Message-ID: <A1F93237A172D4118B1C00D0B71892542346DE@NTSERVER>
From: IRIN <IRIN-WA@irin.ci>
To: approved <english@ocha.unon.org>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 19:42:30 -0000 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 882 [2010106]
Precedence: bulk
Sender: IRIN Africa English Service <africa-english@ocha.unon.org>


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 882 (Friday 5 January)

CONTENTS:

GUINEA: IOM, UNHCR to repatriate 20,000 refugees
GUINEA: France to deliver 40 mt of aid
GUINEA: Defence minister dropped, opposition gives terms
GUINEA: Salim for talks with president
SIERRA LEONE: Police arrest suspected mercenaries
GUINEA-BISSAU: Troops deploy to protect border
COTE D'IVOIRE: Prison conditions improve 
NIGERIA: Probes alleged killings in Cote d'Ivoire
NIGERIA: Ogoni accuse Shell of using force
GHANA: EU pledges aid after clean elections
MAURITANIA: Four opposition women arrested

GUINEA: IOM, UNHCR to repatriate 20,000 refugees

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plan to begin the
voluntary repatriation of 20,000 Sierra Leonean refugees on Monday.

The IOM said in an appeal for emergency aid that the repatriation would be
by air and sea. The IOM said it would assume "full responsibility" for the
sea operation as of 7 January while the airlift will be considered later. 

A UNHCR spokeswoman told IRIN on Friday that the agency had agreed to work
with the IOM "to facilitate repatriation" of Sierra Leonean refugees who
wish to return home. Refugees seeking passage home have been streaming daily
into a crowded UNHCR holding facility in the Guinean capital of Conakry.

[FOR full story see item "GUINEA: IOM, UNHCR to evacuate 20,000 refugees]

GUINEA: France to deliver 40 mt of relief

France will deliver 40 mt of relief aid at the end of this week to an
estimated 400,000 people in southern Guinea displaced by recent cross-border
attacks by armed rebels, the state news agency said on Wednesday.

"Given the recent surge in incursions...resulting in deterioration in the
situation of refugees and populations, we decided to grant additional
humanitarian aid," AFP quoted the French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bernard
Valero, as saying.

The agency said the aid would be delivered through the International
Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations operating in
the area.

GUINEA: Defence minister dropped, opposition gives terms

Guinean leader Lansana Conte has dropped his defence minister in a cabinet
reshuffle, with opposition groups setting terms for accepting the
president's call for dialogue, news organizations reported on Friday.

Guinean state radio, monitored by the BBC, reported that Dorank Assifat
Diasseny was removed and named political adviser to Conte. No replacement
has been named, fueling speculations that Conte intents to hold the
portfolio. 

Meanwhile, the main opposition Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) party in
response to Conte's call for dialogue in his New Year message to diplomats
in the capital, Conakry, called for the unconditional release of its leader,
Alpha Conde, in jail since 1998.

"If the government really has the political will to achieve national unity
through dialogue, it must first free Professor Alpha Conde," Mamadi Diane,
the RPG's deputy leader, told Gabonese radio Africa Number 1. 

GUINEA: Salim for talks with president

OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim is due in Conakry on Friday for
talks with Guinean President Lansana Conte, news organizations reported.

The talks are expected to centre on ending the growing conflict between
dissidents and government forces in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the
reports said.

Salim, who heads Africa's foremost political body, is being accompanied by a
four-man delegation. He held talks in Monrovia on Thursday with Liberian
President Charles Taylor on the same issue, AFP reported. 

SIERRA LEONE: Police arrest suspected mercenaries

Sierra Leonean Police have arrested scores of suspected mercenaries who were
heading for Guinea, news organizations reported on Friday. 

"Twenty-six people, mostly Liberians, were arrested Wednesday in Freetown as
they were [about] to board a shuttle boat service bound for Guinea," AFP
reported a police spokeswoman as saying. It said some in the group were
Sierra Leoneans and Guineans. Some suspects escaped, it added. 

It said suspicion was aroused when the 26 failed to produce proper
documents. Among those arrested were, it said, "two former instructors from
the National Patriotic Front of Liberia", a former civil war faction that
was led by Liberian President Charles Taylor. 

The former instructors were identified as John Ballah and Mohamed Sanbullah.

IRIN was unable to reach the Sierra Leone police for comment. 

Guinea has repeatedly accused Liberian and anti-government Revolutionary
United Front forces in Sierra Leone of supporting dissidents attacking its
borders. 

