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Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-WA Weekly 284 covering 2 July - 8 July 2005

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

CONTENTS:

COTE D’IVOIRE: Disarmament talks continuing after two days
LIBERIA: Government calls for a review of Taylor's exile deal
NIGER: Men, women, children flee south to Nigeria to escape food crisis
GUINEA-BISSAU: Kumba Yala to back Nino Vieira in second round of presidential election
GUINEA: Opposition leader returns as food tensions mount

COTE D’IVOIRE: Disarmament talks continuing after two days

Talks to agree a disarmament timetable to end Cote d’Ivoire’s three-year civil war were continuing on Friday evening after two days of efforts to reach agreement.

As dusk fell over the official capital of the world’s top cocoa producer, officials said the two sides in the conflict - rebels who hold the north and government forces who control the south - were still fine-tuning a deal.

Meanwhile President Laurent Gbagbo took steps to ease the peace process by pledging on Thursday to push through legislative reforms as agreed at a peace summit last month.

Full report

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LIBERIA: Government calls for a review of Taylor's exile deal

Liberia's interim government has called for the exile agreement of former president Charles Taylor to be reviewed, after accusing him of repeatedly breaking the terms of his asylum in Nigeria with daily phone calls back home and orders to supporters that could threaten peace in Liberia and beyond.

Taylor and his trademark white suit flew into exile in Nigeria under the terms of the August 2003 peace deal that ended Liberia's 14-year civil war. The warlord, accused of fomenting strife across the West African region, is now holed up in a luxury compound in the remote town of Calabar in the Niger Delta.

Full report

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NIGER: Men, women, children flee south to Nigeria to escape food crisis

Scores of men, women and children from Niger are fleeing south into Nigeria to escape crop failure and imminent famine, according to Nigerian immigration officials.

A severe drought and locust invasion in 2004 has left 3.6 million people short of food in landlocked Niger, one of the world's poorest countries.

“We have an increasing number of people from Niger who are coming into Nigeria through our border posts," Suleiman Kangiwa, the head of immigration in Nigeria's northern Katsina State told reporters on Monday.

"They are obviously running away from the famine in their country. They believe they can have a better life here in Nigeria," Kangiwa added.

In Niger, granaries lie empty, while food available on the markets is selling for twice the usual price putting it beyond the reach of many households.

Full report

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GUINEA-BISSAU: Kumba Yala to back Nino Vieira in second round of presidential election

Kumba Yala, the third-placed candidate in Guinea-Bissau's presidential election, has thrown his support behind former military ruler Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira in the second round run-off which will take place on 24 July.

His decision to support Vieira will make it more difficult for Malam Bacai Sanha, the frontrunner in the first round of the election, with 35 percent of the vote, to maintain his lead.

Yala, who won 25 percent of the vote in the first round on 19 June, announced his support for Vieira, who achieved 29 percent, in a statement on Saturday.

"Joao Bernardo Vieira is a symbol of the construction of the Guinean state and of national unity because he proclaimed our independence in the hills of Boe," Yala said, referring to Vieira's role as a guerrilla commander in the fight against Portuguese colonial rule in the 1960s and early 1970s.

"Of the two candidates, he is the one who for me can be relied upon to defend our national independence, to oppose neo-colonialism, to build the republic and promote peace, stability and above all, national reconciliation," Yala said.

Full report

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GUINEA: Opposition leader returns as food tensions mount

Alpha Conde, the main political rival of ailing Guinean President Lansana Conte, returned to Conakry this weekend after two years abroad, and received a rapturous welcome from thousands of people, angry about rising food prices and poor living conditions in the West African nation.

Conde, the leader of the main opposition party Guinean People's Rally (RPG), stood against Conte in Guinea's first multi-party presidential elections in 1993.

In the run-up to the 1998 poll, where he was again the sitting president's main challenger, he was arrested near the Ivorian border and charged with recruiting mercenaries and plotting to topple Conte.

The opposition leader spent two and a half years in prison before being pardoned by presidential decree. But he was banned from any political activity and headed into self-imposed exile in Paris.

On Sunday, Conde returned to the Guinean capital Conakry, to the delight of thousands of RPG supporters who lined the road from the airport, wearing yellow party T-shirts emblazoned with his portrait.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Democracy

Other recent WEST AFRICA reports:

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 309 covering 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 308 covering 10-16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 307 covering 3-9 December 2005, 9/Dec/05

Rejecting FGM not an affront to tradition, 7/Dec/05

Youth unemployment threatens regional stability, 2/Dec/05

Other recent Democracy & Governance reports:

AFGHANISTAN: ADB approves US $55 million for post-conflict country, 23/Dec/05

NEPAL: UN welcomes Maoist statement on aid and development, 23/Dec/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 309 covering 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

ZAMBIA: Govt extends maize importation, 22/Dec/05

BENIN: Pressure mounting but elections still in doubt, 22/Dec/05

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