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Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 894  [2010124]
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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 894 (Tuesday 23 January)

CONTENTS:

GUINEA: Fresh fighting around Guekedou
GUINEA: Refugees' return moves into higher gear
GUINEA: UNHCR helping to fight yellow fever
GUINEA: Missing UNHCR worker freed
GUINEA: WFP/IFRC to do joint IDP census=20
GUINEA: Politician fasts to protest against his illegal detention
LIBERIA: Global Witness calls for timber embargo
SIERRA LEONE: OAU gives US $75,000 for returnees
NIGERIA: NGOs ordered out of Kano
GHANA: High rate of cervical cancer reported
BURKINA FASO: Former migrants returning from Cote d'Ivoire
BURKINA FASO: UNDP to support economic management project
SENEGAL: US $13.7m IFAD loan for rural development
MAURITANIA: Youths released from detention

GUINEA: Fresh fighting around Guekedou

Fresh fighting has erupted around the Guinean border town of Guekedou
raising further concerns about the plight of tens of thousands of refugee=
s
trapped in the area, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) said on Tuesday.

"We can say there has been some shooting heard in the area of Guekedou,"
UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler told IRIN. "We have no idea what has become=
 of
the refugees as we have not had access to the area for some time and it's
becoming very worrisome."=20

Attacks mounted by as yet unidentified asailants in the area in recent we=
eks
forced the UNHCR to suspend its efforts to help an estimated 250,000
refugees from neighbouring Sierra Leone and internally displaced Guineans.

The government of Guinea has accused Liberia of being behind Sierra Leone=
an
Revolutionary United Front rebels and Guinean dissidents thought to be
mounting repeated cross-border raids since September last year. The raids
have claimed scores of lives, including that of a UNHCR worker. Two other
UNHCR staff abducted by the attackers inside Guinea were later released i=
n
Liberia.

The Economic Community of West African States plans to deploy troops befo=
re
the end of January to safeguard the troubled borders between Guinea, Sier=
ra
Leone and Liberia.=20

GUINEA: Refugees' return moves into higher gear

More refugees will now be able to return to Sierra Leone from Guinea by b=
oat
each week with the deployment of a second UNHCR/IOM vessel transporting t=
hem
back home. The "Fanta" and the "Overbeck" will transport 500 and 350 pers=
ons
respectively with daily departures planned, except on Mondays, UNHCR
spokesman Kris Janowski said in Geneva.=20

This will increase the total number of arrivals in Freetown from an avera=
ge
of 1,400 to 2,550 per week, Janowski said on Tuesday. Since the beginning=
 of
the boatlift in late December, UNHCR and IOM have helped 4,700 former Sie=
rra
Leonean refugees return to Freetown, where transit centres are rapidly
filling up.=20

More space is needed for returnees originating from insecure areas of Sie=
rra
Leone to which they cannot immediately return, Janowski said. UNHCR was
preparing to open a third transit centre at Lumpa, near Freetown, on
Tuesday. It will initially accommodate 1,000 people but its capacity will
rapidly increase to between 5,000 and 6,000, Janowski said. The two exist=
ing
centres are Waterloo and Jui, also near Freetown. They house 2,265 people
altogether.
 =20
GUINEA: UNHCR helping to fight yellow fever

UNHCR is helping the Guinean health authorities fight a yellow fever
epidemic that has already claimed 220 lives in northern and eastern Guine=
a,
the refugee agency said. A total of 641 more persons were infected, UNHCR
reported on Friday. It said a vaccination campaign had been planned in
several prefectures and that UNHCR had offered 4,000 litres of fuel, as w=
ell
as two MSF-operated trucks to help with the vaccination campaign. WHO is
also involved in the fight against the epidemic.
=20
GUINEA: Missing UNHCR worker freed

A UNHCR radio operator, Joseph Loua, was freed in Liberia on Monday, 47 d=
ays
after he was abducted by gunmen in the town of Guekedou in southern Guine=
a,
UNHCR reported. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials
found Loua in Voinjama, near Liberia's border with Guinea, and took him t=
o
Monrovia. ICRC workers described him as being in a good shape.=20

Loua, a father of five and a resident of Guekedou, was reportedly taken f=
rom
UNHCR's Guekedou office on 6 December by unidentified gunmen as he tried =
to
send a radio message about an attack on the town. An eyewitness saw him
being taken toward the Liberian border carrying what seemed to be radio
equipment.

