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IRIN-WA Update 383 of Events in West Africa (Tuesday 19 January)
GUINEA BISSAU: Peace endangered by foreign troops
Guinea Bissau Prime Minister-designate Francisco Fadul has said the fragile peace in Guinea Bissau might unravel if foreign troops remain in his country, news reports said. He also asked the European Union on Monday (yesterday) to try to secure their withdrawal and their replacement by a West African peacekeeping force.
Fadul said the first 200 Senegalese troops who left
the capital, Bissau, this month were now in Guinea
Bissau's Bijagos archipelago, and not Senegal, the
Portuguese news agency Lusa reported, quoting the Lisbon
daily 'Publico'.
Senegalese and Guinean forces were sent to Guinea Bissau
in July 1998 to shore up the besieged Guinean president,
Joao Bernardo Vieira. Their withdrawal is one of the
key elements of a peace accord reached last November
between the government and the self-styled Military
Junta. The agreement, which also calls for elections
by the end of March at the latest, says foreign troops
must depart with the simultaneous arrival of the West
African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG. So far only a company
of ECOMOG Togolese soldiers has arrived. Benin, The
Gambia and Niger have also offered troops for the force
expected to number some 1,450 men.
Fadul said neither he nor the transitional government of national unity would take office before Senegalese and Guinean troops left, Lusa reported yesterday. Meanwhile, Junta leader General Ansumane Mane said at the weekend that ECOWAS must this week confirm the deployment of the full force by 31 January, or his army would demand the withdrawal of the Togolese.
Junta meets political parties, military option discussed
In a related development, the Junta met on Monday with political parties to discuss the late arrival of ECOMOG, Lusa said. The opposition Partido da Renovacao Social (PRS) "favoured use of the military option to end the political impasse", the agency said, quoting a party official. The opposition Resistencia da Guine-Bissau - Movimento Ba-Fata (RGB-MB) said it preferred dialogue but would support the military option if all else failed.
Warning of negative impact of large rice delivery
Guinea Bissau's government recognised that a large WFP delivery of rice could produce a negative effect on local markets, the UN food distribution agency said in its latest weekly `Emergency Report'. The agency added that a nutritionist it consulted recommended that food aid to the country be targeted carefully. It said areas in Falacunda, Boe, Bedandal and some villages of Mansoa needed more detailed food assessment because of the rice crop failure. The people of Guinea Bissau prefer rice, which is being provided by WFP, to wheat flour. However, both commodities could be used to meet food needs. According to the Swedish-funded Bandim project some 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) had returned to their homes in Bissau, the capital, but the government estimates put the figure at 100,000, the report said.
WFP increases flights into Bissau, offices relocate
WFP said it had increased its twice-weekly chartered flights into Bissau to three due to high demand. It said that since the beginning of the emergency food operation in June 1998, when fighting erupted between the government and Junta forces, WFP had delivered 11,337 MT of food and 7,990 MT had been distributed to the needy.
The agency said it and the rest of the UN team for Guinea Bissau had started relocating their offices from Dakar, the Senegalese capital, to Bissau. "This follows the downgrading of the UN security phase," the WFP said in its `Emergency Report'. Under these arrangements a maximum of 12 international staff will be based in Bissau at any one time, WFP said.
SIERRA LEONE: Food security gains "wiped out" by conflict, FAO warns
The food situation in the capital, Freetown, has become desperate and could "degenerate into famine" FAO warned yesterday. In a special alert issued from Rome, FAO said that recent gains in Freetown's food security conditions had been "virtually wiped out" by the resurgence of conflict on 6 January. Food stocks are nearly depleted, supply routes are blocked and aid agency warehouses have been looted by rebels, FAO said.
The precarious food supply situation in other parts of the country is also expected to worsen as a result of the disruption of food assistance activities previously organised from Freetown, FAO said in the statement. Insecurity and poor infrastructure will severely hamper the marketing of last month's main rice crop, while continued fighting and insecurity would hinder agricultural rehabilitation activities planned for 1999, including seeds and tools distribution, FAO said. As a result, Sierra Leone this year will depend even more on food assistance to meet its basic needs, the alert added.
