U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa Tel: +225 22-40-4440 Fax: +225 22-41-9339 e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ciWEST AFRICA IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 22 27 May to 2 June 2000
CONTENTS: WESTERN SAHARA: Security Council extends UN mission's mandate SIERRA LEONE: Government rushes troops to recapture Lunsar SIERRA LEONE: Civilians speak of rape, abductions and killings SIERRA LEONE: Food distribution in Port Loko District SIERRA LEONE: Access remains a problem SIERRA LEONE: UNICEF vaccination campaign in western region SIERRA LEONE: Civilians flee to Guinea SIERRA LEONE: Lungi health facilities in poor state SIERRA LEONE: ICRC resumes seed distribution SIERRA LEONE: RUF releases last batch of peacekeepers SIERRA LEONE: Situation still tense in the east SIERRA LEONE: Kono key to ending the conflict SIERRA LEONE-SOUTH AFRICA: Sankoh's wife expelled CAMEROON: Mount Cameroon oozes lava GHANA: Japan gives US $1 million to fight polio CAPE VERDE: ADB supports food security drive SENEGAL: Dakar delays troop pullback from Casamance NIGERIA: Government reconciles with former military foes NIGERIA: President pardons 15 military-era prisoners GUINEA-BISSAU: Communal clashes reported GUINEA-BISSAU: Journalists, politician freed COTE D'IVOIRE: Election budget announced WESTERN SAHARA: Security Council extends UN mission's mandate The United Nations Security Council voted on Wednesday to extend to July the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in the Western Sahara (MINURSO). MINURSO's mandate is to supervise the implementation of a plan to settle the dispute over the territory between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which wants independence for the former Spanish colony, annexed by Morocco in the mid-1970s. The Council is hoping that with the two-month extension, the two sides will offer the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, James Baker III, "specific and concrete proposals" for resolving the multiple problems relating to the Settlement Plan and explore all ways to achieve an early, durable resolution of their dispute. SIERRA LEONE: Government rushes troops to recapture Lunsar Government forces rushed reinforcements towards the strategic northern town of Lunsar, captured on Wednesday by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), news organisations said. Lunsar fell just two days after government forces seized it on Monday, and its rapid loss is seen as a setback to their advance on the main RUF-held town of Makeni, some 60 km north, through lightly forested land, most of it savannah. Pro-government forces have blamed their lack of equipment and supplies at the front for the military reversal. SIERRA LEONE: Civilians speak of rape, abductions and killings Residents of Lunsar, Makeni and Rogberi Junction have started arriving in camps for the internally displaced in Freetown and Waterloo, some 20 km to the south, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OCHA) said in a report on Wednesday. OCHA quoted a World Food Programme official as saying that many of the IDPs were recounting incidents of abduction, rape and killings. SIERRA LEONE: Food distribution in Port Loko District WFP and its implementing partners have started food distribution for some 25,000 newly displaced people in Loko Massama and Kafu Bullom in Port Loko District. By Wednesday, WFP had completed hand outs to more than 12,000 newly displaced people in Kafu. The UN food agency plans to assess further locations in Loko Massama and says that the numbers of displaced people needing assistance will rise. SIERRA LEONE: Access remains a problem Most roads in Sierra Leone are either unsafe or impassable, except for routes from Freetown to the Southern Province, and access to the needy population has become a major concern to the WFP, OCHA reported. Ongoing clashes between rebel and pro-government forces continue to cause displacement and fears are that people have little food. In addition the rainy season has begun and farmers are unable to cultivate as the 'hunger period' approaches, OCHA says. Meanwhile the NGO, Africare, says it has distributed 447.67 mt of rice seed to 11,938 farmers in the southern districts of Bo and Pujehun, Kenema; Kailahun in the east and Tonkolili District in the centre. SIERRA LEONE: UNICEF vaccination campaign in western region A 15-day vaccination campaign involving five antigens and Vitamin A began on Wednesday in the western region of Freetown and is expected to benefit 160,000 children under five and 225,000 women of child-bearing age, UNICEF reported. The UN children's agency has continued to supply safe drinking water to the IDP camps in Freetown and, in conjunction with OXFAM, is to provide additional sanitation facilities in the Lungi IDP camp. This includes the construction of 10 public and 10 semi-permanent latrines, and the supply of 15,000 gallons of potable water, OCHA reported. SIERRA LEONE: Civilians flee to Guinea Over 2,000 people have fled Sierra Leone for neighbouring Guinea since fighting broke out in early May between the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and pro-government forces, UNHCR in Abidjan told IRIN on Thursday. In May, some 2,300 people arrived at Kalako refugee camp in Forecariah, western Guinea, after crossing the border via Kambia District in northern Sierra Leone. Kambia is not far from Lunsar and Rogberi Junction, the scene of fierce fighting in recent days. UNHCR reported some tension in the camp between suspected RUF collaborators and former Sierra Leone Army and ex-Civil Defence Forces fighters. More