal and cholera [incidences] below national levels," he said. Oxfam is also renovating Bafata's main water tank and pumping station in Trisilin, a Bafata neighbourhood.
UNITED NATIONS: Desertification conference opens
Signatories to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification began presenting reports on Monday at an international conference in Senegal on their efforts to stop land degradation and reduce the effects of drought.
The interim secretariat of this UN convention, established in 1997, said in a statement that detailed written reports would be presented at the next meeting scheduled for the second half of 1999. This third conference would place emphasis on Africa, it said, where 73 percent of the continent is severely or moderately desertified.
Officials from the 150 countries represented at the Dakar conference are also discussing relations with the multi-billion-dollar Global Environment Facility (GEF) fund. The GEF has said it could fund efforts to combat desertification so long as the projects are linked to climate change, biodiversity, international waters or depletion of the ozone layer.
NIGER: Provisional figures show Niger with grain surplus
Good rains this year have enabled Niger to produce what might be a surplus of cereals, according to provisional figures given by the Ministry of Agriculture. An official of the ministry told IRIN on Tuesday that an estimated 213,000 mt of surplus grain had been produced. He said the figure was subject to confirmation at the end of this year. In 1997, Niger's cereal deficit was 152,000 mt.
GABON: Voters cast presidential ballots on Sunday
Gabonese voters go to the polls on Sunday in the first round of presidential elections against a backdrop of a severe economic crisis and a tense political atmosphere, media agencies reported. President Omar Bongo, who is running again, has repeatedly charged that the opposition has been preparing to "sow the seeds of violence". Bongo has ordered the borders closed. AFP reported that opposition candidates had accused the ruling party, the Parti democratique gabonais (PDG), and its allies of organising "massive fraud". An official working with he Paris-based cultural organisation, La Francophonie, told IRIN on Thursday that it was sending 10 observers to monitor the polls.
WEST AFRICA: Campaign to curb malaria
The World Health Organisation (WHO) launched a campaign to dubbed 'Roll Back malaria' last month in a bid to grapple with a "re-emerging disease" in Africa, where more than 3,000 children die every day of malaria. The disease especially affects the poor, killing the young and weak in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the WHO Director General, decided in July 1998 that malaria would be one of WHO's top priorities.
Some studies indicate that malaria could hold back income by as much as 12 percent, according to a WHO fact sheet. It emphasises that the campaign would focus on significantly "reducing mortality and morbidity" stemming from malaria, and not its eradication which had succeeded in some continents and "failed severely on others".
The full report on the Roll Back Malaria campaign is available on http://www.malaria.org.
Abidjan, 4 December 1998 16:30 GMT
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