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IRIN-WA Update 373 of Events in West Africa (Tuesday 5 January)
SIERRA LEONE: Kabbah visits Mali
Malian President Alpha Omar Konare has reaffirmed his commitment to send Malian troops to strengthen the estimated 15,000-20,000 ECOMOG intervention troops supporting the government of Sierra Leone against a rebel offensive, Sierra Leonean Presidential Spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN today (Tuesday).
Konare's gave the undertaking yesterday (Monday) in a meeting in Bamako, the Malian capital, with Sierra Leonean President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Kaikai said the two men did not discuss how many troops Mali would send but the commitment to deploy was "more significant that the number". Kaikai said that Malian military commanders would meet ECOMOG military chiefs in Freetown next week to discuss deployment.
Kaikai said The Gambia, which has also agreed to provide troops to ECOMOG, would also be sending a team for talks with ECOMOG. Delays in deploying Malian and Gambian troops, he said, has been due to financial and logistical difficulties. But the Netherlands had provided US $1.0 million, part of which will be used for the deployment of the Malians. The Gambia is having to find money elsewhere to pay for sending its troops, he added.
Britain to give US $1.65 million to back ECOMOG
Britain said today it would provide an extra one million pounds (US $1.65 million) to help Sierra Leone and the ECOMOG force. "Two-thirds of this amount, provided equally by the FCO (the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and MOD (the Ministry of Defence), will be available immediately for logistical support to ECOMOG," the Foreign Office said in a statement.
It said the British Department for International Development (DFID) was also ready to provide up to one third of the full amount in a separate package of development assistance.
"This further assistance to the Government of Sierra Leone and ECOMOG is a demonstration of our commitment to help bring stability to Sierra Leone and promote democracy both in that country and more widely in Africa... We would urge other countries to show the same level of commitment." Foreign Office Minister, Tony Lloyd said.
The Foreign Office said logistical aid would depend on the list of requirements provided by ECOMOG but would not include arms or ammunition.
Britain has already provided more than US $3 million to the UN Trust Fund for Sierra Leone which collected and distributed international contributions and DFID has committed more than US $38 million this year in development assistance and for humanitarian projects.
Rebel commander killed in action
One of Sierra Leone's main rebel commanders, Solomon Musa, has died of his wounds following an ECOMOG bombardment of rebel positions in the north of the country, the French news agency, AFP, reported yesterday quoting missionary sources.
Musa headed a rebel unit which has been holding an Italian missionary, Father Mario Guerra, since 15 November. Musa was a member of the military junta ousted by ECOMOG in February 1998.
Sierra Leone Presidential Spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN that the government had no confirmation of Musa's death. He refused to speculate on how his death might affect the rebel cause, if the reports are true.
Government compiling data on crimes against humanity
Sierra Leone is compiling data on people who have committed crimes against humanity in the country and will present this to an international court for prosecution, Presidential Spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN today.
He was responding to an AFP report, quoting the Sierra Leonean Embassy in Washington D.C., that Freetown would charge Liberian President Charles Taylor with war crimes. Kaikai said only people who had committed crimes in the country or were responsible for crimes committed in Sierra Leone would be listed. He did not provide names.
Sierra Leone has often accused Taylor's government of supporting rebel activity in Sierra Leone. Throughout 1998, rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the ousted Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) have been mutilating civilians in areas they controlled. Taylor has admitted that Liberians are in Sierra Leone fighting with the rebels but said they are not sanctioned by his government. He has offered to put pressure on RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who is in prison pending an appeal against a death sentence for treason, to end the war.
Humanitarian situation
So far 26,250 IDPs have arrived in Kenema between 31 December and 4 January, and registration is continuing, an official of the UN Humanitarian Assistance Unit told IRIN today. She said the food situation in the town, about 135 km southeast of Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital, was "under control". But the WFP reported a shortage of non-food items and shelter.
She added that UNICEF planned to deliver supplies for unaccompanied children, 10 public health units (PHU) and chlorine to Kenema. Merlin, an NGO active in Kenema, had been forced to close five PHUs in Segbwema after a rebel attack towards the end of December, and re-locate their managers to Kenema, she said. She said aid agencies had confirmed yesterday that ECOMOG, which has launched a general offensive against the rebels, had captured Segbwema, "so the humanitarian situation there is expected to improve".
WFP supplies 20,000 IDPs with food
WFP has, over the past five days, fed 20,000 IDPs in Kenema who were fleeing increased fighting between rebels and ECOMOG, the representative of the UN food relief agency in Sierra Leone said today in a statement. "People are arriving by the thousands and they are in urgent need of food and other humanitarian assistance," Patrick Buckley, the WFP representative, said.
In Kenema, the agency was distributing a one-week food ration to IDPs on identification and registration. WFP has 1,500 mt of food in its Kenema warehouse, Buckley said, enough to feed 160,000 people for one month. "The influx in Kenema is just the tip of the iceberg," he said. "We are gravely concerned about the situation of several thousands of people we believe are hiding in the bush."
Close to 100,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the Makeni and Kono regions in the northern and eastern parts of the country, he said, and were starting to arrive in Bo, 110 km south of Makeni. WFP has been coordinating food deliveries with the Catholic Relief Services, CARE and World Vision. Over the past three weeks, he said, they had been able to feed some 24,000 people and had been helping in Makeni before the town fell to the rebels in December.
Each month in 1998, he said, WFP had provided food to 80,000 people in the country, most of whom were the must vulnerable victims of the fighting: farmers, children, pregnant and nursing mothers, the disabled and the elderly.
