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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.ci

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 836 (Monday 30 October)

CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: Inquiry to be conducted into massacre
COTE D'IVOIRE: Five women in new unity government
COTE D'IVOIRE: RSF expresses concern over attacks on media
NIGER: RSF protests detention of journalists
SIERRA LEONE: Britain plans troop positioning
SIERRA LEONE: RUF engaging Guinea
SIERRA LEONE: RUF, CDF harass civilians
GABON: Warehouse for humanitarian evacuations
NIGERIA: Curfew lifted in Lagos district
NIGERIA: Hausas say Yoruba landlords saved them
NIGERIA: Controversy over university reform
MAURITANIA: Government bans opposition party

COTE D'IVOIRE: Inquiry to be conducted into massacre

Cote d'Ivoire's interior minister, Boga Doudou, said at the weekend that the
government would investigate the deaths of 57 people whose bodies were
discovered on Friday in a field in Abidjan.

He said the state would not object to an international inquiry into the
massacre, which he described as "horrible". It was also condemned by the
co-ruling Parti Democratique de Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) and the opposition
Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR), which called for an international
investigation.

A 19-year-old who said he was the sole survivor of the massacre told the
media it was perpetrated by the gendarmes (militarised police).

[See separate item titled 'COTE D'IVOIRE: Government promises inquiry into
massacre']

COTE D'IVOIRE: Five women in new unity government

Cote d'Ivoire's unity government, which comprises members of three parties,
is to be reshuffled after legislative elections on 10 December, President
Laurent Gbagbo announced on Friday. Gbagbo's Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI)
heads 18 of the 23 ministries. Three are led by the Parti Democratique de
Cote d'Ivoire, which ruled the country for four decades until a military
coup in December 1999. The two other portfolios are held by the Parti
Ivoirien du Travail (PIT), whose candidate placed third in the 22 October
presidential election. 

The Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) declined to enter the government.
It said it would consider doing so after the legislative elections. 

The new cabinet includes five women. They hold the portfolios of Tourism and
Artisanry; Social Security; Environment, Water and Forests; Family, Women
and Children; and Sports.   

COTE D'IVOIRE: RSF expresses concern over attacks on media

Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) expressed concern to Cote d'Ivoire's new
government on Friday over the beating of journalist Bakary Nimaga and the
vandalising of the offices of two newspapers, including 'Le Liberal' of
which Nimaga is editor-in-chief.

It called on President Laurent Gbagbo to "publicly take a position on the
issue of press freedom" in the country. "The impunity of soldiers during
General Guei's reign should not be replaced today by the impunity of the
gendarmes," RSF said, noting that 14 journalists had been arrested and seven
others beaten by soldiers in Cote d'Ivoire this year. The media rights
watchdog called on Gbagbo to condemn the aggression vigorously and punish
those responsible.

According to RSF, Nimaga was arrested on Thursday evening by gendarmes who
took him to a camp where he was beaten and accused of being a spy for the
Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR). He was released a few hours later.

RSF also said that students on Friday ransacked the offices of 'Le Liberal'
and 'La Reference', two newspapers close to the RDR. 

NIGER: RSF protests detention of journalists
 
Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) on Friday called on the authorities in Niger
to release three journalists arrested between 23 and 25 October and detained
since then by the police. The three are Sumana Maiga, founder of
'L'Enqueteur', the weekly's publisher Dahirou Gouro and one of its
journalists, Salif Dago. They were accused of disturbing public order after
'L'Enqueteur' reported on 3 October that Benin had closed its frontier with
Niger in connection with a dispute over the border island of Lete, and that
Niger had sent troops there. The information had been published earlier by
various Beninois newspapers.

SIERRA LEONE: Britain plans troop positioning

Plans are advanced to send more British troops to Sierra Leone after
requests from the United Nations, the BBC reported.

HMS Ocean, a helicopter carrier assault ship with 500 soldiers from 42 Royal
Marine Commando, is expected to be ordered into Sierra Leonean waters
escorted by two other warships and support vessels, BBC said on Saturday. 

Despite pressure for a direct British military role in combating the RUF,
the BBC said, Defence Ministry sources in London say the troops would remain
offshore as a rapid reaction element if needed. 

British Defence Minister Baroness Symons announced increased British aid to
Sierra Leone on 10 October. She told the House of Lords that if necessary,
Britain was ready to deploy up to a brigade (5,000 personnel) from its Joint
Rapid Reaction Force. In a memorandum signed with the UN in 1999, Britain
undertook to make this force available to support UN peacekeeping
operations. 

The move to send British troops follows decisions by India and Jordan to
withdraw their troops from the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, UNAMSIL. That
measure has sent the UN searching for troop-contributing countries. 

Britain has been providing basic training to the new Sierra Leonean army
since June. Defence Secretary Geoffrey Hoon has said that London would also
provide high-level operational advice.

SIERRA LEONE: RUF engaging Guinea

Close to half the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters in Sierra
Leone's  eastern area of Tongo have moved north and are "fully engaged" in
military operations in Guinea, OCHA said its situation report for 3-27
October.

However, OCHA said the Guinean army had over the past two weeks successfully
countered the rebel attacks. In addition, during the time of review, it said
Guinean troops bombed RUF positions in Kambia District. 

