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IRIN-WA Update 389 of Events in West Africa (Wednesday 27 January)
SIERRA LEONE: Fuel shortage in Freetown
More shops and banks have re-opened in parts of the capital Freetown, but a serious fuel shortage was compounding difficulties for residents in the war-ravaged city, news agencies said. Fighting was reported in the east beyond the port areas of Kissy in Wellington and Calabar town, where there were pockets of rebels, Reuters cited a spokesman for the West African intervention force ECOMOG as saying today (Wednesday). AFP yesterday (Tuesday) cited residents of Waterloo, some 15 km southeast of Freetown, as saying about 25 civilians had been killed in a rebel attack on the town on Sunday. Meanwhile, rebel commander Sam Bockarie of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) told AFP that the RUF would make the country "ungovernable" if its demands for a "political role" in the country were not met.
Nigeria wants trials for regional rebel backers
Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Ignatius Olisiemeka said in Freetown that the leaders of Liberia and Burkina Faso should be tried for "funding the rebel atrocities against Sierra Leone", Nigerian television, monitored by the BBC, reported yesterday. "We shall therefore make every effort within the international community to bring men like [Liberian President] Charles Taylor and his collaborators to justice," he was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, Taylor said countries in the region should remain united in spite of their "differences of opinion", Monrovia's Radio ELBC said yesterday. The radio, monitored by the BBC, quoted Taylor as praising Nigeria for being "the bedrock of west African security".
Connaught hospital needs support - MSF
A team from MSF that visited Freetown on Monday reported that there had been 150 wounded people admitted to Connaught hospital over the previous six days, an MSF spokeswoman in Paris told IRIN today. The vast majority were civilians and 90 percent were war-wounded, of whom many had been mutilated, she said. The MSF team confirmed that the hospital was functional, with water and electricity, but there was only one surgeon and he had no anaesthetic supplies, she said. MSF was ready to resume its work at Connaught hospital, but ECOMOG had only given the team a one-day stay permit, the spokeswoman said, adding that the NGO would also require guaranteed access to its communications equipment before returning to Freetown.
IDPs in Bo and Kambia
Between 3,400 and 4,400 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were now in the southeast town of Bo, and some 200 IDPs were arriving in the town every day, an OCHA official in the Guinean capital Conakry told IRIN yesterday. He said another 17,600 IDPs were now in Kambia, northeast of Freetown, and that this figure was also "likely to grow". Humanitarian agencies were preparing an emergency plan of action to address the priority needs of affected populations in Sierra Leone, the official said, adding that the aid agencies needed security guarantees, mobility and use of communications equipment to respond adequately to the current situation.
Rebels release abducted journalist
Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa was freed by RUF rebels today, AFP reported, citing the daily 'El Mundo' for whom he works. Espinosa had been abducted east of Freetown on Monday. There was no new information on the situation of 11 Indian businessmen abducted by rebels on the eastern outskirts of Freetown on Sunday.
GUINEA BISSAU: France to ferry 600 ECOMOG troops
French Ambassador Francois Chappellet told IRIN today that France would ship 600 ECOMOG interposition troops to Bissau from Dakar, Senegal, on 1 February. He said France would provide logistical support to the troops from The Gambia, Niger and Togo and pay each soldier 100 francs (US $60) daily "most likely" until the end of ECOMOG operations in the country.
Arrival of the ECOMOG troops will pave the way for the complete withdrawal of the Guinean and Senegalese troops who backed President Joao Bernardo Vieira against a military revolt spearheaded by his former armed forces chief of staff.
Under a peace treaty signed in November 1998, ECOMOG
is supposed to replace the Senegalese and Guineans,
a government of national unity is to be formed and
presidential elections held by the end of March. Radio
France Internationale reported that the government
and the Military Junta had agreed to empower the government
of national unity today.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported
yesterday that Monday's discussion on the timetable
for the withdrawal of the Guineans and Senegalese was
still ongoing. Lusa quoted Military Junta spokesman
Zamora Induta as expressing confidence that his group
and rival loyalist government forces would reach agreement.
Bishop Ferrazzeta dies
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Bissau, Settimio Ferrazzeta, 74, died at his home in Bissau in the early hours of today, two days after returning from Rome, where he underwent treatment for a fractured femur, Lusa reported. He had been ill in recent months. Diplomatic sources in Guinea Bissau told IRIN he died in his sleep while the Missionary news agency, MISNA, quoted initial reports attributing the cause of death to a heart attack.