refugees are expected to arrive in Guinea in the next few days, according to UNHCR, which said there had been no significant refugee movement recently into Liberia. SIERRA LEONE: Lungi health facilities desperate A Ministry of Health assessment mission led by Sierra Leone's deputy health minister visited the Lungi referral hospital - close to Freetown - and five local clinics on 25 May and was told that help was needed urgently, according to a 25-26 May situation report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). An International Medical Corps doctor working at the hospital said that facilities were "desperately overextended and we're looking for any kind of intervention from NGOs and international organisations". The week prior to the visit there were 78 patients, suffering mainly from gunshot wounds, in a hospital not equipped to deal with trauma cases. The team was told that the hospital was also receiving 300 to 350 cases of bloody diarrhoea every week from just two of the local health units and that some of its equipment had been vandalised. SIERRA LEONE: ICRC resumes seed distribution The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has resumed the distribution of seeds and tools to destitute farmers in eastern Sierra Leone, most of whom have been displaced from their homes by fighting over the last few years, the ICRC reported on Wednesday. Since the beginning of the week some 2,000 families in Kenema District have begun receiving supplies from the ICRC. The distributions had been interrupted by recent clashes near Masiaka along the main road from Freetown to Kenema and by the general lack of security in the country. The distribution of upland rice seeds (the cereal is a staple in Sierra Leone) needs to be completed before the end of the planting season, in mid-June, ICRC said. If the effort succeeded, it added, more than 200,000 people in Kenema and Kailahun in the east, Pujehun in the south and the central district of Tonkolili will be able to feed themselves when the next harvest comes. SIERRA LEONE: RUF releases last of peacekeepers The last of the UN peacekeepers held by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) arrived in Sierra Leone via Liberia on Sunday. As with groups of UN peacekeepers freed earlier, the release of the 84 Zambians and one Gambian military observer was negotiated by Liberian President Charles Taylor at the behest of the Economic Community of West African States. Four of the some 500 UN personnel seized by the RUF in May remain unaccounted for. UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) spokesman David Wimhurst said the missing peacekeepers were likely to be among the bodies discovered recently in Rogberi Junction, northeast of Freetown. In fighting in the town on 26 May, 12 government troops and 29 RUF rebels died before the army's 2nd Infantry Brigade forced the rebels to withdraw, state radio reported. SIERRA LEONE: Situation still tense in the east The situation of the UN peacekeepers encircled by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in the eastern district of Kailahun "remains tense", the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, said. He said the RUF high command had ordered its fighters to end their encirclement of some 250 UN peacekeepers but that the directive "had not quite been carried out". The UN mission in Freetown said on Thursday that it hoped for a speedy resolution of the situation. SIERRA LEONE: Kono key to ending the conflict A former coup leader told IRIN that pro-government forces must seize the rebel-held eastern diamond region of Kono to end Sierra Leone's renewed war. "If that is not done then the war will continue," Johnny Paul Koroma said. Koroma - who also heads the Commission for the Consolidation of the Peace and is now a key member of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's war coalition - said this objective must be attained ahead of negotiations between the government and RUF. Koroma said a new peace agreement would need "modifications" to last year's Lome accord, in which more stringent clauses on disarmament and a more effective reintegration programme had to be inserted. He added he foresaw no role for RUF leader Foday Sankoh in any future talks. "Personally I don't think he's credible enough to participate at all," he said. "But it's for the international community to decide." SIERRA LEONE-SOUTH AFRICA: Sankoh's wife expelled South Africa expelled on Wednesday a woman who claimed to be the wife of Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh because, Foreign Ministry spokesman Dumisani Rasheleng said, Pretoria did not want to be associated with anyone or anything hampering the peace process in Sierra Leone. The woman arrived in South Africa last Saturday on an US passport issued in her maiden name, Fatou Mbayi. The decision to deport her followed widely reported confusion over which government department had allowed her into the country as a guest of a Mr M.K. Malefane, who said she had been invited to participate in a music and arts festival. CAMEROON: Mount Cameroon oozing lava Lava has started to flow again from Mount Cameroon but government officials said on state radio there was no immediate cause for alarm, news organisations reported on Wednesday. It is unclear exactly when the volcano started to erupt, although residents of Buea, the town closest to the volcano, said there were light earth tremors on Monday and thick smoke and fire at the top of the mountain, Reuters reported state radio as saying. When Mount Cameroon last erupted, in March and April 1999, the authorities evacuated residents