In September, a UNHCR worker was killed and another abducted in the town =
of
Macenta during an armed attack. The abducted woman was later released, al=
so
in Liberia.

GUINEA: WFP/IFRC to do joint IDP census=20

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) have agreed on joint efforts to identify internally displace=
d
persons (IDPs) in Haute Guinee and Guin=E9e Foresti=E8re, WFP reported on
Friday.

[Haute Guinee (Upper Guinea) lies roughly in the centre of the country.
Guinee forestiere is in the south. It borders on Cote d'Ivoire and Liberi=
a.]

A recent census, carried out by ICRC, discovered 30,000 IDPs in the
districts of Kouroussa, Dabola and Dinguiraye of Haute Guin=E9e, WFP said.

GUINEA: Politician fasts to protest against his illegal detention

An opposition politician whose two-year prison sentence ended on 28 Decem=
ber
has begun a hunger strike to protest against his continued detention, new=
s
organisations reported. Guineenews, an online publication, said on Monday
that Antoine Soromou had not been released despite requests by his
relatives.
According to AFP, Soromou heads the Alliance nationale pour la democratie=
, a
small party allied to the Rassemblement du Peuple Guineen (RPG). He had b=
een
arrested in December 1998 with RPG leader Alpha Conde, who was sentenced =
to
five years in jail for treason and other charges.=20

LIBERIA: Global Witness call for timber embargo

A British environmental and human rights group, Global Witness, has calle=
d
on the UN Security Council to impose an immediate embargo on the export a=
nd
transport of Liberian timber, and its importation into other countries.

"To prevent timber companies' involvement in the arms trade, and to preve=
nt
the destruction of a resource that Liberia will need in the future, the U=
N
Security Council must enact this recommendation," Alex Yearsley, of Globa=
l
Witness, said.=20

The recommendation was contained in a 15-page briefing document Global
Witness presented to the council this month. In it, Global Witness said
Liberia was the only country in West Africa that still has a considerable
amount of its original rainforest cover. Yearsley said President Charles
Taylor had handed over 1.44 million ha to the Oriental Timber Company hea=
ded
by his long-time associate, Dutch national Gus Van Kouwenhoven.

A UN panel investigating illegal arms for diamonds deals with rebels in
Sierra Leone named Van Kouwenhoven as being "responsible for the logistic=
al
aspects of many of the arms deals".  Global Witness said that through his
interests in a Malaysian timber project in Liberia, he organises the
transfer of weaponry from Monrovia into Sierra Leone.=20

"Roads built and maintained for timber extraction are also conveniently u=
sed
for weapons movement within Liberia, and for the onward shipment of weapo=
ns
to Sierra Leone," the UN report said.=20

SIERRA LEONE: OAU gives US $75,000 for returnees

The Organization of African Unity has give Sierra Leone US $75,000 toward
the repatriation of refugees from Guinea, the state-owned news agency,
SLENA, reported on Monday from Freetown.=20

OAU envoy Abdelkerim Mohamat - who presented the cheque to the deputy
minister for foreign affairs and international cooperation, Sahr Mathuri =
-
said the OAU was mobilising its partners so that substantial logistic and
financial help could be given Sierra Leone.

NIGERIA: NGOs ordered out of Kano

Local and international human rights NGOs have been ordered by the Counci=
l
of Ulamas (Muslim clerics) in Kano to leave the northern Nigerian state,
according to media reports confirmed by advocacy groups.

"We have received information to that effect, but it is certainly
unconstitutional," Remi Adewale, a human rights activist, said.

