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Tuesday 20 September 2005


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IRIN-WA Weekly 271 covering 2 - 8 April 2005

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

CONTENTS:

COTE D IVOIRE: Factions agree to end hostilities, but no deal on presidential election
TOGO: Police shoot dead opposition protestor
NIGERIA: More heads roll in crackdown on top-level corruption
SENEGAL: WHO concerned that cholera will spread to neighbouring countries
NIGER: Leaders of protests against tax on food released
MAURITANIA: Working week changed in line with economic partners

COTE D’IVOIRE: Factions agree to end hostilities but no deal on presidential poll

The government and rebels of Cote d’Ivoire declared an immediate and definitive end to hostilities on Wednesday after three days of talks in South Africa, but the key issue of whether opposition leader Alassane Ouattara would be allowed to contest presidential elections due later this year remained unresolved.

A final communiqué said President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the mediator of the peace talks, would settle an outstanding dispute over the reform of article 35 of the Ivorian constitution, which has been invoked in the past to prevent Ouattara from standing for the presidency.

Diplomats in West Africa said this unfinished business did not bode well for the immediate implementation of a frozen peace accord to end nearly three years of civil war.

But the very fact that President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro sat down together in Pretoria to talk face-to-face for the first time in nine months was hailed as an achievement.

The final communiqué issued in Pretoria pledged that informal militia groups operating in support of both sides would be dismantled.

The factions agreed to relaunch the process of disarmament, which has been on hold for nearly two years, at a meeting between government and military chiefs in the rebel stronghold of Bouake on 14 April.

Full report

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TOGO: Police shoot dead opposition protestor

One man was killed and several were injured as opposition protestors clashed with police in the capital Lome and several towns in the interior of Togo on Friday, an alliance of the country's main opposition parties said on Friday.

Police opened fire on demonstrators with automatic weapons in the town of Tabligbo, 60 km north of Lome, killing one man and injuring several others, the opposition alliance said in a statement.

It also reported that protestors were hurt in clashes with the security forces in Kpalime and Keve on the Ghanaian frontier.

In Lome, eyewitnesses said police used tear gas and fragmentation grenades to try and disperse several thousand opposition protestors who marched on the town hall to demand voting cards so they could take part in a landmark presidential election due on 24 April.

Voter registration was due to have ended on Tuesday, but the government, which faces opposition charges that it is planning to rig the election, has pledged to make voting cards available up to the last minute so that nobody will be left out.

However, it has rejected opposition demands for the election to be postponed so that a free and fair election can be properly organised under international supervision.

Full report

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NIGERIA: More heads roll in crackdown on top-level corruption

The leader of Nigeria's Senate resigned on Tuesday after being accused of bribe-taking. He quit less than 24 hours after President Olusegun Obasanjo sacked his housing minister for trying to sell off government houses on the cheap to people of power and influence.

“I hereby step aside as President of the Senate to enable me to attend to all the allegations against me,” Adolphus Wabara told the Senate chamber as he announced his decision.

Wabara's departure had been widely expected following public accusations that he and several other legislators had shared a $410,000 bribe paid by former Education Minister Fabian Osuji to ensure parliamentary approval of an inflated education budget.

Shortly after the information came to light last month, Obasanjo sacked Osuji.

On Monday the presidential axe fell on Mobolaji Osomo, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development as his campaign against corruption in the highest level of government continued.

Obasanjo sacked Osomo following weekend revelations that she had arranged to sell off 207 government houses in a plush suburb of Lagos to senior figures in the government and other people of influence.

Full report

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SENEGAL: WHO concerned that cholera will spread to neighbouring countries

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed concern that the cholera epidemic in Senegal could spread to neighbouring countries. There has been a massive upsurge in the number of new cases following a pilgrimage by more than one million Muslims to Touba, a town at the epicentre of the epidemic, at the end of March.

According to the Health Ministry, 4,838 new cholera cases and 64 deaths were reported nationwide between 28 March and 6 April.

"The epidemic constitutes a threat for the whole region … Cases have already been reported in Gambia, and one cannot rule out cases in Mali, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau or Mauritania," Doctor Malang Coly, the head of Disease Prevention Control at the WHO office in Dakar, told IRIN on Thursday.

His Geneva-based colleague, Claire-Lise Chaignat, the coordinator of the WHO's cholera control division, agreed. She told IRIN that the measures undertaken so far by the Senegalese authorities had been insufficient.

Sensitization messages, emergency measures, epidemiological surveillance and preventive measures should be put in place in Senegal as well as in neighbouring countries," Chaignat told IRIN on Thursday.

Full report

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NIGER: Leaders of protests against tax on food released

Five leaders of a nationwide protest movement against a new tax on basic foodstuffs were released from jail on Thursday, opening the way for talks with the government to ease the tension.

Court sources said the five leaders of the Coalition Against Costly Living, an alliance of 30 civil society groups, were freed from prison on the orders of an investigating magistrate.

Their release came shortly after President Mamadou Tandja intervened for the first time to pacify tens of thousands of protestors who have staged a series of demonstrations and strikes over the past three weeks, demanding the abolition of a new 19 percent value added tax (VAT) on basic goods and services. Tandja urged the protest movement to resolve its grievances peacefully at the negotiating table.

The new tax, approved in January's budget, has pushed up the cost of food and essential services such as water and electricity at a time when this landlocked desert nation is already tightening its belt to deal with serious food shortages following last year's poor rainfall and an invasion of locusts.

The government has justified the controversial introduction of VAT on everyday foodstuffs such as flour and milk, saying it brings Niger into line with other member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). They all share the CFA franc as their common currency.

Full report

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MAURITANIA: Working week changed in line with economic partners

Mauritania’s two-day weekend has been shifted to Saturday and Sunday, bringing the Islamic Republic in line with its economic partners, following a ministerial vote on Wednesday.

Friday is the Muslim holy day and previously was the first day of the weekend in Mauritania, with Sunday a full working day.

Prime Minister Sghair Ould M'barek told ministers that Mauritania lost 17 billion ougiya (US $64 million) every year through not working on Fridays.

As from next week, businesses and government offices will be open Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Friday work will stop from midday for prayers.

The Islamic High Council, the most powerful religious body in the country, has approved the decision.

But on the dusty streets of the desert capital Nouakchott, the response has been mixed.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent WEST AFRICA reports:

IRIN-WA weekly 294 covering 10-16 September 2005, 16/Sep/05

High oil prices hit poorest hardest, 14/Sep/05

Cheaper power a step nearer as work begins on gas pipeline, 5/Sep/05

IRIN-WA weekly 292 Covering 27 August - 2 September 2005, 2/Sep/05

Cholera kills nearly 500 people, more deaths feared, 1/Sep/05

Other recent reports:

ANGOLA: Legacy of war, failed harvests combine to erode security, 19/Sep/05

IRAQ: Test census to be conducted, 19/Sep/05

MOZAMBIQUE: School-yard roundabouts pump water while children play, 19/Sep/05

GLOBAL: US $150 million pledged for emergency fund, 16/Sep/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 16/Sep/05

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