UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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SIERRA LEONE: Disarmament in Bo,
Bombali
Pro-government and rebel forces started disarming in two more districts in the north and south of Sierra Leone this week, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) said.
As at Thursday, 269 pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF) militiamen had handed over weapons in the southern district of Bo, a CDF stronghold, UNAMSIL spokesperson Margaret Novicki told IRIN on Friday. However, disarmament got off to a slower start in the northern district of Bombali, where only nine combatants - seven from the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and two CDF - had disarmed by Thursday, Novicki said.
Citing reasons for the unwillingness to disarm in Bombali, the RUF told UN officials it was unhappy with the site chosen for disarmament and with other aspects of the peace process. There were ongoing discussions with the RUF this week to try to put disarmament back on track in Bombali, Novicki said.
The disarmament in Sierra Leone is being conducted by the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation in conjuction with UNAMSIL, whose strength is expected to increase to 17,500 - the ceiling authorised by the UN Security Council - with the arrival of a batallion of over 800 Nepalese peacekeepers in October and November, the UN said.
UNAMSIL's human rights section, which set up a regional office in May in the eastern town of Kenema, opened its second regional office on Tuesday in the northern town of Makeni. The offices' mandate includes monitoring, documenting and reporting on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as conducting training and sensitisation activities for communities, ex-fighters and civil authorities.
The UN Security Council recently expressed concern over rights abuses committed against civilians by fighters and, on Monday, Amnesty International (AI) urged the international community to honour its commitments to Sierra Leoneans by bringing perpetrators of serious abuses to justice.
AI said in a report entitled 'Sierra Leone: Renewed commitment needed to end impunity' that addressing impunity was crucial to achieving reconciliation and durable peace, ending abuses and providing justice for the victims.
The report highlighted the need for sufficient funding for the establishment of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone to try those responsible for the gravest abuses. Funding for the Court remains a problem. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who proposed its establishment in October 2000, scaled down requests for money in July this year, citing continued shortfalls in funds and pledges for the first three years of the court's operation.
AI's report also called for national and international action on other issues, including a clarification of the relationship between the Special Court and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a reform of Sierra Leone's judicial system and respect for the human rights of all political detainees.
SIERRA LEONE: Post conflict needs assessments
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) sent a delegation this week to Sierra Leone to assess its infrastructural needs, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) said.
UNAMSIL also reported that an 80-member needs assessment team visited Koidu in the eastern district of Kono this week to discuss the humanitarian situation and relief requirements with the local authorities. A UNAMSIL officer who coordinated the meetings told officials that the people of Kono needed shelter, food and medical supplies. The team included representatives of UN agencies, international and national NGOs and government ministries.
SIERRA LEONE: MSF warns of returnee influx leading to "new crisis"
An ongoing influx of refugees returning from Guinea threatens to trigger a new emergency in and around Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned on Monday. While "a fragile calm exists" with the demobilisation and disarmament of fighters who were involved in Sierra Leone's civil war, the return of ex-refugees to their homes is giving rise to the possibility of a new crisis. Medical needs in the areas currently or formerly controlled by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels are considered "enormous", MSF said, adding that some areas had been without support for up to three years. "Nine years of ongoing civil war have almost totally destroyed the health care system in Sierra Leone," MSF noted. "The vaccination rate is low and epidemics of malaria, yellow fever, lassa fever, cholera and measles have broken out in recent years. Secondary health care is virtually non-existent."
WEST AFRICA: Mano River defence ministers meet
Defence and national security ministers from member states of the Mano River Union (MRU) - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - reviewed the security situation in the subregion at a meeting this week in Monrovia. Their agenda included working out a timetable for implementing proposals of the MRU's joint security committee. One such proposal is for member states to arrest each other's dissidents and turn them over to their governments, PANA reported.
Relations between the MRU countries have been tense in recent years. Liberia has been accused of supporting rebels in Sierra Leone, while Guinea and Liberia accuse each other of supporting dissidents.
The three countries' foreign ministers have also been meeting - since August - to discuss relations and prepare an MRU summit, to be held in January 2002.
On Monday, the European Union (EU) expressed satisfaction at progress made in the dialogue between the MRU countries, including the proposal to hold the summit.
The EU said it welcomed commitments made at the foreign ministers' meetings, particularly on joint action by MRU states against destabilising forces, the establishment of a joint border patrol and fighting the proliferation of small arms. The EU also said it was willing to contribute to the dialogue between the three countries, "in particular through the (EU) Presidency's Special Representative for West Africa, Hans Dahlgren".
GUINEA-BISSAU: Prosecutors threaten to join judges' strike
Guinea-Bissau's judges launched a 30-day strike at the start of the week to demand the reinstatement of four members of the Supreme Court, including its president and vice president, who were dismissed and replaced by President Kumba Yala. Prosecutors said they would start a solidarity strike on Monday in support of the judges. Guinea-Bissau's parliament also rejected the dismissals, which were widely criticised as unconstitutional. It is scheduled to hold an extraorinary session from 1 to 5 October to discuss these and other recent decisions by Yala.
THE GAMBIA: Presidential campaign kicks off
Campaigning for the 18 October presidential election in The Gambia began on Wednesday and will end on 16 October. The five candidates include the incumbent, Yaya Jammeh. 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.
WEST AFRICA: More cholera cases reported
Cote d'Ivoire's Ministry of Health recorded 175 deaths from cholera between May and 21 September, WHO reported this week. There were 3,152 confirmed cases of the disease. In Guinea, there were 173 cases, including 12 deaths, between 6 August and 23 September in Conakry and N'zerekore, southeast of the capital. And in Burkina Faso, six people died and 314 were infected between 14 July and 16 September in the southern district of Orgaye.