[See separate item titled 'NIGERIA: Northern state orders NGOs out']

GHANA: High rate of cervical cancer reported

Routine checks conducted at Ghana's biggest teaching hospital in recent
years show that cervical cancer is the commonest of all cancers recorded,
the Ghana News Agency quoted health officials as saying on Monday.

The agency said 481 cases of cervical cancer were recorded at the Korle B=
u
Teaching Hospital out of 1,661 patients screened at the hospital's
radiotherapy unit between October 1997 and December 2000. This prompted t=
he
inauguration on Monday of the Cervical Cancer Advisory Group by Dr Emmanu=
el
Mensah, director of the Ghana Health Service.

Mensah urged women over 35 years to make sure they underwent screening fo=
r
cervical cancer at least once every three years and said the country's
Ministry of Health planned to provide the facilities and counselling to
encourage as many women as possible to undergo regular checks.

"The Ministry is giving serious encouragement for the investigation of
herbal medicines that show promising results in the treatment of cervical
cancer and other reproductive tract infections," he said.

The cancer, which accounts for 200,000 deaths worldwide every year, is
caused by a sexually transmitted virus. Over 300,000 cases are reported e=
ach
year, mostly in developing countries.

BURKINA FASO: Former migrants returning from Cote d'Ivoire

Authorities in Burkina Faso are facing an influx of returning migrants fr=
om
Cote d'Ivoire, where sporadic unrest has been followed by attacks on West
African foreigners.=20

According to the National Committee for Emergency Assistance and
Rehabilitation , 2,500 to 3,000 people have arrived in Ouagadougou on eac=
h
of the twice-weekly trains between Abidjan and the Burkinabe capital. Oth=
ers
have been arriving by bus.

[See separate item titled 'BURKINA FASO: Focus on the return of former
migrants from Cote d'Ivoire']
=20
BURKINA FASO: UNDP to support economic management project

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will support Burkina Faso=
's
economic management strategy by financing a three-year project worth some=
 US
$3.98 million. The Projet d'appui au renforcement de la gouvernance
economique (PRGE)is a follow-up to previous management projects and it wi=
ll
target four key points.

The fund will contribute to "Burkina 2025", a blueprint document which is=
 to
articulate how to implement policies and economic strategies. It will als=
o
fund the training of personnel and coordination between agencies, the
implementation of a statistic and data-collecting system, and the
decentralization of activities to local organizations.

The UNDP's contribution will amount to US $2.3 million. The remainder wil=
l
come from the government and other donors. The project agreement was sign=
ed
on 18 January by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Jean-Baptiste
Compaore, and the UNDP's Resident Representative, Christian LeMaire.

SENEGAL: US $13.7m IFAD loan for rural development

Senegal has secured a US $13.7-million loan for rural development from th=
e
International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD.=20

The loan represents 64 percent of the cost of a US $21.5- million project
designed to improve the ability of villages to take charge of their own
development, according to IFAD. The project entails developing lasting
agricultural and other activities by providing technical and managerial a=
id
to the communities. Their access to markets and financial services will a=
lso
be improved.=20

Other funding partners are the government, which will provide some US $2.=
7
million or 12.5 percent of the total, and the beneficiaries, with US $3.1
(14.5 percent). The Banque ouest-africaine de developpement, BOAD, plans =
to
co-finance village infrastructure costing two million dollars, just under=
 10
percent of the total project cost.=20

MAURITANIA: Youths released from detention

Three members of the banned Union des forces democratiques-ere nouvelle
(UFD-EN) in Mauritania, who were detained since early December, were free=
d
on Sunday, the Panafrican News Agency (PANA) reported. The Mauritanian
government had accused them of "threatening national security" and
instigating an anti-government graffiti campaign during political unrest
last month. Their release came a few days after the Supreme Court upheld =
an
October 2000 government decree dissolving the UFD-EN.

Abidjan, 23 January 2001; 18:10 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]

=20
=20
=20


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