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SIERRA LEONE: Regional rights office opens
A second regional human rights office opened on Tuesday in the northern town of Makeni, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reported. The first was set up in May in the eastern town of Kenema.
The office will monitor, document and report on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law throughout the country's northern region, according to Richard Bennett, who is in charge of UNAMSIL's human rights section.
Human rights officers "will be undertaking training and sensitisation activities for the community at large, for the disarmed combatants, and indeed, for the civil authority as they move into the area," UNAMSIL reported him as saying. The office will also carry out sensitisation programmes on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The UN Security Council recently expressed deep concern over human rights abuses committed against civilians by pro-government and rebel forces as well as other armed groups and individuals.
SIERRA LEONE: Nepalese soldiers to join UNAMSIL
An advance party of Nepalese soldiers are due to arrive in Sierra Leone at the end of October to join the UN peacekeeping mission, UNAMSIL, UN spokesperson Margaret Novicki told IRIN on Thursday. The remainder of the soldiers, who at full capacity will make up a battalion of more than 800, are expected in November. This would complete the strength of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), bringing it up to 17,500 military personnel, including 260 military observers, as authorised by the UN Security Council, UNAMSIL said.
SIERRA LEONE: OAU delegation assess infrastructure
A delegation from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) comprising representatives from Libya, Nigeria and South Africa is in Sierra Leone to assess infrastructural needs, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) said in a news release. Delegation leader Amadu Ali said on Wednesday during a courtesy call to UN representative Oluyemi Adeniji that the three countries had promised at an OAU summit to help Sierra Leone repair infrastructure damaged during the war. Ali added that they were expecting material assistance and logistics from South Africa while other countries had also promised support. Adeniji, who is the special representative of the UN Secretary-General in Sierra Leone, briefed the delegation on the peace process, emphasising the importance of projects for ex-combatants to help them to be fully reintegrated into society. He said that for Sierra Leonean government authority to be re-established a lot of resources must be mobilised for rehabilitation. "This is where organisations and countries like yours can come in," UNAMSIL reported Adeniji as saying.
LIBERIA: Mano River Union ministers in three-day meeting
Defence and national security ministers of the Mano River Union (MRU) countries are reviewing the security situation in the subregion at a three-day meeting that opened on Wednesday in Monrovia, Liberia, the Pan-African News Agency (PANA) reported.
The MRU countries are Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The meeting will also work out a timetable for implementing proposals the MRU's joint security committee put forward at two previous meetings in Sierra Leone and Guinea. According to Liberia's national security advisor, Lewis Browne, a highlight of the meeting will be a proposal for MRU members to apprehend individuals who harbour "inimical intentions" against their home countries and turn over to their governments, PANA said.
Guinea and Sierra Leone, on the one hand, and Liberia on the other, have long accused each other of harbouring dissidents trying to destabilise their respective countries.
GUINEA: Opposition leader back in parliament
Guinean opposition leader Alpha Conde on Tuesday attended his first parliamentary session since being released from prison four months ago. Conde, head of the Guinea People's Rally (RPG-Rassemblement du peuple Guineen) was arrested in December 1998 on the eve of a presidential election. In September 2000 he was convicted of threatening state security - in a trial largely criticised as rigged - and sentenced to five years in jail. He was released on 18 May 2001 on the order of President Lansana Conte.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Prosecutors threaten to join judges' strike
Guinea-Bissau's prosecutors say they plan to go on strike on 1 October in solidarity with the country's judges unless the government of President Kumba Yala accedes to the latter's demand for the reinstatement of dismissed colleagues, a source close to the judiciary told IRIN on Thursday.
The prosecutors' decision came at a meeting they held on Wednesday.
Judges began a 30-day strike on Tuesday to pressure Yala into revoking the dismissal of four members of the Supreme Court, including its president and vice president. The judges say the dismissals are null and void since the body mandated by the constitution to appoint or dismiss Supreme Court judges is the Higher Council of the Magistrature while the president's role is limited to swearing them in.
