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IRIN-WA Update 529 of events in West Africa (Monday 16 August)
LIBERIA: UNHCR staff evacuated from Lofa
All UNHCR staff working in Lofa County in northwest Liberia were evacuated to Monrovia on Saturday at the government's insistence, a UNHCR spokesman in Abidjan told IRIN on Monday.
"Fifteen international and local staff have all left the area and I'm afraid it will be for some time," Marcellin Hepie, UNHCR Senior Programme Officer in West Africa, said. There are some 30,000 refugees in the area.
Defence minister says towns, villages are being destroyed
Defence Minister Daniel Chea said on Monday that towns and villages were being burned in Lofa County and charged that shots were being fired from across the border with Guinea, the BBC reported.
Government forces, he said, were trying to dislodge the rebels from Voinjama, a key town in Lofa. "We are not going to be intimidated," Chea told the BBC. Asked if Liberia would attack Guinea, he said: "I did not say that but we will use every means at our disposal to expel the dissidents."
On Sunday, the government claimed that its troops had regained complete control of the north-west and dislodged all rebel forces from the area.
News organisations reported that some 1,000 rebels attacked government forces with heavy weapons early on Saturday. No information has been released on casualties, but the fighting was said to be heavy.
Guinea denies Liberian allegation
The head of the Guinean Consulate in Monrovia, Joseph Tolno, denied on Friday that the rebels came from there, saying that Guinea had no interest in allowing dissidents to destabilise Liberia, Star Radio reported.
Liberia complains formally to the UN
On Wednesday, the Liberian government sent a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the UN Security Council protesting "an armed incursion from the Republic of Guinea". It also said Liberia had submitted a protest note to Guinea's government asking it "to bring this situation under control".
It added that the Liberian government reserved the right "to defend its territorial integrity against such aggression".
Identity of the group remains unclear
Meanwhile, the identities of the people behind the attacks remain unclear. According to Reuters there is speculation in Monrovia that they could be led by a former warlord from the seven-year civil war which formally ended with elections in 1997.
A spokesman for the group, who identified himself as Mosquito Spray, called the BBC on Friday claiming responsibility for the incursion, but did not say who its leaders were.
SIERRA LEONE: Some US $24 million needed for UNOMSIL expansion
Over US $24 million will be required for the provisional expansion of the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) until details are finalized for an enhanced UN peacekeeping presence in the country, according to budget estimates released at UN Headquarters on Friday.
In an addendum to a 30 July report to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the financing would cover a 10-month period ending in June 2000 and fund the gradual phase-in of 140 additional military observers.
The money would also cover the addition of 59 international civilian personnel and 21 local workers to UNOMSIL's staff.
The Secretary-General had recommended strengthening UNOMSIL so that it could help implement the 7 July peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary United Front.
SENEGAL: Ten kidnapped in Casamance
Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) rebels have been accused of abducting at least 10 people during an operation last week in Casamance, according to news organisations.
A representative from Rencontre Africaine pour la defense
de droit de l'homme (RADDHO), a local human rights
group with a presence in Casamance, told IRIN that
two soldiers belonging to the Jola ethnic group had
been abducted last Thursday. One of them later escaped,
he said.
"The majority of the rebels are Jola and they are
not in the habit of abducting people from their own
ethnic group," RADDHO said.
RFI quotes the MFDC's overall leader, Father Augustin
Diamacoune Senghor, as saying that the hostage-taking
could be a political act or simply banditry.
The MFDC wants the southern area of Casamance to break
away from the rest of Senegal.
CHAD: WFP nutrition project targets over 41,000 women, children
More than 41,000 women and children are expected to benefit from a project aimed at supporting rehabilitation and nutritional education in Kanem prefecture in north-western Chad, WFP announced in a news release.
WFP assistance amounting to more than US $1.4 million, will be used to provide food for severely malnourished children, households with moderately malnourished children aged six to 59 months and the mothers of severely malnourished children when the latter are hospitalised.
The two-year project is also aimed at improving the monitoring of malnourished children and their mothers as well as pregnant and nursing women, according to WFP.
WFP reported that the project agreement was signed on 13 August by Mamo Desta, WFP representative in Chad, and Chadian minister of planning and territorial management, Mahamat Ali Hassan.
"We are going to focus our efforts on the prefecture of Kanem affected by a chronic deficit in agricultural production that has led to a shortfall in the quantity and quality of food available to households," Mamo said.
"Surveys by our partner Action contre la Faim (ACF) indicate a significant malnutrition rate among children under the age of five years," he said.
The project will be implemented by ACF, a non-governmental organisation that has been operating successfully in Kanem since 1994, according to WFP, which reported that ACT was contributing US $325,000 to the initiative and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) US $100,000.
WESTERN SAHARA: MINURSO continues identification process
The UN Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is continuing
to identify members of "contested tribes"
and conduct an appeals process for people deemed ineligible
to vote in an upcoming referendum, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said in a new report.
Contested tribes are groups over which there is disagreement as to whether they should be identified as Sahrawi.
The report deals with the status of preparations for the referendum, which will allow the people in the former Spanish colony to chose between independence or integration with Morocco.
MINURSO and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are also stepping up preparations to repatriate refugees to the territory, Annan said. "It is now important that confidence-building measures be implemented promptly through the establishment of communications facilities and visits," he added.
However, delays in solving certain issues in the identification operation, the staggered opening of appeals centres and staffing shortages, have affected parts of the timetable for the referendum process, Annan said.
The UN is making special efforts to increase staffing to the required levels, but because of the amount of work ahead, additional resources may be needed to keep to the current timetable.
NIGERIA: Multi-million-dollar deal to light up Lagos
Lagos State and a US power company have signed a US
$800-million deal to supply electricity to some eight
million residents of Nigeria's largest metropolitan
area and commercial hub, according to news reports.
The project, signed on Friday by Lagos State Governor
Bola Tinubu and officials of Enron Power Nigeria Ltd.,
will be done in two phases. In the first, some 90 megawatt
(mw) of electricity will be generated between now and
October, `The Guardian' newspaper reported on Monday.
This is equivalent to 20 percent of the total power supplied to the state by the Nigerian Electric Power Authority (NEPA), a poorly performing state firm. Phase two will involve the building of a new 5609-mw gas turbine power plant.
A 280-kilometre, 24-inch natural gas pipeline will be built to supply the station.
The entire project is expected to create at least 2,500 jobs in the long term, AFP reported, quoting Lagos State officials. They say they have signed the deal because they cannot wait for the promised improvement in power supplies from NEPA.
NEPA's installed capacity is around 6,000 mw, but because of poor maintenance and mismanagement, it generates only 1,600 mw, AFP said, well below a national demand estimated at 2,470 mw.
CAMEROON: Crisis committee order urgent action on lake
Cameroon's National Crisis Committee has recommended extracting large deposits of carbon dioxide from Lake Nyos to prevent a repetition of an explosion in 1986 that killed some 2,000 people, AFP reported on Saturday.
The decision was made following a visit to Nyos last week by experts from the Institute of Geological and Mineral Research who said several large cracks had formed beside the lake, AFP said.
Area residents have also reported dead fish floating in the lake and recent gas explosions.
The committee is led by the secretary-general to the presidency, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, and includes other government officials.
Abidjan, 16 August 1999; 18:20 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1431
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information or free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or fax: +254 2 622129 or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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