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IRIN-WA Update 542 of events in West Africa (Thursday 2 September)
SIERRA LEONE: Appeal for help for refugees in Guinea-Bissau
Sierra Leone's 516 refugees in Guinea-Bissau - in desperate need of shelter, money and jobs - are asking for urgent help, according to an appeal sent out on their behalf by Andrew Lawday, a humanitarian consultant in London.
"Many have had their precarious livelihoods destroyed by the conflict that ended this year," Lawday said in the appeal, issued on Tuesday for the Association of Sierra Leonean Refugees in Guinea-Bissau, many of whose members fled war in their country only to become victims of Guinea-Bissau's own military revolt that ended this year.
According to Lawday, the refugees want projects funded to enable them to become productive members of their host country, starting with a food-for-work project open to refugees of all nationalities and Guinea-Bissau citizens. "Liberians refugees in Guinea-Bissau are likely to be in a similarly desperate situation," Lawday said.
Three projects needing donor aid would provide high school education and skills training, and refurbish a building to be used as a social centre for refugees. The high school programme would cater for 50-100 teenagers and the professional skills training would be provided for youths and adults.
Sankoh on his way home
Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh arrived in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, on Wednesday aboard a Togolese military plane on an indirect route home some eight weeks after signing a peace agreement with his country's government, news reports said.
Sankoh brushed aside appeals by the Togolese officials that he go directly to Freetown, AFP reported. Instead, he insisted on being flown to meet first with Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore. Sankoh told Reuters news agency from Lome, Togo, on Monday that he would later go to Cote d'Ivoire and await confirmation by his advance party in Freetown that he would be safe there.
Sankoh had said he would arrive in Freetown once his security was assured. A guarantee to that effect was given by the West African Peace Monitoring Force (ECOMOG) which, last weekend, said that final plans had been made for Sankoh's return and that of his Armed Forces Revolutionary Council ally, Johnny Paul Koroma.
Sankoh, convicted of treason, will now be returning home a free man under the provisions of the Lome peace accord, signed on 7 July, that ended nine years of war.
Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has been brought into the government under the peace deal. However, reports have it that there is opposition to this in Sierra Leone due to the widespread atrocities, including thousands of amputations, that the RUF/AFRC perpetrated.
LIBERIA: A capital in darkness
Two years after the end of the 1989-1997 war in Liberia,
there is still no electricity service in Monrovia and
residents of the Liberian capital say the absence of
power is affecting the city in many ways.
"Power helps to prevent crime, boost economic development
and attract foreign investment," a media source
told IRIN. A human rights advocate noted: "We
need power to pipe water around the city."
Residents of Bushrod Island, an industrial area east of Monrovia, receive pipe-borne water twice a week, but elsewhere in the capital, people either buy water from reservoirs filled by EU-sponsored trucks or pump it by hand from poorly treated wells.
The Liberian city has been without power since 1992 when faction fighters destroyed the hydro-electric plant which used to provide power to Monrovia. Those who can afford it have generators. The others do without electricity.
[See separate item titled 'LIBERIA: IRIN special report on electricity']
CHAD: WFP to provide food for 53,000 people in the south
The World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an operation to provide food for people affected by poor harvests during the last agricultural season in four prefectures in southern Chad.
Under an agreement signed on 1 September by Chadian Agriculture Minister Moctar Moussa and WFP Representative in N'djamena Mamo Desta, the food will be distributed to more than 53,000 people in Tandjile, Mayo Kebbi, Logone Oriental and Logone Occidental.
The beneficiaries will get food rations of sorghum and niebe - a local bean - for 45 days. Most will be female heads of households with children, widows living alone, elderly people without children of working age and handicapped persons, WFP reported.
The aid, valued at over US $1.2 million, is part of a US $23-million WFP project to provide people threatened by food shortages in Chad, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal.
NIGER: Travel ban imposed on former ministers
Niger's military junta has banned all ex-ministers from
the previous civilian government from leaving the country,
AFP reported a former defence minister as saying on
private radio in Niamey on Wednesday.
Yahaya Tounkara, who was minister under the late Ibrahim
Bare Mainassara, said he was notified of the travel
ban on Tuesday evening.
AFP reported Tounkara as saying that many other colleagues of Mainassara, killed in April in a military coup, were banned from leaving Niamey in May. The ruling junta said the travel bans were imposed on the former ministers pending inquiries into their financial affairs.
SENEGAL: Protective measures for fishermen
Senegal's fishermen will now have to wear life jackets as part of measures taken by the government following Cyclone Cindy, which killed scores of fishers last month, the official daily 'Le Soleil' quotes a cabinet minister as saying.
According to Minister of Fisheries and Sea Transport Alassane Dialy Ndiaye, a batch of 1500 life jackets provided by Japan have been placed at the fishermen's disposal, 'Le Soleil' reported in its 2 September edition.
They can also purchase low-priced lifebuoys and Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment which would enable them to identify their position when in difficulty.
The minister said fishing operators should acquire fibre-glass boats and VHF radios to listen to weather bulletins. Gendarme brigades stationed on the coast will also be provided with patrol boats, according to 'Le Soleil'.
HEALTH: Samba re-elected WHO-Africa director
African health ministers have re-elected Dr Ebrahim Samba as World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Africa, WHO announced in a communique on Wednesday.
His election came at the 49th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Windhoek, Namibia. The meeting started on 30 August and ends on 3 September. It will have to be ratified by the WHO board of directors in January 2000.
Samba became WHO's Africa regional director in 1995 after heading its programme for the eradication of river blindness for 14 years.
Abidjan, 2 September 1999; 14:45 GMT
(ENDS)
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1530
[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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