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IRIN Africa | West Africa | WEST AFRICA | WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly 287 covering 23 July - 29 July 2005 | Children, Democracy, Early Warning, Economy, Education, Environment, Food Security, Gender issues, Health, HIV AIDS, Human Rights, Natural Disasters, Peace Security, Refugees IDPs, Other | Weekly

Tuesday 15 November 2005


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IRIN-WA Weekly 287 covering 23 July - 29 July 2005

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

CONTENTS:

COTE D IVOIRE: Gbagbo’s reforms fail to match promises, opposition says
GUINEA-BISSAU: Vieira scores narrow victory over Bacai Sanha in presidential election
NIGER: WFP to more than double food aid recipients to 2.5 million
MALI: No risk of famine says government, but aid workers disagree
SENEGAL: Former prime minister charged with endangering state security

COTE D IVOIRE: Gbagbo’s reforms fail to match promises, opposition says

Crucial reforms implemented by President Laurent Gbagbo fall short of what he promised in a South African-brokered deal that is due to pave the way for presidential elections in October, the opposition and rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire said on Wednesday.

The G7 alliance, which groups the New Forces rebel movement and the four main opposition parties in parliament, said three key reforms implemented by Gbagbo by decree on 15 July fell short of what was required.

These related to the law of nationality, the law of naturalisation and the law that defines the powers and composition of the Independent Electoral Commission.

“The G7 would like to reaffirm that these reforms do not fulfil the agreement signed in Pretoria,” G7 chairman Alphonse Djedje Mady told a news conference in Abidjan.

He said the laws as promulgated by Gbagbo, without approval by parliament, would restrict the number of people eligible to vote in the October election and would limit the powers of the Independent Electoral Commission to supervise the ballot effectively.

Over the weekend rebel leader Guillaume Soro raised fresh doubts whether the long delayed programme of disarmament would finally start on 29 July, when 45,000 fighters are due to move to cantonments sites before handing in their weapons.

Soro’s announcement followed swift on the heels of an attack by unidentified armed men on two police stations on the outskirts of Abidjan on Saturday night who went on to briefly occupy the town of Agboville, 80 km to the north.

Government loyalists have blamed rebels for the attack who in return have accused Gbagbo-ists of staging the attack to disrupt the peace process.

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GUINEA-BISSAU: Vieira scores narrow victory over Bacai Sanha in presidential election

Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira, the former military ruler of Guinea-Bissau, scored a narrow victory over Malam Bacai Sanha, the candidate of the ruling PAIGC party, in the second round of the country's presidential election, according to provisional results released on Thursday.

Malam Mane, the chairman of the National Electoral Commission, said Vieira, of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), won a majority of 52 percent, with 216,167 votes in last Sunday's ballot.

Bacai Sanha trailed over 19,000 votes behind him with 48 percent and 196,759 votes, he added.

Vieira, who ruled this small West African country from 1980 to 1999, told reporters: "The results just announced demonstrate my unquestionable victory."

But Bacai Sanha's campaign manager, Serifo Nhamado, said there were "indications of fraud" in some parts of the country.

He demanded a fresh vote in the capital Bissau, Biombo district immediately to the west of the city and Bafata district, 130 km to the east.

However, political analysts said it was unlikely that the National Electoral Commission would agree to this request. Final results have to be declared by the 3 August.

Full report

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NIGER: WFP to more than double food aid recipients to 2.5 million

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) will more than double the number of people to receive food aid in Niger, aiming to reach 2.5 million men, women and children in danger of starving, an agency official said.

Of the 3.6 million people the Niger government says are facing food shortages, WFP now estimates that 2.5 million of them need food aid, WFP country director Gian Carlo Cirri told IRIN from the capital, Niamey.

The WFP previously targeted 1.2 million people for food aid.

After months of urgent UN and government appeals western donors in the past several weeks have begun to provide substantial funding for emergency aid to Niger, where the UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland last week said “thousands of children” had already died for lack of food.

WFP will help the weakest people first, Cirri said.

“We now think that about 1.6 million of the 2.5 million are extremely vulnerable so they are our priority,” he said.

WFP’s assistance in Niger consists of free food distributions and rations provided to therapeutic and supplementary feeding centres.

WFP expects to announce a revised budget appeal next week, agency officials said.

Niger is moving into the final few months of the lean season – always difficult in this landlocked semi-desert land, but particularly crushing this year after locusts and a drought wiped out crops and pasture in 2004.

Full report

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MALI: No risk of famine says government, but aid workers disagree

BAMAKO, 26 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - From her office in the capital Bamako, the government's head of food security says there is no risk of famine in Mali this year. But some aid workers operating in the arid north and east of the country, disagree.

“Thank God, in Mali, we don’t have a risk of famine,” Food Commissioner Lansry Nana Yaya Haidara told IRIN on Tuesday.

Mary Diallo, the head of the government's Early Warning System, agreed that there was no crisis in Mali. "I am the first to become involved in everything that concerns this situation... but rest assured the facts contradict such a scenario," he said.

Both were speaking from a city in the wooded savannahs of southern Mali which enjoyed good rainfall and a reasonable harvest last year and where food prices have remained stable.

But according to the United Nations, over two million people in the semi-arid zone further north, will need food aid to get by this year following poor rainfall and an invasion of crop-eating locusts in 2004.

Full report

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SENEGAL: Former prime minister charged with endangering state security

Former prime minister Idrissa Seck, an emerging political rival to President Abdoulaye Wade, has been charged with endangering national security and remanded in custody until his trial.

Seck, who served as Wade's prime minister from November 2002 until April 2004, was formally charged on Saturday after spending a week in police detention.

During that time, Seck was questioned about allegations of massive overspending on public works in the city of Thies, where he serves as mayor.

The government has not spelled out publicly how Seck is supposed to have endangered national security or whether the charges against him are connected to allegations that he squandered 46 billion CFA francs (US $84 million) on public works projects in Thies that were only budgeted at 25 billion CFA (US $45 million).

Supporters of the 46-year-old politician have accused Wade of simply bringing the charges in order to silence a political rival.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Children

Other recent WEST AFRICA reports:

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 303 covering 5 - 11 November 2005, 11/Nov/05

Rampant cholera prompts UN regional appeal, 7/Nov/05

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 302 covering 29 October - 4 November 2005, 4/Nov/05

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 301 covering 22-28 October 2005, 28/Oct/05

IRIN-WA Weekly 300 covering 15-21 October 2005, 21/Oct/05

Other recent Children reports:

PAKISTAN: UNICEF launches measles vaccination campaign in quake zone, 14/Nov/05

KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on lack of teachers, 14/Nov/05

EGYPT: Street children abandoned by the system, 13/Nov/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 303 covering 5 - 11 November 2005, 11/Nov/05

MIDDLE EAST: MIDDLE EAST: Weekly round-up Number 47 for 4-10 November 2005, 10/Nov/05

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