THE GAMBIA: Presidential campaign kicks off
The Gambia's five presidential candidates, including incumbent President Yaya Jammeh, started campaigning on Wednesday for the country's top executive post, AFP reported. The presidential campaign will end on 16 October, two days before voters go to the polls. In addition to rallies and meetings, each candidate is to receive five minutes' airtime per day on national radio and television while state media are to allocate identical coverage time to each party's rallies, AFP reported. This will be Jammeh's second presidential election. He seized power in 1994 in a bloodless coup and was elected head of state in 1996.
The other four contenders include Sherif Mustapha Dibba of the National Convention Party, Hamat Bah of the National Reconciliation Party, Sidia Jatta of the People's Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism and Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Party.
WEST AFRICA: More cholera cases reported
There have been 175 deaths from cholera in Cote d'Ivoire since May from among 3,152 cases recorded by the Ivorian Ministry of Health as at 21 September, the World Health Organization (WHO) says in its latest update on the disease. The ministry, together with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) and Epicentre, a France-based organisation, are treating patients and implementing measures to control the disease, WHO said.
Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire's neighbour, has also reported cases of the water-borne disease. Conakry, the capital, has recorded 18 cases, two of whom died, while 155 cases, including 12 deaths, were reported between 6 August and 23 September in N'zerekore region, southeast of Conakry. WHO, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Guinea's health ministry are taking measures to combat the disease, such as providing safe water and health education.
Cholera has also been detected in Burkina Faso's southern district of Ourgaye - near the border with Togo - where six people have died. The district had 314 reported cases between 14 July and 16 September, WHO said.
NIGERIA: Floods, rains kill 200, displace 82,000
Floods and rainstorms have killed more than 200 people this year and displaced at least 82,000 in various parts of Nigeria, humanitarian and government sources say.
The latest victims include 11 pupils of a Koranic school in the northern city of Kano who died on Wednesday after the wall of their school collapsed on them during a rainstorm, local officials said. The tragedy has been blamed on the weakening of the mud wall by the rains.
Figures released by the Nigerian Red Cross to IRIN on Thursday show that floods which ravaged the northern states of Kano and Jigawa earlier in the month claimed at least 200 lives and left 82,065 people displaced: 48,565 people were displaced in Kano while 20 died; in neighbouring Jigawa, 180 deaths were registered, 800 people were injured and 35,500 displaced.
The total number of people affected, including those whose farmlands were washed away, exceeds 143,000, according to the figures.
"Red Cross volunteers from the various divisions affected by the flooding carried out rescue services," a statement by the Red Cross said. "They assisted victims to move to safer places."
Several communities on Nigeria's southeastern coast were recently hit by floods which were reportedly caused by the opening of the sluice gates of dams in neighbouring Cameroon. And in another southeastern state, Akwa Ibom, the ocean overshot the shoreline and submerged more than 40 houses in the Bakassi local government area.
NIGERIA: Plateau State adopts measures to ease religious tension
The government of Plateau State in central Nigeria has introduced measures to curb tension which erupted in religious and ethnic violence in its capital city, Jos, early in the month.
The state's governor, Joshua Dariye, announced the measures during a broadcast on Wednesday. They include an end to the practice of blocking roads leading to mosques and churches on days of worship. The use of loudspeakers and open air preaching in public places have also been prohibited.
Dariye said the measures were based on reports made by security agencies. "Anyone or group that violates these measures will be dealt with," he said. He also announced the setting up of a judicial commission to investigate the causes of the violence, which claimed more than 500 lives and resulted in large-scale destruction of property.
It is widely believed that the violence was sparked when a Christian woman tried to pass through a road blocked by Muslims during Friday prayers on 7 September.
A total of 270 suspects arrested during the clashes were charged last week for criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, culpable homicide and arson. Silas Bakfur, the presiding judge at the Kabong Upper Area Court, where the suspects were arraigned, adjourned the hearing to 20-23 November and remanded them into custody.
[ENDS]
Abidjan, 27 September 2001; 17:35 GMT
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