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IRIN-WA Update 536 of events in West Africa (Wednesday 25 August)
THE GAMBIA: Floods threaten thousands
Up to 10,000 people in rural communities could be displaced by floods caused by heavy rains in The Gambia, news sources there told IRIN on Wednesday.
Worst hit are the Central River, Upper River and Western administrative divisions in the country where, humanitarian and media sources said, close to 3,000 homes have been swept away.
Between 60 and 70 percent of the mud brick homes in Kaur, a town 140 km east of Banjul, dissolved under the deluge of rain but a media source said, "Not a single death has been reported yet". Some 300 people from the town have sought refuge in villages 15 km to 20 km away, the source said.
Schools and roads have been washed away and some communities have been cut off by flood waters. Parts of the capital, Banjul, and outlying towns were also flooded. "In some homes the water has reached the ceiling," the source said.
Vice-President Isatou Njie-Saidy appealed on Tuesday for assistance from international donors and the local business community. Sources said the government will need help with food, shelter, clothing and medicines.
One official told IRIN about concerns of diseases stemming from possible water pollution.
The National Multisectoral Committee on Disaster Relief, Emergencies and Settlement met in emergency session on Wednesday to plan for contingencies, sources said. The bureau will be sending an assessment team throughout the country to confirm figures of people affected, homes and infrastructure destroyed and to table needs.
LIBERIA: Facing many challenges
An independent task force set up by Liberia's government recommended reducing the army by about 6,000 men, the head of the UN Peace-building Office in Liberia (UNOL), Felix Downes-Thomas, recalls.
This involves issues such as retrenchment and pension payments but the government is strapped for funds and needs international assistance which has not been forthcoming, Downes-Thomas says in an interview with IRIN.
He also explains UNOL's mandate, the major challenges it faces and those confronting Liberia's government, and speaks of Liberia's relations with neighbouring countries as well as other issues such as human rights and press freedom.
[See item IRIN-english-1483 titled 'LIBERIA: IRIN Interview with Felix Downes-Thomas, Head of UNOL']
GABON: UNHCR responds to influx of Congolese refugees
The UNHCR has sent additional staff to the town of Tchibanga, some 400 km south of the Gabonese capital, Libreville, in response to an influx of refugees from Congo-Brazzaville, according to Kris Janowski, UNHCR spokesperson in Geneva.
UNHCR will also open a second field office in the eastern town of Franceville to cater for the thousands of people who have fled fighting in the neighbouring country.
Janowski said on Tuesday that although the number of refugees had not increased "significantly" since the first groups crossed into Gabon in early July, there were now reports of tens of thousands of Congolese in dense forest close to the border, waiting for the fighting to end.
The Congolese towns of Mbinda, Mayoko and Mossendjo are said to be crowded with displaced people and many families have been split up, he said.
Some of the 10,000 refugees who have already reached Gabon spoke of atrocities against civilians by militias fighting the national army, UNHCR said. Two freight containers of emergency relief supplies are due to arrive in Gabon at the end of the month, it added.
A UNHCR spokesman in Abidjan told IRIN on Wednesday that in July and August, four UNHCR staff members were sent on mission to the office in Libreville to join the three local employees already there. There are plans to replace the four with international staff and upgrade the unit to a branch office, the spokesman said.
LIBERIA: Rebel commander "under preliminary investigation"
One of the alleged leaders of rebels fighting government forces in Lofa County, north-western Liberia, has been handed over to the authorities in Monrovia, news organisations and Liberian officials have reported.
"His name is Roland Baygboe, a former soldier of the Armed Forces of Liberia and a key commander of Ulimo-K," Information Minister Joe Mulbah told IRIN on Wednesday. Ulimo-K, led by Alhaji Kromah, was one of the factions that fought in Liberia's seven-year civil war.
However, a Defence Ministry spokesman, Philibert Browne, told IRIN on Wednesday that Baygboe had stated, in a testimony written since his capture, that he had been a member of another former faction, Ulimo-J.
Mulbah said the prisoner of war was "under preliminary investigation," in the capital, but he was not able to give details of where he had been captured or by whom.
According to a report broadcast on Wednesday by President Charles Taylor's private radio station, Baygboe was arrested in Voinjama. However Browne said that, according to his "testimony", he had been captured in Guinea and handed over to the Liberian army.
Liberia had accused Guinea of supporting the dissidents' incursion, but Conakry had consistently denied the allegation.
The rebels launched their insurgency in the northwest
about two weeks ago and went on to capture about five
localities which have since been retaken, according
to the government. Mulbah said a "mopping-up operation"
was continuing in the suburbs of Voinjama.
SIERRA LEONE: Journalists under threat, RSF says
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), headquartered in Paris, have come out against attacks against journalists in Sierra Leone.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the CPJ said it was "deeply concerned about a number of attacks on the press in Freetown in recent days". It said an officer of ECOMOG, the West African peacekeeping force, was directly involved in one attack and, in another case, an ECOMOG officer stood by and did nothing to intervene.
RSF asked Sierra Leone's Minister of Internal Affairs and Local Government, Charles Margai, in a letter dated 24 August "to use your authority to thoroughly investigate the aggression and condemn the individuals concerned" and "to ensure the security of all journalists in Sierra Leone".
The two organisations said that, according to information they had received, three members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) ransacked the offices of 'For Di People' newspaper on 20 August and beat its editor, Paul Kamara.
The rebels had taken offence at an article published in the Monday edition of the newspaper saying they had demanded money from the government for staying in Freetown and that they had wasted it, RSF reported. CPJ said an ECOMOG officer stood by and did nothing to prevent the assault.
On the same day, CPJ and RSF said, a member of the West
African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, threatened Jonathan
Leigh, managing editor of the Independent Observer,
over an article published on 18 August accusing ECOMOG
soldiers of being ineffective against thieves.
HUMAN RIGHTS: MSF denies adopting 'pragmatic approach'
to FGM
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Wednesday that its position on female genital mutilation (FGM) had been misrepresented in a report in the British weekly, 'The Observer', which said it had adopted a "pragmatic approach" to FGM.
MSF-France President Philippe Bikerson told IRIN that there was "no way that MSF can in any way accommodate the practice", which is widespread from West Africa to the Horn.
"MSF definitely does not have what has been pictured as 'a pragmatic approach'," he added. "It takes a principled approach on a complex issue we consider a real problem and we don't encourage or help the practice in any way."
The 'Observer' article stated that given the existence of FGM, individuals within the organisation sometimes preferred to see it happen in the best conditions possible and that if that was the decision, MSF supported them even though it was not its policy.
[See item-IRIN-english-1483, titled 'MSF denies adopting 'pragmatic approach' to Female Genital Mutilation']
ABIDJAN, 25 August 1999; 18:40 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1484
[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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