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LIBERIA: Soldiers reportedly detained for harassment
Military authorities in Liberia's Bomi County have detained soldiers for harassing civilians, Liberian independent Star radio reported on Thursday. The soldiers, whose number was not disclosed, were accused of beating several persons and taking away their personal belongings.
A Red Cross motorcycle seized by the soldiers has been retrieved and returned, the broadcaster said. It quoted Sixth Infantry Battalion commander Colonel Bobby Dixon as saying that disciplinary action would be taken.
One Liberian Defence Ministry official in Monrovia told IRIN on Friday he was unaware of this particular incident and would not comment on the report nor on the discipline of Liberian troops. However, the security forces have come under severe public criticism for harassing members of the public.
LIBERIA-GUINEA: ECOWAS forms fence-mending commission
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided on Friday to form a commission to reduce the tension between Liberia and Guinea, news reports said.
The commission's mandate will be to find solutions to security problems that threaten peace and security in the two countries, according to reports from the Togolese capital, where the ECOWAS foreign ministers discussed the issue on Thursday and Friday.
Liberia had accused Guinea of supporting rebels who launched an insurgency on 10 August in the northwest Liberian county of Lofa, which borders on Guinea. Conakry denied any involvement in the affair.
In a communique, the ECOWAS ministers "vigorously condemned" the dissidents' attack and said that no ECOWAS member state would support them.
CHAD: Registration of refugees underway
The registration of Chadian refugees in Cameroon began earlier this week in Ngaoundere in the Cameroon province of Adamaoua, AFP reported on Wednesday, citing local officials in Yaounde.
Close to 8,000 of the estimated 20,000 refugees, it said, will be issued identity cards that will cost each person 6,000 francs cfa. The news agency, citing officials in the province situated some 1,000 km north of the capital, said "few Chadians" had come forward to receive the cards.
A UNHCR spokesman told IRIN on Friday that it had been difficult to identify the number of Chadian refugees in Cameroon because many lived in towns or work as farmhands. There are just 3,000 refugees in the Tapare camp in the northern district of Garoua, he said. Rough estimates give the number of Chadian refugees in the country as 50,000 but the figure being used for repatriation planning is 20,000.
UNHCR said that the identity card process - basically a head count of refugees - was in preparation for the repatriation operation, due in October. "The condition (in Chad) is conducive," the source said.
Guerrilla group renounces war
A Chadian anti-government group, the Alliance pour la Resistance nationale (ANR), has renounced armed struggle because, its leader says, there is now a democratic process in the country, Gabon's Africa No. 1 radio reported on Wednesday.
ANR leader Souleymane Garfa said his group would take part in the democratic political process. Its Renunciation of the armed struggle was marked in a ceremony on Tuesday when 100 ANR guerrillas surrendered to the government.
Garfa, a former army colonel, told Africa No.1 that ANR fighters would "be placed at the disposal of the competent authorities" for their reintegration into the Chadian army.
AFRICA: RSF pinpoints violators of press freedom
Out of 52 countries due to attend the Eighth Summit of La Francophonie on 3-5 September in New Brunswick, Canada, 15 are in breach of freedom of the press, says Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), including 13 in Africa.
The countries fingered by the international watchdog are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Laos, Mauritania, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Vietnam.
NIGERIA: Police discover arms factory in Ondo
A combined team of police detectives and military intelligence officials have found an illegal arms factory in the western Nigerian state of Ondo, 'The Guardian' daily in Lagos reported on Friday.
According to the paper, the discovery was disclosed at a news conference on Thursday by Ondo Police Commissioner Chris Nyiam, who said a suspect was arrested at the illegal factory, located in a hideout two km from Akure, Ondo's capital.
A large number of single and double-barrel guns, including locally made pistols, and other weapons in various stages of completion were recovered at the factory, the paper said.
Ondo was the scene of clashes in September 1998 and again earlier this month between its Ijaw and Ilaje communities.
Flood displaces 300 in Benue
Five persons have been confirmed dead while no fewer than 60 houses were submerged after the River Obi overflowed its banks in Benue in Nigeria's middle belt, 'The Guardian' reported on 27 August.
The flood, said to be the area's worst in five years, swamped farmland close to the river and rendered around 300 persons homeless, according to 'The Guardian'. It was caused by a heavy downpour that created multiple flood channels in the area, the paper said.
Heavy rains and floods have been reported in much of West Africa since late July.
GHANA: US, Ghana firms in US $52-million power purchase deal
Ghana's Volta River Authority and CMS Energy Corp, a Michigan-based power company in the United States, have signed a US $52-million power purchase deal, Ghana's state radio reported. It said the agreement on Wednesday would accelerate, by more than two years, the building and commissioning of a 110-mw unit for the Takoradi expansion project.
The two companies have set up a joint venture with a third firm, the Takoradi International Company, to build, own and operate a 330-MW expansion of the Takoradi thermal plant, the radio said.
Ghana to save 107 billion cedis through energy efficiency
Ghana can save up to 107 billion cedis (US $14.9 million) and reduce carbon emissions by 230,000 mt by the year 2010 if energy conservation measures are strictly adhered to, the Ghana News Agency reported.
It said a survey by five energy-related institutions also found that 18 billion cedis (US $6.9 million) could be saved on the consumption of air conditioners with a reduction of carbon emission of 38,000 mt.
Speaking at the launch in Accra on 18 August of 'Energy Wise', a brochure published by the Energy Foundation to guide consumers on efficient practices, Minister of Mines and Energy Fred Ohene-Kena said the saving represented a 10-percent cut in energy consumption.
He said 13.8 billion cedis (US $5.3 million) could be saved on lighting and carbon emission reduced by 24,000 mt through policy and legal regulations.
Other measures will be to support the Energy Foundation and the Ghana Standards Board to come up with minimum energy efficiency standards and labels for domestic energy-consuming appliances and industrial electric motors, GNA reported.
BENIN: Government agrees to accommodate ICTR genocide convicts
Benin has become the second country to conclude an agreement with the United Nations to accommodate in its prisons people convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the tribunal reported on Thursday.
The agreement was signed by Benin's foreign minister, Antoine Idji Kolawole, and Agwu Okali, Assistant Secretary-General and Registrar of the ICTR.
According to the Statute of the Tribunal, sentences handed down by the ICTR "shall be served in Rwanda or any of the States on a list of States which have indicated to the Security Council their willingness to accept convicted persons, as designated by the ICTR".
So far the only other country to have concluded such an agreement with the United Nations is Mali, although other African states and some European ones have indicated their willingness to accommodate ICTR convicts.
The tribunal was set up by the United Nations to try people accused of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It has convicted five genocide suspects, all of whom have appealed against their convictions or their sentences.
//CORRECTION//
In Update #537, we mistakenly stated that a former minister was killed last week in Guinea Bissau. However, the former minister (Nicandro Barreto) was killed on Sunday 22 August.//
Abidjan, 27 August 1999; 18:25 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1502
[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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