WHO, the respective health ministries and NGOs (MSF and Epicentre in Cote d'Ivoire, and the International Federation of the Red Cross in Guinea) have been fighting the disease.
NIGERIA: Floods, rains kill 200, displace 82,000
The floods that ravaged northern Nigeria's Kano state and neighbouring Jigawa in early September killed at least 200 people and displaced more than 82,000, according to the Nigerian Red Cross. It said the total number of people affected, including those whose farmlands were washed away, exceeded 143,000.
NIGERIA: Plateau State moves 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, in early September. Some 500 people were killed in the unrest.
Governor Joshua Dariye announced the measures on Wednesday. They include an end to the blocking of roads leading to mosques and churches on days of worship, a ban on the use of loudspeakers, and the prohibition of open air preaching in public places.
Dariye also announced the setting up of a judicial commission to investigate the causes of the violence which, it is widely believed, occurred after 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 unrest were charged last week with criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, culpable homicide and arson. Their case was adjourned to 20-23 November.
NIGERIA: OPC leaders arraigned on treason charges
Two leaders of the Oodua People's Congress (OPC), a militant group that purports to protect the interests of Nigeria's Yoruba people, were charged with treason on Monday before a federal court in Lagos. Fredrick Fasehun, founder of the OPC, and Ganiyu Adams, who heads a radical faction of the group, have also been accused of leading an illegal organisation. The OPC has been banned by the government, which blames it for periodic ethnic clashes since November 1999 that have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people in Lagos. The case has been adjourned to 16 October.
MALI: Thousands affected by floods
Two people have died and 2,350 others have been affected by floods in Mali that destroyed 1,817 houses and washed away 870 ha of farmland, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday.
The affected areas are in the capital, Bamako, the northern region of Kidal, Koulikoro and Mopti in the centre and Sikasso in the south, OCHA said. It said there was a high risk of water-related diseases such as cholera, yellow fever and malaria in the affected areas, and the risk could increase as floodwaters receded.
Mali's government has provided 65 mt of cereals, 200 mats and medicine for the affected population. OCHA said it was informed that 2,320 blankets, 774 tents, 2,320 mats and 52 mt of cereals, corresponding to three months' worth of supplies, were needed. Long-term needs, it added, included the resettlement of displaced families.
[The full report is available at http://www.reliefweb.int ]
COTE D'IVOIRE: New Liberian refugees top the 6,000 mark
UNHCR has recorded 6,241 new Liberian refugees in western Cote d'Ivoire since early May following fighting between pro- and anti-government forces in Lofa County, northwestern Liberia, a UNHCR official said. Most (3,467) of the new arrivals are women, while 1,167 are children below the age of five years, UNHCR's Marie-Louise Dzietham told IRIN on Monday.
SENEGAL: CPJ protests against deterioration of press freedom
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday expressed "deep concern" at what it described as the increased harassment of Senegalese journalists by government authorities since President Abdoulaye Wade took office in April 2000. "We are particularly disturbed by the prosecution of Alioune Fall, editor-in-chief of the independent Dakar-based daily 'Le Matin', on charges of publishing false information," CPJ said in a letter to Wade dated 24 September.
On at least five occasions since April 2000, Senegalese authorities have used various statutes to arrest and interrogate journalists whose only "offence" appeared to be reporting on sensitive issues, CPJ said. "Among these issues are the conflict in the southern region of Casamance, where rebels have been fighting for independence for 20 years," it added.
CAMEROON: Suspected child labourers repatriated
Nearly 100 suspected victims of child
trafficking who survived a shipwreck off the coast of Cameroon at the end
of August were repatriated on Saturday to Benin, Mali and Togo, AFP reported
a Cameroonian official as saying.
Around 30 Nigerians, who were also on board the boat, left Cameroon on
13 September.
GHANA-TOGO: Sixteen arrested with weapons at border crossing
Togolese security officials say they have arrested 16 suspected members of an illegal arms network operating in West African countries, state radio in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, reported. Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) radio said the suspects - 14 Nigerians and two Ghanaians - were arrested on the Ghana-Togo border. They were reportedly carrying US-made weapons capable of firing missiles and also had assault rifles hidden in their vehicles, GBC said.
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: New government
A new premier and cabinet took office in Sao Tome and Principe on Wednesday, about a week after President Fradique de Menezes dismissed Guilherme Posser da Costa, who had been prime minister since early 1999.
The new prime minister, Evaristo de Carvalho, comes from de Menezes' Independent Democratic Action (ADI) party. He heads a cabinet comprising eight ministers and one state secretary from ADI and another party that supported de Menezes in the last presidential election, the Democratic Convergence party - Think Tank (PCD-GR). The election was held in July.
Posser da Costa, who is from the MLSTP/PSD (Sao Tome and Principe Liberation Front-Social Democratic Party), was dismissed following disagreement with the president over the composition of a new cabinet. A media analyst told IRIN from Sao Tome that the main bone of contention was the president's insistence on giving the post of foreign minister to the son of immediate past president Miguel Trovoada, who is also from ADI.
For years, the country had been led by an ADI head of state and an MLSTP/PSD prime minister. The new government could find it hard to obtain legislative approval for its programmes since the MLSTP/PSD has a majority in parliament.
The analyst said that early legislative elections were likely to be held, but that representatives of the international community had already said they would not be prepared to provide resources for the polls.
[ENDS]
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