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IRIN-WA Update 100-97 of Events in West Africa, (Tuesday) 9 December 1997
[As a supplement to its weekly round-ups of main events in West Africa, IRIN-WA will produce a daily synopsis of reports on the region. IRIN issues these reports for the benefit of the humanitarian community but accepts no responsibility as to the accuracy of the original source.]
NIGERIA: Jailed opposition leader dies
Imprisoned former military vice president Shehu Mausa Yar'Adua died on Monday following a brief illness, Nigeria's state radio announced on Tuesday. Yar'Adua, 54, was among several people, including ex-military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo, sentenced to death in 1995 for plotting a coup. The sentences were later commuted to lengthy prison terms after a public outcry.Analysts said the issue of political prisoners remained a source of embarrassment to the country's military ruler, General Sani Abacha. They also cited it as a factor behind scepticism over his pledge to return Nigeria to civilian rule next year.
Election results still awaited
In the first phase of the transition to democracy, the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) continued to consolidate its victory, media reported Tuesday. The final result of the election, contested by five parties for local assemblies in Nigeria's 36 states, is due later this week.
New death toll in oil-rich Niger River delta
Clashes between the Ife and Modakeke clans near Warri in the oil-rich southwestern state of Osun, have claimed at least 20 lives, Nigerian media reported. Voting in the state was postponed because of tension over local boundaries.
MALI: Death sentences commuted
Malian President Alpha Oumar Konare has commuted the death sentence served on the country's former leader, Moussa Traore, to life imprisonment, news reports said. Konare also granted similar reprieves to 20 other members of the Traore government who had been sentenced to death."I am absolutely opposed to the death penalty and I pray to God never to give me the strength to apply it," President Konare said in a broadcast marking the 49th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Traore was overthrown in a 1991 coup. In the broadcast - following a critical Amnesty International report two weeks ago - Konare also pledged to abolish forced labour and invite human rights monitors to the country.
Oldest prison in Mali ordered shut
Mali's oldest prison was closed this week, the BBC said on Tuesday. The desert prison in Kidal over 1,000 km northeast of the capital Bamako was built by the French colonial administration in the 1930s for the incarceration of Malian nationalists.
BURKINA FASO: Tuareg repatriation operation ends
The last 3,000 of some 160,000 Tuareg refugees left Burkina Faso on Monday, ending a massive repatriation operation started last October, a UNHCR source told IRIN. "This is the last mass repatriation of these refugees, although UNHCR will likely continue to deal with stragglers on a case-by-case basis," the source said. The refugees departed for Mali from Soum, 350 km north of the capital Ouagadougou. Refugees received food assistance from WFP and household material aid from UNHCR.
LIBERIA: Four arrested in Dokie murder case
The Liberian authorities have announced the arrest of four people in connection with the death of opposition leader Samuel Dokie, Star Radio reported Tuesday. Quoting Solicitor General Theophilus Gould, it said other arrests may follow those of the four suspects, who were not identified.Dokie and his wife and two others were seized on 28 November allegedly by security agents.
WEST AFRICA: Aids conference
Two out of every three people around the world infected with AIDS lives in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report presented Tuesday to the 10th African Conference on AIDS in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. The report, published jointly by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Family Health International and the Harvard School of Public Health, said that people in sub-Saharan Africa were ten times more likely to contract the disease than those in North America and 20 times more susceptible than in Western Europe.
Of every 10 infected women in the world, eight live in sub-Saharn Africa. And of the estimated 530,000 children born with AIDS, nine out of ten live in the region. The report said AIDS in Africa is transmitted mainly in three ways: heterosexual contacts, mother-to-infant transmission and through unscreened blood transfusions. New awareness methods had to be developed. For doctors, nurses and other health workers, "universal precautions against occupational exposure to HIV must be promoted and systematically enforced."
A NOTE TO OUR READERS:
This is the 100th issue of the IRIN-West Africa update. IRIN-West Africa was set up in June this year and is exclusively donor-funded. We thank the following donors for their pledges and support which have enabled us to operate in 1997:
Denmark US$ 75,000
Switzerland US$ 121,000
Sweden US$ 64,246.70
UK US$ 80,390
USA US$ 125,000
TOTAL: US$ 465,636.70
IRIN-West Africa will be launching an appeal later this year to raise funds for its 1998 operations.
Abidjan, 9 December 1997
[ends]
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 19:47:01 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 100-97, 97.12.9 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.971209194014.22016A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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