SIERRA LEONE: RUF, CDF harass civilians

On 13 October, civilians from Kortimaw Island (48 km north of Freetown)
reported that 21 RUF fighters from the mainland locations of Balansera and
Kassiri (4 km and 6 km northeast of the island) looted the village of
Matonok and raped two women. 

Civilians have also been harassed by the pro-government Civil Defence Forces
in Mile 91, east of Freetown. OCHA said that in one incident on 4 October
the CDF commander, Pa Musa Sera, left Freetown for Mile 91 to arrest 17 CDF
"imposters" who had been extorting money from civilians. 

The CDF in the eastern town of Kenema has also been training a new group of
fighters called the Territorial Defence Force. This follows reports of a
demonstration on 10 October by 200 former CDF fighters who were demanding
their demobilisation pay. 

GABON: Warehouse for humanitarian evacuations

A senior US defence official has held talks with Gabonese authorities about
the construction of a humanitarian transit warehouse at the airport in the
capital, Libreville.

Maj-Gen Kenneth Hess, chief of staff of the 3rd US Air Force Command in
Europe, visited Gabon last week. The planned warehouse would serve in
emergency operations and humanitarian evacuations in sub-Saharan Africa, a
US official in Libreville told IRIN on Monday. 

Gabon's transport minister, Idriss Ngaricet, was quoted by PANA as saying
that the facility would be "perfectly adapted to the materials used by the
United States in its military manoeuvres". 

The US official confirmed that it would offer a framework for training both
Gabonese and American units, as well as facilitate training rotations
envisaged in West Africa next year.

NIGERIA: Curfew lifted in Lagos district

Authorities in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, have lifted a dusk-to-dawn
curfew that was imposed on 16 October in a district of the city following
clashes between the militant Yoruba Oodua People's Congress (OPC) and Hausas
from the north.

The governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, lifted the curfew on Friday
"following the return of peace in the area", AFP quoted his office as
saying. He promised to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the
violence, which claimed more than 100 lives.

The clashes broke out after OPC members attacked the Ajegunle slum area in
pursuit of suspected criminals. However, the fighting quickly became
ethnic-based and thousands of Hausas sought shelter in local police and
military headquarters. Authorities arrested leaders of the OPC and the
military brought the violence under control. 

NIGERIA: Hausas say Yoruba landlords saved them

Hausa youths living in Lagos said Yoruba landlords saved their lives in
ethnic fighting that broke out in the city in mid-October after militants
from the Yoruba Oodua People's Congress (OPC) attacked neighbourhoods in
pursuit of suspected criminals.

Members of the Northern Youths for Democracy and Justice said Yoruba
landlords provided shelter for Hausas and others when the clashes broke out
in the Ajegunle slum, 'The Guardian' of Lagos reported on Monday.

"It was Yoruba landlords who by Allah's grace rescued us," the newspaper
quoted one youth as saying. "We are here in the north to consult with the
people and state the truth. The situation wasn't that bad, contrary to the
impression being created in certain quarters. Certainly there are a lot of
plans to set us against one another as a people." 

More than 100 people died in the fighting. Religious and ethnic clashes have
been a recurring problem in Nigeria. Hausas and Fulanis, most of whom are
Muslim, dominate the north, while Yorubas and other groups, most of whom are
Christian or followers of African religions, dominate the south.

NIGERIA: Controversy over university reform

A plan by President Olusegun Obasanjo to reform Nigeria's university system
with the backing of the World Bank has drawn opposition from university
teachers and students.

The government insists on pursuing the Nigerian University Systems
Innovation Project, but that could lead to a collision with two university
bodies which have a history of confrontation with previous military
governments.

The reform project mainly aims to grant greater autonomy to the country's 47
universities as a potential model for other levels of government.

[See separate item titled 'NIGERIA: IRIN Focus on university reform
controversy']

MAURITANIA: Government bans opposition party

The government of President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya on Saturday banned
Mauritania's leading opposition party, accusing its members of inciting
violence. 

"The political party known as the Union of Democratic Forces-New Era, under
the leadership of Ahmed Ould Daddah, will be dissolved ... for harming the
reputation and interests of the country, inciting intolerance and violence,
and inciting demonstrations in order to disturb public order, peace and
security," the Interior Ministry said on state-run radio.

It said property of the party, which emerged in 1991, would be confiscated.
AFP reported that the government's action stemmed from comments Ould Daddah
made on Friday at an anti-Israel demonstration in the north of the country.
Mauritania is an Islamic state.  

A coalition of opposition parties on Monday condemned the dissolution of the
UDF, AFP reported. The report said that police had occupied the party's
offices, from where a protest march was scheduled to begin on Monday. 

Ould Daddah, a former presidential candidate, rejected the government's
action. He has suffered persistent harassment by Mauritanian authorities,
including occasional detention, and demonstrations by his supporters have
been broken up by security forces. Ahmed Taya came to power in 1984 as
chairman of a military regime and twice won presidential elections that were
not considered free or fair. 

Abidjan, 30 October 2000; 18:20 GMT

[ENDS]

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Desk): +225-22-41-9339; e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci]


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