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WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly 246 covering 9-15 October 2004 - OCHA IRIN

Wednesday 17 November 2004


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IRIN-WA Weekly 246 covering 9-15 October 2004

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

COTE D’IVOIRE: No DDR for war-torn country
CAMEROON: Biya wins another seven-year term
NIGERIA: Four-day strike ends
MAURITANIA: Government announces arrest of plot mastermind
GUINEA-BISSAU: Mutineers amnestied but armed forces still leaderless
GAMBIA: Pilot ARV programme kicks off
LIBERIA: Rebels slow in disarming in southeast

COTE D’IVOIRE: No DDR for war-torn country

The government of Cote d'Ivoire appealed for calm as the much-hyped deadline for disarmament to begin passed by on Friday with rebel forces refusing to hand in a single weapon.

Defence Minister Rene Amani said a television broadcast on Thursday night that people should not pay attention to "a certain number of rumors" that have been flying round the economic capital Abidjan. He was apparently referring to widespread fears that youth militia groups which support President Laurent Gbagbo would once more go on the rampage, staging rowdy protest demonstrations and attacking immigrants and people from the north of Cote d'Ivoire suspected of being rebel sympathisers.

Other factors have also contributed to growing tension in the country.

In recent days, Abidjan newspapers have reported possible moves by Gbagbo to sack the military high command. And the rebel movement which occupies the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire has repeated allegations that government forces are preparing to launch an attack on rebel territory from neighbouring Guinea.

Amani said the process of disarmament, which was due to have begun on Friday, was still on course and "negotiations are progressing."

"There is nothing to be afraid of," Amani continued. "I would like to reassure each and every one of you that everything will be normal….that everybody should go about their business calmly, that schools should open, that markets should open and that everybody should go about their ordinary business."

The United Nations, which has a 6,000-strong peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire, took the precaution of suspending all travel into the country by visiting UN personnel until 20 October.

With Cote d'Ivoire's fragile peace process once more in deadlock, the prospects for the country's future looks as dark and ominous as the heavy rain clouds which have gathered in recent weeks over Abidjan to drench the city in torrential rain.

Civil war broke out in Cote d'Ivoire in September 2002, but a French-brokered peace agreement signed in January 2003 has yet to be implemented in full.

The fighting eventually stopped in May 2003, leaving rebel forces in control of the northern half of the country. And a broad-based government of national reconciliation was formed to guide the country to presidential elections in October 2005.

But Gbagbo has yet to implement in full a series of political reforms demanded by the Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement and until he does so the rebels are refusing to lay down their weapons.

The latest target date for the start of disarmament - 15 October - was set at a summit meeting of the Ivorian factions in the Ghanaian capital Accra at the end of July. But Gbagbo failed to deliver his side of the bargain by putting promised political reforms on the statute book by the end of September, so now the rebels are refusing to disarm.

The government and rebel armies have agreed technical arrangements for the disarmament process to begin with the French and UN peacekeeping forces in Cote d'Ivoire.

But Colonel Soumaila Bakayako, the military commander of the New Forces rebel movement, stressed earlier this week that the order for his men to lay down their weapons would be a political decision.

And Guillaume Soro, the rebel leader, made clear that not a single gun would be handed over until the delayed reforms were enacted. Most of the planned measures are aimed at giving the four million West African immigrants to Cote d'Ivoire and their descendents greater political and economic rights.

"Nothing is going to happen on 15 October. We are still armed, the country is divided and parliament hasn't voted through the reforms," Soro told IRIN in an interview earlier this week. "So long as there is not a minimum level of confidence, which must exist as a contract between the political actors, we are not going to talk about DDR (disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation)."

The "Accra Three" summit at the end of July was billed at the time as a last chance to get the Ivorian peace process back on track. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a dozen African heads of state turned up to force the rival factions into a compromise.

Now diplomats in Abidjan find it difficult to see a way out of the crisis that does not involve the men with guns stepping forward to take control of the situation.

"Where are we going? For over a year and a half we have been at a stand-still," one exasperated African diplomat told IRIN.

"No blockage is perpetual. An answer will come and it will come from the military," he predicted.

"The politicians should not under-estimate that ties between the government and rebel soldiers," he warned, hinting that the military commanders of both sides could strike an agreement between themselves and seize the initiative from their political masters.

