| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
Tel: +225 21 73 54 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org
WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 30 covering the period 24-30 July 1999
LIBERIA: Weapons destruction underway
Some 1,500 small arms and ammunition went up in smoke on Monday in a symbolic burning of guns at Monrovia's Barclay Training Centre (BTC).
"Today, with these flames of peace, peace in Liberia burns more brightly, and we can see a glimmer of hope for peace and security across the African continent," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said of the event. He described it as the largest single public display of conventional weapons destruction carried out in peacetime.
Present were thousands of spectators. Among them were presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Alpha Konare of Mali, three former commanders of ECOMOG and UN officials, including the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Kingsley Amoako.
The weapons were surrendered by former warring factions to the United Nations and ECOMOG, at the end of the seven-year Liberian civil war. The arms destruction was supervised by the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Ex-combatants
The situation of Liberia's former combatants will be addressed as an 'emergency issue' at a meeting of UN agency heads in Monrovia on 4 August, Felix Downes-Thomas, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, told IRIN on Friday.
Some 150-200 veterans, including some disabled during the civil war, demonstrated "energetically" outside the UN Peace Building office in Monrovia on Tuesday, demanding resettlement benefits from the international community, Downes-Thomas said.
They spoke of their feelings of neglect and accused the United Nations and the rest of the international community of not keeping a promise to help them reintegrate into society - including by providing skills training - after they handed over their weapons to ECOMOG at the end of the civil war.
"We champion your cause but there have been financial
constraints," Downes-Thomas told Eric Meyers,
spokesman of the Veterans Association of Liberia, at
a meeting on Thursday. He told him UN agency heads
would meet next week to deal with their situation.
SIERRA LEONE: Kamajors return home
Large numbers of Kamajor militiamen have started returning to their farms and villages as Sierra Leone, too, moves from war to peace. This is one result of the peace agreement on 7 July by the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
The return of the traditional hunters was confirmed by politicians in the traditional Kamajor strongholds of Bo and Kenema. A Freetown-based adviser on demobilisation issues for the British Department for International Development, Keith Martin told IRIN ECOMOG soldiers also verified the movement home.
Contact Group makes committed to lasting peace
Participants in a meeting of the Sierra Leone Contact Group (SLCG) welcomed the signing of the Lome Peace Agreement and committed themselves to work for lasting peace, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said on Wednesday.
The London conference was attended by senior representatives of 23 countries, the United Nations, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Commission, the Commonwealth, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The meeting agreed on immediate priorities for Sierra Leone, including addressing impunity and breaking the cycle of violence in the country.
Britain announces new assistance
At the meeting, Britain announced a wide-ranging programme to help Sierra Leone recover from its eight-year civil war and build lasting democracy for its former colony.
Foreign Minister Tony Lloyd said Britain would "sustain and develop" its training and equipping of the new Sierra Leonean army, at a cost of 4.5 million pounds sterling. This will involve provision of guns, uniforms, training ammunition around 80 British service personnel and other UK officials.
A civilian structure will be established to ensure democratic control of the military. In addition, Lloyd promised continued support to ECOMOG in its new role in Sierra Leone.
Britain will also double to 20 its officers serving
with UNOMSIL, as well as support programmes for disarmament,
demobilisation and reintegration, governance, rehabilitation,
reconciliation, police training, media development
and the creation of an anti-corruption unit.
Ogata appeals for resources
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata appealed on Monday for aid to Sierra Leone and other governments in West Africa so that they can implement the Lome agreement.
In her appeal, made in a briefing to the UN Security Council, she said aid for the return and reintegration of refugees and internally displaced people was of "paramount importance".
She also made a special appeal for help for people who have lost limbs, citing her recent visit to a rehabilitation centre as "one of the most shocking experiences of my eight years as High Commissioner".
WFP increases food supplies
The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Monday it was increasing food aid to thousands of child soldiers and war victims due to be released following the Lome agreement. The agency, which is already feeding 140 children at a centre near Freetown, is planning to start deliveries to four more facilities when children captured by the RUF are freed.
GUINEA-BISSAU: UN trust fund
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced on Thursday the establishment of a Trust Fund in Support of the Activities of the United Nations Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau.
The fund is now ready to receive contributions that will go to: mobilizing international political support for assistance to Guinea Bissau; enhancing the participation of civil society and the armed forces in peace-building, democracy and the rule of law process; contributing to the civic education of former combatants, national armed forces and police; and helping the government to implement its programme of voluntary arms collection, disposal and destruction, as well as demining.
The fund will also be used to support the work of the UN Country Team in Guinea-Bissau for reconciliation efforts, the establishment and strengthening of democratic institutions and the development of an integrated approach to peace-building programmes.
Contributions will be accepted from governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, or private institutions and individuals, the UN says. Pledges and contributions, it adds, will be accepted only by the Secretary-General or officials acting on his behalf.
The following bank account will keep the fund's resources: United Nations General Trust Fund Account, The Chase Manhattan International Agencies Banking Account No. 001-1-508140 ABA 021-000-021 For the Trust Fund in support of the activities of the United Nations Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS)
UNHCR completes repatriation from Senegal
A last batch of Guinea-Bissau refugees left Dakar for home by boat on Tuesday, the UNHCR regional public information officer, Khassim Diagne, told IRIN on Wednesday. He said the 159 refugees, who included 57 children, had been living in towns and cities. They were the last of 802 Guinea Bissau nationals who fled to Senegal during a military uprising that began in 1998. Diagne also said that 310 out of 720 Guinea Bissau refugees registered in Cape Verde had signed up to go back home and that 175 of them had already returned.