GUINEA-BISSAU: Troops deploy to protect border

Guinea-Bissau has deployed an unspecified number of troops along its
northern border with Senegal's Casamance area where rival factions have been
fighting each other for control of the pro-independence movement, the
Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported on Thursday. 

Fighting between wings of Senegal's Mouvement des forces democratiques de
Casamance (MFDC) has led to an undisclosed number of casualties and to the
suspension, on Wednesday, of the group's planned strategy meeting on future
peace negotiations with the Senegalese government. News reports have
suggested that a faction of the MFDC led by the Reverend Diamacoune Senghor
favours talks while the military element of the movement, led by Salif
Sadjo, prefers a military option in the bid for independence. 

Guinea-Bissau Defence Minister Fernando Correia Landim said his country's
troop deployment was a pre-emptive measure so that MFDC fighters would not
try to use Guinea-Bissau as a rear base to attack Senegal. The government in
Bissau, he added, was ready to contribute to the peace negotiations between
the Senegalese government and the MFDC. 

COTE D'IVOIRE: Conditions improve in largest prison

Sanitary conditions in the largest Ivorian prison, the Maison d'arret et de
correction d'Abidjan (MACA), have greatly improved since 1997, the French
charity Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) announced in its latest activity
report. 

In its report for 2000, MSF says the mortality rate has been reduced by 90
percent as prison buildings have been disinfected and sanitary facilities
renovated. MSF also says drinkable water is now available free of charge.

MSF plans to renovate the prison's 30-bed infirmary which cares for 100
patients daily. The charity said it would also focus more activities geared
to helping women and young prisoners. The prison, originally built for 1,500
inmates, now holds 3,500.

NIGERIA: Protests to Cote d'Ivoire over deaths

Nigeria has protested to the Ivorian authorities over the deaths of its
citizens in recent political upheavals in the West African country, the
Pan-African News Agency (PANA) reported on Friday.

"Four persons are the number of Nigerians that have been identified and
confirmed dead," Foreign Minister Sule Lamido, who announced the protest,
was quoted as saying. 

He was giving details of an official investigation into allegations that
dozens of Nigerians had been killed.

"The victims were shot," he said, and did not die as a result of beatings
and manhandling by Ivorian police. "Many Ivorians also died," he added.
 
Hundreds of Nigerians recently evacuated from Cote d'Ivoire have been
relating accounts of attacks and maltreatment by Ivorian security forces
following the parliamentary elections held in December 2000. Lamido said up
to 2.5 million Nigerians still lived in Cote d'Ivoire, PANA reported. 

NIGERIA: Ogoni accuse Shell of using force

Nigeria's ethnic Ogoni minority activists, at a rally to mark their campaign
for more political control over their southern oil-rich district, accused
oil giant Royal/Dutch Shell of using force to return to their abandoned oil
fields in the area, local newspapers said on Friday.

'The Guardian', a Lagos daily, reported that the leader of the Movement for
the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledim Mitee, as telling a rally on
Thursday in the main Ogoni town of Bori that Shell was using a government
security shield to return to facilities it abandoned in 1993. Shell left
these locations following protests by local residents who accused the
company of causing environmental degradation over decades.

However, a Shell spokesman told IRIN on Friday the company was unaware of
any fresh developments in the area of the type the MOSOP leader described. 

"We have seen those reports in the media today, we are not aware of any new
developments. But we reiterate that our interest remains broad-based
reconciliation, peace and progress," he said.

[For full report see item titled 'NIGERIA: Ogoni accuse Shell of using
force']

GHANA: EU pledges aid after clean elections

The European Union pledged on Thursday its support to Ghana's incoming
government after "free, fair and transparent" elections were held last
month. The EU, along with some central and eastern European countries, said
they would contribute to the social and economic development of the West
African nation.

Last month's elections brought to power the leader of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP), John Kufuor, who will be sworn in on Sunday. On Wednesday,
Kufuor met with the outgoing President Jerry Rawlings whom Kufuor praised
for his achievements, AFP reported. Rawlings also congratulated his
successor and pledged to support his efforts at consolidating peace, order
and stability, the agency reported.

MAURITANIA: Four opposition women arrested

The banned Union des forces democratiques/Ere nouvelle (UFD-EN) party has
demanded the "immediate and unconditional release" of four of their female
members arrested on Wednesday for protesting against the seizure of their
make-shift wooden sheds, the party said.

The party is also demanding the restitution of their goods. In addition, the
party has asked the international community to condemn the government for
what is says is its "systematic violations" of basic human rights. 

Abidjan, 5 January 2001; 19:40 GMT

[ENDS]

[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 "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000
 

Subscriber: zdwf-@t-online.de
Keyword: IRIN-WA