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IRIN-WA Update 530 of events in West Africa (Tuesday 17 August)
LIBERIA: Government says it has retaken two key towns
Liberian government troops have retaken two major towns in Lofa County from dissidents and are trying to recapture a third, Information Minister Joe Mulbah told IRIN on Tuesday.
"We are in complete control of Kolahun and Foya and our troops are fighting seriously for Voinjama," Mulbah said.
The BBC reported Defence Minister Daniel Chea as saying that a fourth town in Lofa had also been retaken. However an opponent of the Liberian government, Massa Nyoissun kai Massa, told the BBC that his unnamed "resistance group" was still in control of towns they had captured in Lofa and no territory had been lost.
There has been no independent verification of either claim.
Mulbah told IRIN that government forces were on the
offensive, and that they were pursuing between 500
and 600 rebels who were fleeing towards the border
with Guinea.
Former combatants have been asked to join the government
forces in defending their regions against the rebels,
Mulbah said. He was not able to give details on how
many had signed up so far or on casualties suffered
in the past week.
Chea said on Monday on the BBC that retreating rebels were burning towns and villages and that his forces were coming under artillery fire from the Guinean side of the border. The border was closed on 11 August following reports that the rebels had attacked Lofa County from Guinea and captured several towns. President Charles Taylor declared a state of emergency in the area.
There has been much speculation over the identity of the rebel force. A spokesman for the group said it was made up of Liberians who were sent by Taylor to back insurgents in neighbouring Sierra Leone, Reuters reported on Monday.
Mulbah told IRIN that the government had received indications that two former warring factions, Ulimo-J and Ulimo-K, might have regrouped.
"We don't know for sure," he said "but, if so, it's a marriage that will never last."
SIERRA LEONE: Barclays pulls out
Barclays Bank has sold its stake in Barclays Bank Sierra Leone to the government, the government in Freetown announced. The new entity will reportedly be called Rokel Commercial Bank.
Barclays has had operations in Sierra Leone for 82 years but last week it decided to pull out because many of the local branches of Barclays Bank Sierra Leone were destroyed and investments were virtually impossible, AFP reported.
The new agreement now leaves Standard Chartered Bank as the only foreign commercial bank in the country.
MAURITANIA: Joint police unit established on border security
Senegal, Mali and Mauritania have agreed to set up a joint police unit to stop banditry along their common border, news sources told IRIN on Tuesday.
A reporter with Senegal's official news agency, APS, said about 100 Senegalese gendarmes have been operating in the border area against drug traffickers, gangs that attack communities and car jackers.
A notorious gang leader, Mamadou Thiam, was arrested in Mali in July but "he was replaced by an even more dangerous fellow", the source said.
NIGERIA: Rights group files 8,000 cases with human rights panel
A minority rights group has filed 8,000 cases of human rights abuses with a government body established to review violations by past military administrations, news reports said.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) presented the documents to the Oputa Panel on human rights violations.
However, Acting MOSOP President Ledum Mitee said the petitions had been rejected on technical grounds, `The Guardian' newspaper reported on Monday. MOSOP said it could not afford the one million naira (US $9,600) required to produce 10 copies of each of the cases filed.
AFP quoted Mitee as saying the cases were "a challenge" to the panel and Nigeria's justice system. MOSOP said it wanted the panel to recognise the degree to which the regime of the late General Sani Abacha instituted a reign of terror in the country.
MOSOP has been fighting for the rights of the Ogoni
people in southeast Nigeria. In late 1995, nine of
its members, including its leader Ken Saro-wiwa, were
executed after being sentenced to death by a military
tribunal.
Abidjan, 17 August 1999; 18:10 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1449
[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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