of villages around the volcano. It lies along a geological fault that includes Lakes Nyos, from which carbon dioxide emissions on 21 August 1986 killed 1,700 people. GHANA: Japan gives US $1 million to fight polio Japan agreed on Wednesday to give Ghana US $1 million for an ongoing campaign to vaccinate children under the age of five against poliomyelitis, PANA reported. The grant will enable Ghana to buy 10 million doses of vaccines, the news agency said. Ghana's health minister, Kwame Danso, said there were just three reported cases of polio at the end of 1999 and none so far this year. Eradicating polio worldwide is one of the goals of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). CAPE VERDE: ADB supports food security drive The African Development Bank (ADB) has granted Cape Verde the equivalent of about US $970,000 for a food security project in the islands of Fogo, Santiago, Santo Antao and Sao Nicolau. The aims of the project include improving irrigation methods and production systems, and identifying constraints to agricultural production, which have traditionally included insufficient arable land, drought and desertification, the ADB reported on Tuesday. SENEGAL: Dakar delays troop pullback from Casamance The Senegalese army announced on Monday it would delay the withdrawal from Casamance of 2,400 paratroopers and commandos who were due to leave on Wednesday and be demobilised. They will now remain until sometime in December. In all, 4,500 troops are deployed to the south of the country to contain the Mouvement des forces democratique de Casamance 18-year bid for independence, AFP said. In a related redevelopment Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who took office in April, said he preferred direct peace talks with the MFDC rather than using intermediaries, thereby sidelining Guinea-Bissau and Gambia from the process. Underlining this, Wade's prime minister, Moustapha Niasse, paid what he said was "a simple courtesy call" last Saturday on the MFDC leader, the Reverend Diamacoune Senghor. Citing an interview with a private Dakar FM radio station, Wal Fadjri, AFP reported Senghor as saying that the two conditions for peace in Senegal were the withdrawal of Senegalese troops from the south and the removal of all land mines in the area. NIGERIA: Government reconciles with former military foes President Olusegun Obasanjo commuted to retirement on Monday the dismissal of all military persons who fought for the breakaway state of Biafra during Nigeria's 1967-1970 civil war, `The Guardian' of Lagos reported. In a nationwide broadcast to commemorate the first anniversary of the country's return to democratic rule, he said the decision was in recognition of the fact that "justice must at all times be tempered with mercy". Since the end of military rule on 29 May 1999, when Obasanjo was inaugurated, there has been a public resurgence of pro-Biafra sentiment among a section of the Igbo, who claim they have been marginalised in the Nigerian federation. NIGERIA: President pardons 15 military-era prisoners Nigeria's National Council of State approved on Thursday unconditional presidential pardons for 15 former prisoners. They include the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, journalists, two prominent human rights activists and a reformed bank robber, AFP reported. The pardon restores the civil rights of the former prisoners, who had already been released. The best known human rights activist among them, Beko Ransome-Kuti, dismissed the gesture as an insult because, he said, he had "not done anything to warrant being convicted in the first place". GUINEA-BISSAU: Communal clashes reported About 200 people from the Fulani ethnic group in Guinea-Bissau have been forced from their homes in Suzana, some 140 km north of Bissau, following communal clashes with Feloupes, who consider themselves indigenous to the area, AFP reported. The clashes erupted on 29 May over the building of a mosque for which the Fulani community had obtained permission from the area's administrator but, the Feloupe claimed, not from their traditional leader, AFP said. GUINEA-BISSAU: Journalists, politician freed Two journalists were released on Monday in Guinea-Bissau after being detained for two days for broadcasting comments by opposition politician Fernando Gomes criticising the government, news organisations reported. Gomes, leader of the Alianca socialista da Guine, was arrested on Sunday and released the following day, Lusa reported. Accused of corruption by Prime Minister Caetano Intchama, he had responded in kind, according to Lusa. The three were released after a court ruled their detention illegal. COTE D'IVOIRE: Election budget announced The draft budget for polls to be held in Cote d'Ivoire between July and November has been set at just under 10 billion CFA francs (about US $145 million), the government announced following a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. According to a report published in Friday's edition of the state-owned 'Fraternite Matin' daily, about 4.28 billion CFA francs ($6.1 million) would be spent on a referendum on a new constitution. The remainder is to be used for presidential, legislative and municipal polls between September and November. Abidjan, 2 June 18:20 GMT [IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 22-40-4440; Fax (Admin): +225 22-40-4435; Fax (Editorial Desk): 225-22-41-9339; e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci] [This item is delivered in the English service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. 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