Tense situation reported in Kenema
More Kamajors have been moved into the eastern town of Kenema to strengthen defences following recent heavy fighting around Tongo and an attack on Panguma on 15 January, WFP said in its latest weekly emergency report. ICRC's offices there had been looted, the report said. It said despite the tense situation in the town, WFP continued to distribute food to displaced persons, but fuel shortages and insecurity were likely to soon reduce its capacity to distribute. The southern town of Bo was reported to be quiet but insecurity in nearby Pujehun district was affecting the supply of local food commodities, leading to rising prices in the town, the report added.
Plans for humanitarian response
Inter-agency teams are scheduled to travel to Kenema and Freetown on Friday to assess humanitarian needs. A report from UN Humanitarian Coordinator Elizabeth Lwanga said the Kenema mission will deliver shelter, medicine and therapeutic feeding materials. In Freetown, national staff of aid agencies were working with the government on humanitarian activities, and seven centres had been designated for distribution of relief supplies, the report said. A comprehensive humanitarian action plan, currently under preparation, will seek to ensure access by humanitarian personnel to as many parts of the country as possible. The report, received by IRIN today, said a number of NGOs and UN agencies were looking into the possibility of air-freighting relief supplies from Europe to either the Guinean capital, Conakry, or directly to Lungi in Freetown.
Fighting reported southeast of Freetown
Troops of the West African intervention force ECOMOG were today pursuing rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) southeast of Freetown, news agencies said. The ECOMOG offensive began in Hastings yesterday, when a unilateral ceasefire called by the RUF was supposed to have taken effect, they said. Fighting in the west of the city was reported yesterday evening. AFP said that despite sporadic shooting, Freetown residents were today slowly emerging from their homes. Humanitarian sources said yesterday that there had been continuous electricity and running water in many areas of western Freetown over the previous three days. A curfew in the west and central parts of the city remained in effect between 3 p.m. and 9 a.m., sources said.
Britain denies any military involvement
The British Foreign Office yesterday denied an RUF accusation that the British frigate HMS Norfolk had intervened in the conflict, news agencies said. "The UK has not taken any military action and does not intend to," AFP quoted a Foreign Office spokeswoman as saying. RUF commander Sam Bockarie earlier yesterday had accused the British military of using the warship to shell rebel positions in Freetown. AFP today said that military personnel from the British frigate had visited a central stadium in Freetown to assess the situation in preparation for handing out humanitarian supplies there. Thousands of displaced people who fled the conflict have crowded into the stadium in recent days, humanitarian sources said.
ECOMOG arrests ACF staff
Two local staff members of the NGO Action contre la faim (ACF) have been arrested by ECOMOG troops in Freetown, an ACF statement said yesterday. The statement did not specify when or why the staff members were arrested. ACF said it had not been able to contact its personnel in the city because the aid agencies' communications equipment, confiscated on Friday, had not yet been returned. The ACF statement appealed to the warring parties to respect the right of affected populations to receive humanitarian assistance.
Meanwhile, WFP's weekly emergency report said that information flow from Freetown was now severely curtailed because of a government order for UN and NGO offices in tisited a central stadium in Freetown to assess the situation i abduct 11 missionaries
Eleven priests and nuns were kidnapped by rebel forces last week in the Kissy district of east Freetown, the missionary news agency MISNA said today. It said the kidnappings took place on 12 and 14 January. The abducted missionaries are from Italy, India, Spain, Kenya and Bangladesh, MISNA added.
NIGERIA: Ijaw youths pledge to fight oil firms
Militant Ijaw youths in Nigeria said yesterday they would continue to shut down oil facilities in the Niger Delta until steps are taken to give them a greater share of the area's oil wealth and the environment is cleaned up.
In a statement, the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), representing militant elements of the Ijaw community, called for the "immediate and unconditional withdrawal" of troops sent to protect oil installations in the Delta. They termed the presence of the military "provocative, oppressive and totally unacceptable". The Council also urged their elders to reject talks proposed by the government on settling the crisis in the Delta, saying they were a "public relations ploys by the dictatorship".
Abidjan, 19 January 1999, 19:00 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 16:10:24 -0300 (GMT+3) From: IRIN - Central and Eastern Africa <irininfo@ocha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 383 for 1999.1.19
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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