One senior UN official in Abidjan told IRIN: "The only solution is a robust action." That, he said, could either come from "outside or inside."

But no-one has so far talked seriously about applying international sanctions against Cote d'Ivoire, a country that has been starved of development aid by the international community since the conflict began.

And with 10,000 foreign peacekeepers already stationed in the country to keep the government and rebel armies apart, it is difficult to see what more foreign governments can do.

But as time ticks by with no solution in sight, diplomats warn it will become harder and harder to hold free and fair presidential elections next year as planned.

Amoikon Tiemele, a senior figure in the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI), the largest opposition party in parliament, expressed concern at the latest turn of events.

"I am very worried. You can easily predict a deterioration of the situation," he told IRIN.

IRIN coverage on Cote d’Ivoire

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CAMEROON: Biya wins another seven-year term

President Paul Biya of Cameroon has been re-elected for a further seven-year term with 75 percent of the votes cast, according to official results announced by government. Interior Minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya, told reporters on Thursday that with only a handful of remote polling stations yet to report, it was clear that Biya had won the election with 75.24 percent of the votes cast.

His two main opponents in Monday's presidential election, John Fru Ndi and Adamou Ndam Njoya, have accused the government of massive vote rigging and have appealed to the Constitutional Council to annul the entire poll. Fru Ndi and Njoya have respectively won 17.13 percent and 4.71 percent of votes.

A team of 1,200 monitors deployed by the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon also denounced widespread fraud. However, observer teams sent from the United States and the International Organisation of French-speaking Countries (OIF) said they were reasonably satisfied with the conduct of the election.

The 71-year-old head of state, who rarely appears in public, has ruled this West African country of 16 million people since 1982.

IRIN coverage on Cameroon

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NIGERIA: Four-day strike ends

Normal life resumed throughout Nigeria on Friday after trade unions ended a four-day general strike to protest at a 25 percent increase in fuel prices. But union leaders warned of another stoppage soon if President Olusegun Obasanjo's government failed to reverse the price rise within two weeks.

Banks, businesses, schools and hospitals shut down during the strike reopened in the commercial capital, Lagos and other major cities in the West African country.

At least two people were shot dead during the strike by police in clashes with protesters in the northern city of Kaduna and the southeastern oil industry hub of Port Harcourt.

"If the government fails within the next two weeks to reverse the price increases, we will return to protest action again," said Adams Oshiomhole, president of the 29-union Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), as he called off the strike on Thursday night.

Union leaders declared the strike a success, saying widespread compliance was evidence that most Nigerians disapproved of Obasanjo's economic policies.

"It was a vote against government economic policies, especially the increase in fuel prices," NLC spokesman Owei Lakemfa told IRIN.

For the government, the fact that the strike took place was evidence that democracy was working and dissent was thriving in Nigeria, Obasanjo's spokeswoman Remi Oyo said.

She said the government had responded by setting up a special committee, which includes union leaders, to work out measures to ease the pain of higher fuel prices.

"That underscores government commitment to alleviate the suffering of the people," Oyo said.

This week's strike was the sixth to be called by the NLC since Obasanjo began to phase out fuel subsidies three years ago as part of his policy of deregulating Nigeria's downstream oil sector.

The government insists the reforms are necessary to eliminate domestic fuel subsidies of over US$2 billion a year.

However, the unions argue that the resulting rise in living costs imposes further punishment on Nigeria's impoverished population. More than 70 percent of the country's 126 million people live on less than one US dollar a day.

IRIN coverage on Nigeria

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MAURITANIA: Government announces arrest of presumed plot mastermind

The Mauritanian government announced on Sunday that it had arrested on Saturday Saleh Ould Hanenna, the mastermind of last year's military uprising against President Maaouiya Ould Taya, who had been on the run for 16 months. It announced that he would be put on trial for trying to overthrow the government by force of arms and using "criminal gangs" to try and seize control of the army and conspire against the state.

According to authorities, he was arrested in Rosso, a town on the southern border with Senegal

A police spokesman said three popular Islamic fundamentalist leaders had been arrested for questioning because of their suspected involvement with the captured rebel.

Ould Hanenna is the presumed mastermind of Mauritania’s coup attempt in June 2003 that loyalist troops managed to defeat after nearly two days of battle. He and his men, who have created an armed opposition movement known as the “Knights of Change” are also blamed for coup attempts in August and September of this year.