UN agencies may soon return
Representatives of UN agencies may begin returning to Freetown by the end of the week, a UN official told IRIN today. The move had been recommended by the UN's Security Management Team (SMT) in the country but had to be confirmed by the UN Security Coordination Office in New York, the official said. Most UN aid workers were evacuated from Sierra Leone on 26 December as the fighting neared the capital.
LIBERIA: Displaced leaving Monrovia camps
Displaced people in and around the capital Monrovia started abandoning their camps yesterday after President Charles Taylor ordered them to leave, news agencies said. "The war is over and displaced persons should return to their respective counties to engage in agriculture," AFP quoted Taylor as saying at a press conference on Thursday. Taylor had given the displaced up to the end of December to leave, AFP said. Some 35 camps around the capital have accommodated thousands of people displaced by civil war, which formally ended with the 1997 presidential and legislative elections, it said.
NIGERIA: State of emergency, curfew lifted in Bayelsa
Authorities in Bayelsa State lifted a state of emergency and a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed last week in response to protests by Ijaw youths, news agencies said yesterday. However, security measures, including a ban on public demonstrations, remained in place, they said. The announcement followed a "ceasefire" agreement worked out between the Ijaw group and former military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday, the Nigerian daily `The Guardian' reported yesterday. Up to 26 people have been reported killed since 30 December in fighting between security forces and Ijaw youths, who are demanding greater control over local oil resources. In a statement broadcast on state radio, Bayelsa State administrator Paul Obi appealed to people who fled last week's unrest to return home, news agencies said yesterday.
Meanwhile, environmental and human rights activists in Britain temporarily occupied the offices of the Shell oil company in London, in solidarity with the protesting Ijaw youth, news organisations said. A statement issued by Shell said 13 protestors had been taken away from one of its London buildings "following intervention by the police," Reuters reported.
Five killed in fuel price protest
Five people were killed in Lagos yesterday during clashes between police and demonstrators protesting against recent fuel prince increases, Reuters said today. A police sergeant was among those killed in the violence, Reuters quoted the `Daily Times' newspaper as saying. Fuel prices more than doubled last month after the government deregulated the sector. On Friday, Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar said low world oil prices made it impossible for the government to maintain fuel subsidies, Reuters said.
Commonwealth team to witness Nigerian state elections
A 17-member team from the Commonwealth Secretariat was due in Nigeria today to observe State Assembly and Gubernatorial Elections due on 9 January. The Commonwealth said in a statement that the team, led by the Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General (Political), Mr K Srinivasan, would seek to gain a broad overview of the electoral process and the elections themselves, and report to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku.
Saturday's poll is due to be followed by legislative and presidential elections in February that will lead to military leader General Abdulsalami Abubakar stepping down in May.
Srinivasan's team, invited by Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), observed local elections last month which it said had been successful.
Anyaoku, speaking from his home in Obosi in Nigeria, said: "Nigeria's progress towards completing the transition programme put in place by General Abubakar has so far remained credible. I hope that this will be sustained through the remaining stages of the electoral process so that the objective of having in place a democratically elected government in May 1999 will be achieved."
UNITED NATIONS: UNHCR executive committee head in West Africa
The president of the UNHCR Executive Committee, Rodriguez Cedeno, will make a familiarisation tour of four West African countries starting tomorrow (Wednesday) the UNHCR said in a statement. The Venezuelan ambassador to the UN will visit Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, holding talks with government officials and representatives of donor countries and institutions and UN organisations. He will also visit refugee camps.
There are more refugees in West Africa than anywhere else on the continent, including half a million Sierra Leoneans and 200,000 Liberians. "At a time when the UNHCR is facing a quite severe deficit in the financing of its operations in West Africa, the visit of Ambassador Cedeno could give us the chance to draw the attention of sponsors to this part of the continent," Blaise Cherif, the UNHCR Delegate in Cote d'Ivoire said.
SENEGAL: Casamance rebel leader rejects preconditions for dialogue
The leaders of the Casamance secessionist Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) must be released unconditionally before any talks can take place with the government, Africa No 1 radio reported on Saturday. The radio, monitored by the BBC, quoted MFDC Deputy Secretary-General Mamadou Nkrumah Sane as saying that the movement "and the Casamance people categorically reject the appeal that (Senegalese President) Abdou Diouf has just made."
"As long as [MFDC Secretary-General] Father [Abbe Augustin] Diamacoune [Senghor] and his close associates are in prison, there is no question of us answering this appeal," he said.
The MFDC also rejected Diouf's proposal for talks "within the framework of Senegal," he said, adding: "The MFDC is always prepared to hold dialogue with the Senegalese government but without any preconditions by the Senegalese government and Abdou Diouf."
Dakar has been trying to put down the separatist rebellion in the Casamance for 17 years. In December 1995 Diamacoune, the political leader of the separatist movement who is under house arrest, called on the rebels to stop fighting and negotiate with the government. Then, the government started releasing some prisoners. However, negotiations due in 1996 to end the war failed to materialise and a ceasefire broke down in August the following year, leading to an escalation in fighting.
Senegal has accused the rebels of launching strikes from bases in neighbouring Guinea Bissau and sent troops there to help the government put down a major army revolt. Under a peace accord signed in Abuja, Nigeria, between rival civil war factions in Guinea Bissau, West African interposition troops are to ensure that Casamance separatists do not launch attacks into southern Senegal from bases in Guinea Bissau.
Abidjan, 5 January 1999, 18:15 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 18:54:24 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 373 for 1999.01.05
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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