Fifteen former officials arrested
Guinea-Bissau Attorney General Amin Saad said on Tuesday that 15 associates of ousted president Joao Bernardo Vieira have been arrested. The detainees include former prime minister Carlos Correia, AFP reported. Others under arrest include Francisco Conduto Pina, a son-in-law of the former president. They have been charged with incitement to war and giving financial support to Vieira, who was toppled on 7 May.
Bissau airport opened
An Air Portugal jetliner carrying Guinea-Bissau Prime Minister Francisco Fadul and other dignitaries landed in Bissau on Tuesday, marking the reopening of the Osvaldo Vieira airport which closed on 7 June 1998 because of military conflict. According to news reports, some 60 other Guinean-Bissau and Portuguese officials and returning refugees were also on board.
UN humanitarian priorities for second half 1999
The United Nations says implementation of the second phase of an agricultural campaign, refugee repatriation, reactivation of key social services pending the start of rehabilitation programmes and national capacity building are the humanitarian priorities for the second half of 1999.
These are contained in the UN mid-term review of its interagency appeal published last week by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
In all, 597,000 people still need humanitarian help.
About US $4.5 million is needed to implement the humanitarian aid programme, less than that asked for at the beginning of 1999. This is because some bilaterally-funded projects, frozen during the conflict, have been reactivated mainly in the water and sanitation, health and education sectors. Food aid requirements have also been met by prior contributions.
NIGERIA: Scores die in ethnic fighting
Scores of people died in Nigeria during ethnic clashes
in the southern town of Shagamu and the northern city
of Kano, officials said on Monday.
Fighting first broke out on 18 July between ethnic Hausas
and local Yorubas in Shagamu, a town of about 300,000
inhabitants some 60 km north of commercial capital
Lagos, after a Hausa woman was killed for breaking
a local taboo.
In the ensuing violence at least 60 people were reported dead and scores of buildings, including shops, a hospital and mosques belonging to the predominantly Muslim Hausas were burnt.
Fighting shifted to Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria, on 22 July as some of the dead and the displaced were returned home from Shagamu. About 10 people were reported killed during the violence on Thursday and Friday. After the initial fighting, a new wave of violence erupted in Kano on Sunday. This time at least 30 people, mostly Yorubas, were killed as mobs of youths rampaged through the city.
Youths free 64 oil workers
Militant youths in Nigeria's troubled southeast have released 64 oil workers taken hostage two days ago, news reports said on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for the giant Royal Dutch/Shell oil company said in London that all the employees were unharmed. Seven of the hostages were expatriates and the rest Nigerian. They were seized on their drilling rigs by ethnic Isoko youths in Ozoro and Ovrode communities demanding money and amenities for the local population, Reuters reported. Shell, which produces half of Nigeria's 1.9 million barrels of crude each day, has cut back output by one-quarter because of the insecurity, Reuters said.
Meanwhile, President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday set out a three-phase plan for privatising more than 1,000 state enterprises, news organisations reported.
The privatisation of telecommunications firm NITEL, power firm NEPA, oil refineries, the state airline and a fertiliser company will be held back until the last phase, Reuters quoted Obasanjo as saying. He gave no specific date for their sale.
Obasanjo said the first phase, to be completed by the end of 1999, involved the sale of shares in companies quoted on the stock exchange that were part of a privatisation round in the 1980s. Phase II, for which no date was given, will include hotels and vehicle assembly plants.
CHAD: Opposition leader held in the south
Chadian opposition leader Michel Mbailemal, arrested on Monday for allegedly fomenting a rebellion, is being held in Moundou, some 600 km south of Ndjamena, Chad's Communication Minister, Moussa Dago, told IRIN on Wednesday.
Mbailemal, leader of the Comite d'action pour la Liberte et la Democratie, two of his aides and two senior army officers were detained after a shoot-out between his group and government troops.
The soldiers were escorting government officials who
had approached Mbailemal for talks about the rebellion
he was allegedly planning in southern Chad, Dago said.
Mbailemal's followers opened fire, wounding one soldier
while one of his men was killed in the exchange, according
to Dago.
TOGO: Parties sign deal to defuse political crisis
Togo's political parties on Thursday signed a framework
agreement to defuse a prolonged political crisis that
came to a head in June 1998 with President Gnassingbe
Eyadema's disputed re-election, news organisations
reported.
The agreement noted decisions by Eyadema not to seek another term and to rerun the March 1999 parliamentary elections - boycotted by the opposition - in March 2000, according to the Republic of Togo web site. Eyadema, who seized power in 1967, announced on 23 July that he would not seek re-election when his term expires in 2003.
Thursday's agreement provides for the creation of an independent national electoral commission and mechanisms to complete Togo's transition to democracy, which began in the early 1990s.
UNITED NATIONS: Global forum on human development
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that the world needed advice on how to manage globalisation to ensure it benefits everyone, according to a UN news release.
"One of the things we look for, from experts like you, is advice on how to manage globalisation, how to catch it at the flood and channel it so that all can benefit," Annan told government ministers, policymakers and academics at the Global Forum on Development in New York.
The three-day forum, organised by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), is the first in a series of annual events to stimulate discussion on recent innovations in human development concepts, measurements and policies.
Abidjan, 29 July 1999; 18:15 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-1350
[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
| Previous Menu | Home Page | What's New | Search | Country Specific |