IRIN coverage on Mauritania

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GUINEA-BISSAU: Mutineers amnestied but armed forces still leaderless

The government of Guinea-Bissau on Sunday signed an agreement with a group of soldiers who staged a mutiny last week, promising them an amnesty and the appointment of a new military high command. However, before the amnesty becomes effective, it must be endorsed by parliament

The country’s army is presently leaderless after the death of army chief of staff General Verissimo Correia Seabra who was killed during the uprising.

It also pardons all other military personnel who took part in military uprisings since the country's first coup d'etat in 1980.

The army mutiny was staged by a battalion of 600 soldiers which recently completed a nine-month tour with the UN peacekeeping force in Liberia. However, it did not spread to the rest of the armed forces. Most military units remained sidelined from the dispute. The mutineers themselves insisted all along that they were simply demanding the payment of long-standing salary arrears and the improvement of poor living conditions in military barracks.

IRIN coverage on Guinea-Bissau

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GAMBIA: Pilot ARV programme kicks off

About 150 people living with AIDS in the Gambia will benefit from free anti-retroviral therapy in a pilot programme launched by the government this week, Doctor Sam McConkey, a director of the government's Medical Research Council, said on Wednesday.

During the first phase of the programme a group of 15 to 20 people would receive the drugs, which can dramatically improve the health of people living with AIDS and prolong their survival, McConkey said.

A first group of seven patients began receiving ARV therapy in the capital Banjul on Monday.

“A lot of hard work has gone into getting the drugs here and I my hope now is that we will see a scaling up of the ARV programme to benefit more people,” McConkey said.

Gambia's AIDS programme is largely financed by a US$15 million World Bank aid package.

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO) about 15,000 people in the Gambia were infected with the HIV virus in 2003. That was deemed to be equivalent to 1.6 percent of the country's sexually active population.

However, aid workers fear that the real HIV prevalence could be much higher in view of recent evidence indicating a steady rise in the sexual abuse of minors.

IRIN coverage on Gambia

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LIBERIA: Rebels slow in disarming in southeast

Rebel fighters are proving slow to come forward for disarmament in the far southeast of Liberia because they hope to get more money by handing their weapons in over the border in nearby Cote d'Ivoire, Major General Joseph Owonibi, the deputy commander of UN peacekeeping forces in Liberia, said on Wednesday.

The number of fighters of the Movement for Democracy for Liberia (MODEL) surrendering their guns to the UN disarmament centre in the port town of Harper was lower than expected, and many were hanging back because they hoped to get US$900 for handing in their arms in Cote d'Ivoire, where a disarmament campaign is due to start shortly, rather than the $300 they would receive in Liberia, he said.

Owinibi said another reason that relatively few MODEL fighters were coming forward in Harper might be that many of those based in the surrounding district had chosen to disarm already at Zwedru, 170 km to the north, earlier on in the disarmament process.

Abou Moussa, the acting head of UNMIL, warned that they would not gain any benefits if they waited until the seven-month disarmament exercise came to an end on 31 October. Moussa also noted that they stood little chance of getting money for their guns in Cote d'Ivoire, since the names of all those due to take part in the disarmament programme there had already been registered.

Moussa confirmed that an official programme to resettle some 300,000 internally displaced people in Liberia would start on 1 November, the day after the disarmament campaign ended.

IRIN coverage on Liberia

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[ENDS]

Other recent WEST AFRICA reports:

IRIN-WA Weekly 250 covering 6 – 12 November 2004, 12/Nov/04

IRIN-WA Weekly 249 covering 30 October - 5 November 2004, 5/Nov/04

Locusts slash Mauritania’s crop, less damage elsewhere – FAO, 4/Nov/04

IRIN-WA Weekly 248 covering 23-29 October 2004, 31/Oct/04

Battle against locusts to last two or three years, 18/Oct/04

Other recent reports:

SOUTH AFRICA: Frank dialogue about gender is key to tackling HIV/AIDS, 16/Nov/04

ZAMBIA: Government bans civic group, 16/Nov/04

ANGOLA: Lack of aid hampers reintegration of returnees, 16/Nov/04

NIGERIA: Unions call off strike after 11th-hour govt offer, 15/Nov/04

IRAQ: IRAQ CRISIS: Weekly round-up Number 87 for 7-12 November, 12/Nov/04

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