The bishop was central to starting peace talks last year between the government and the Military Junta. He arrived in Bissau in 1955 and was consecrated bishop in 1977, Lusa said.
NIGERIA: Parties in election pact
Two of Nigeria's three parties eligible to stand in next month's legislative and presidential elections formally joined forces on Tuesday, consolidating an earlier shaky pact designed to offset a victory by the People's Democratic Party (PDP), news reports said.
The chairmen of the All Peoples Party (APP) and of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Mahmud Waziri and Ayo Adebanjo, announced the deal at a joint news conference in Lagos. AFP said the alliance was considered vital in improving the chances of the APP and the AD against the PDP which won the state assembly and governorship elections earlier this month.
However, the alliance must first pick its candidates for the presidency and the legislature, the agency said. The deadline for presenting the list of candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is 12 February.
Canadian foreign minister in Abuja talks
Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy began talks
with Nigerian government officials on Wednesday, designed
to strengthen relations after two years of rupture,
news agencies reported.
Axworthy, who arrived on Tuesday in Abuja, told reporters he had come to "strengthen and broaden" bilateral relations because of the greater moves to re-establish democracy in Nigeria. He will meet the Nigerian leader, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, and re-open the Canadian High Commission, which was closed after Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth over its human rights record. Axworthy was a member of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) which recommended Nigeria's suspension.
Shell to cut jobs
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell is to reduce its operations in Nigeria and shed jobs in a bid to retain its competitive edge, AFP reported, quoting a company spokesman yesterday. He said the restructuring of operations would begin in February and would "certainly lead to job cuts". Some jobs would disappear with voluntary retirement and non-replacement of short-term staff at the end of contracts. Shell, which produces close to half of Nigeria's two million barrels a day of crude, has been plagued by seizures of its installations by armed Ijaw youth. In addition, the world price of crude has dropped over the past year from US $22 to around US $8 a barrel at the end of 1998.
LIBERIA: FAO reports overall improvement in food supply
A FAO special report on Liberia published this month said crop and food supply figures indicated a "significantly improved overall food situation". The report was based on a FAO mission to Liberia last month. The report sent to IRIN however stressed that data from the INGO's Bulk Seeds and Tools Committee would only be available next month and its finding might therefore need to be revised.
The report estimates paddy (rice) production in 1998 at 210,100 mt, an increase of 25 percent on the estimate for 1997 and about 70 percent of the pre-civil strife 1986/90 average. Cassava production is estimated at 313,300 mt (fresh weight), which is 96 percent of the pre-crisis average. Rice and cassava are the two most important staple foods in Liberia. The main factors contributing to the increases in paddy and cassava production include an expansion in planted area as a result of the return of large numbers of farm families to their homes after the war, and increased yields due to greater access to NGO-supplied inputs, especially seeds and tools.
Based on an estimated population of about 2.8 million in 1999, the report says that Liberia will need to import 155,000 mt of cereals to meet its consumption requirements. Commercial imports are estimated at 100,000 mt of rice and 5,000 mt of wheat. The remaining 50,000 mt will need to be covered by food aid, estimated at 30,000 mt of wheat and 20,000 of maize meal, the report adds. (The full report is available on: http://www.fao.org/giews)
UNITED NATIONS: WHO - Brundtland spells out future role
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the new Director-General of the World Health Organisation, has pledged to put health "at the core of the international development agenda". In a broad policy speech, entitled "WHO? The Way Ahead", Brundtland on Tuesday presented her vision for bringing the WHO into the new century. Addressing the WHO Executive Board in Geneva, she said sound investment in health was one of the most cost-effective ways of promoting development and progress. She underlined that improving health in poor countries led to increased GDP per capita and in richer countries it reduced overall costs to society.
"In time of global trade and investment, where nations are searching for ways to make ends meet, we have been sitting on a secret," Brundtland stressed. She said the organisation should forge closer links with the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation and initiate a "new dialogue" with the International Monetary Fund. (full text of speech available on: http://www.who.int/ )
Abidjan, 27 January 1999, 19:15 GMT
[ENDS]
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 19:23:01 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 389 for 1999.1.27
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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