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Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 18:17:15 -0000
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Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 890 [2010118]
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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 890 (Wednesday 17 January)

CONTENTS:

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL gives assurances on humanitarian help
SIERRA LEONE: Peacekeepers provide free medical services 
SIERRA LEONE: War crimes court needs adequate funding, Annan cautions
SIERRA LEONE: UNICEF warns of disease in Pujehun, Kenema
GUINEA: UNHCR team visits troubled area
GUINEA: Repatriations
TOGO: Catholic radio shut over mass for late president
MAURITANIA: Supreme Court upholds dissolution of opposition party
NIGERIA: Campaign launched against trafficking of women
COTE D'IVOIRE: Detentions
WEST AFRICA: WHO focuses on bilharzia

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL gives assurances on humanitarian help

UNAMSIL Force Commander Lt-Gen Daniel Opande has assured Sierra Leone's
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) that humanitarian help will soon reach the
people of Lunsar, which is under RUF control.

Opande gave the undertaking in a meeting with RUF commanders on Saturday,
UNAMSIL spokeswoman Hirut Befacadu said in a recent briefing.

At the meeting, the RUF delegation asked UNAMSIL to deploy peacekeeping
troops to Lunsar, 80 km northeast of Freetown. However, in a news conference
on Friday, Opande said that deployment to RUF-controlled areas depended on
the availability of troops. "We are exactly half the strength that is
required for us to carry out our mandate," he said.  

The meeting was part of confidence-building measures UNAMSIL has been
undertaking to maintain a two-month-old ceasefire between the government and
the RUF, and to coax RUF fighters to join the Disarmament, Demobilisation
and Reintegration (DDR) process. The RUF has shown reluctance to disarm en
masse and, at the meeting, it objected to the use of the word "surrender"
that appeared in an old leaflet on the demobilisation process.

SIERRA LEONE: Peacekeepers provide free medical services 

The departing Indian medical unit of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone
(UNAMSIL) on Tuesday began a three-day health clinic at the mission's
hospital in Hastings, 15 km southeast of Freetown, UNAMSIL said. 

Patients are being given free optical, dental and paediatric care at the
hospital, located at the Police Training Academy in Hastings. Laboratory
services and medicines are also provided. 

"Yesterday the Indians had 1,800 patients - most of them women and
children," UNAMSIL's spokeswoman, Hirut Befecadu, told IRIN on Wednesday. 

The Indian team used to run the hospital, which it handed over to UNAMSIL's
Jordanian contingent on Tuesday.

SIERRA LEONE: War crimes court needs adequate funding, Annan cautions 

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has cautioned the Security Council against
setting up a war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone without proper funding.

In a letter to Council President Kishore Mabhubani of Singapore, Annan said 
the court might run into cash flow problems unless it was provided three
years of operational funds up front. 

In December 2000, the Council had expressed the view that the Court should
only begin after the UN Secretariat obtained sufficient voluntary
contributions to pay its first 12 months of operations, and pledges equal to
anticipated expenses over the next one year. 

SIERRA LEONE: UNICEF warns of disease in Pujehun, Kenema

UNICEF has warned of a possible outbreak of disease in the southern district
of Pujehun and Kenema in the east because of a lack of sanitation, clothing,
food and safe drinking water for some 73,920 returning refugees. 

The UN children's agency, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and
Sanitation and WHO, conducted an assessment in the two districts in
December. It said the few health personnel available in these areas were
"poorly equipped in terms of training and logistics" to cope with health
emergencies. 

UNICEF said, in its situation report for 19 December to 15 January, that
although returning refugees were building thatched homes and engaging in
farming, food and shelter were still scarce. 

GUINEA: UNHCR team visits troubled area

The UNHCR has been able to visit one of the areas in southwestern Guinea
which the Guinean military had discouraged aid agencies from visiting on
Monday, following an outbreak of fighting along the border with Sierra
Leone.

UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler told IRIN that a UNHCR team visited Nyaedou
refugee camp on Wednesday and that the agency planned to distribute supplies
there later in the day.
    
Nyaedou had an estimated 23,000 people before fighting on Saturday in
Guekedou, some 15 km farther south, caused other refugees to go there.
According to UNHCR, aid workers found that there were about 1,000 new
arrivals when they visited the camp on Sunday. The army, citing security
concerns, discouraged UNHCR and Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) from visiting
Nyaedou again on Monday. 

[For full item see 'GUINEA: UNHCR sends team to southwestern area']
 
GUINEA: Repatriations

A boat provided by Liberia's government left Conakry on Tuesday for Monrovia
with some 414 Liberians on board, UNHCR's Peter Kessler told IRIN. Another
batch is scheduled to leave later in the week.

According to UNHCR, many of the Liberians had been sheltered at their
country's embassy in Conakry. UNHCR and its partners provided food aid,
transport for the passengers and their baggage from the embassy to the
port and medical assistance on board the vessel, which was scheduled to dock
in Monrovia on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Sierra Leonean refugees continued to go back home from Guinea
with
assistance from UNHCR and transport provided by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM). To date, nearly 4,000 Sierra Leoneans have
returned from Conakry with UNHCR assistance, UNHCR reported on Tuesday. 

Starting later this week, when a second IOM-chartered ferry begins operating
between Conakry and Freetown, an average 2,500 persons are expected to
return to Freetown every week, UNHCR reported.

TOGO: Catholic radio shut for announcing memorial mass for late president

A radio station owned by the Catholic Church was sealed off by the
authorities in Togo on Saturday after it announced that a memorial mass
would be held for Sylanus Olympio, the country's first president, killed in
a coup on 13 January 1963, the Missionary News Agency (MISNA) reported.

MISNA said Jeunesse espoir radio of the Mission of Tabligbo, based in the
Diocese of Aneho in southern Togo, was closed indefinitely by soldiers sent
by the local prefecture. 

President Gnassingbe Eyadema led the 1963 putsch which first brought
Nicholas Gruznitsky to power as prime minister. Eyadema sacked Gruznitsky in
1967, effectively seizing power for himself.

MAURITANIA: Supreme Court upholds dissolution of opposition party

Mauritania's Supreme Court on Sunday upheld a 28 October decision by the
government to ban the county's main opposition party, l'Union des forces
democratiques/Ere nouvelle (UFD/EN), the party said. The UFD/EN had appealed
against the government's decision, which it had described as "illegal and
illegitimate".

The opposition party claimed that the legal system was an instrument of the
government, and appealed to Mauritanians and the international community to
support its fight for democracy. The Supreme Court's decision cannot be
appealed against.

UFD-EN was dissolved by government decree for "instigating violence" and
"action to undermine the country's interest".

NIGERIA: Campaign launched against trafficking of women

Amina Abubakar, wife of Nigeria's vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has
launched a nationwide campaign against the widespread trafficking of women
to Europe to work as prostitutes, 'The Guardian' Lagos daily reported on
Wednesday.

The newspaper said the campaign began on Monday in Benin City, capital of
the midwestern state of Edo, regarded as a major centre of the trade being
conducted by highly organised criminal gangs that often lure the women into
bondage on the pretext of finding jobs for them.

Mrs Abubakar said at the occasion that a total of 1,116 girls working as
prostitutes in various European capitals were deported to Nigeria between
March and December last year. "This is alarming. This must stop," the paper
quoted her as telling an audience of women groups and female secondary
school students.

COTE D'IVOIRE: Detentions

Military prosecutor Ange Kessy has denied that the detention of two generals
accused of being involved in a September attack on the home of former
Ivorian leader General Robert Guei was illegal. 

Generals Lansana Palenfo and Abdoulaye Coulibaly had gone into hiding after
Guei accused them of trying to kill him but emerged after popular protests
forced Guei out of office in October. Shortly after that, they were detained
by the authorities and have remained in detention. 

Kessy denied, in an interview aired on Wednesday by the BBC, that the two
men were being detained illegally. He said they had been denied bail by a
court. "We have not committed anything illegal because the procedure
followed with regard to their detention followed the rules of law," he said.

Kessy also said that a number of persons accused of involvement in an
attempted coup on 7-8 January were also involved in the September attack,
'Le Jour', an independent daily, reported on Wednesday. Twenty-seven
military and civilian suspects detained in connection with the coup attempt,
appeared before an Abidjan court on Tuesday and were remanded into custody. 

WEST AFRICA: WHO focuses on bilharzia

The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding a workshop in Niamey, Niger,
on the control and eradication of Schistomiasis, commonly known as
bilharzia.

The workshop, which started on Monday and ends on 31 January, focuses on new
and effective ways of treating the disease, including vaccines and
therapies.

Participants come from Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Cote
d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Togo and host country Niger, which are all
scheduled to develop their own national programmes to roll back bilharzia,
WHO said on Monday.

Bilharzia, a parasitic disease that leads to chronic ill health, is caused
by flatworms and exists in two forms, an intestinal strain and a urinary
strain. People most vulnerable to bilharzia are those working or living in
water-infested areas, including fishermen, rice farmers and dam workers.
About 165 million out of the 200 million people affected worldwide live in
sub-Saharan Africa, the agency said. 

Abidjan, 17 January 2001; 18:15 GMT

[ENDS]

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


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