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Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-WA Weekly 290 covering 13 August - 19 August 2005

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

CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Ex-footballer Weah cleared to stand as election campaign kicks off
COTE D IVOIRE: Peace process deadlocked with time running out before planned elections
WESTERN SAHARA: Polisario releases all remaining Moroccan prisoners of war
MALI: No famine, but a perennial problem of poverty
SENEGAL: Migration to Italy changes landscape, fortunes, lives

LIBERIA: Ex-footballer Weah cleared to stand as election campaign kicks off

Campaigning kicked off for Liberia's first election since the end of its bitter civil war, with 22 people from former footballers to ex-rebels to veteran opposition leaders vying to be chosen president in the 11 October poll.

The National Elections Commission (NEC) cleared the former captain and coach of Liberia's national soccer team, George Weah, to stand as a presidential candidate over the weekend, dismissing a complaint over his citizenship.

One of Weah's main rivals at the ballot box is likely to be veteran opposition politician Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of the Unity Party, who finished a distant runner-up to former president Charles Taylor in Liberia's last elections, held in 1997 during a break in the civil war.

Since a peace deal in August 2003 ended 14 years of civil conflict, Liberia has been run by a transitional government, composed of representatives from all the main warring factions and civil society.

The presidential and parliamentary elections in October are designed to seal the West African country's transition back to democracy and Liberians are eager for that new chapter to begin.

"We are happy that after fighting among ourselves for 14 years, we are now going to elections that will decide the future of our country. Gone are the days of war," said Mulbah Kpawilly, a 30-year-old unemployed resident in the capital, Monrovia, where political party stickers and posters have started springing up.

Full report

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COTE D IVOIRE: Peace process deadlocked with time running out before planned elections

"It's impossible to organise elections as scheduled," one African diplomat in war-divided Cote d'Ivoire sighed. "The reason no-one is saying it officially is because they don't want to annoy the mediators."

Ivorians are supposed to go to the polls on 30 October to restore peace to a country that was once an oasis of prosperity and stability in West Africa but for the last three years has been spilt into a government-run south and a rebel-held north.

The African Union picked South African president Thabo Mbeki to oversee Cote d'Ivoire's transition to peace but he is repeatedly running up against obstacles, and dealing with each one is running down precious days on the elections timetable.

The latest dispute is over a series of laws passed by Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo in mid-July on nationality, identity and the electoral process.

The South African mediation last week gave the reforms the green light, saying they conformed to the peace process, but the rebels have protested and are refusing to move into cantonment sites ahead of an eventual disarmament.

"The crux of the blockage is the electoral commission," one Western diplomat told IRIN.

Despite the fact there are just over two months to go until the planned polls, the Independent Electoral Commission is still not up and running because there is disagreement about what its responsibilities are.

Full report

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WESTERN SAHARA: Polisario releases all remaining Moroccan prisoners of war

The Polisario Front, which is fighting for Western Sahara to be recognised as an independent state, released all remaining Moroccan prisoners-of-war, some of whom had been held in captivity for more than 20 years.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said 404 prisoners had been released in Tindouf, Algeria, following mediation by the United States, and were on their way home to Morocco.

"Their repatriation ends a long period of internment and marks an important step in resolving the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in Western Sahara," the Geneva-based group said in a statement.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- who earlier this month opposed scaling down the size of MINURSO, the UN mission in Western Sahara -- said he hoped that Thursday's prisoner release would trigger other break-throughs.

"The Secretary-General considers the release a positive step and expresses his hope that it will serve to foster better relations between the parties and contribute to overcoming the present political impasse," his office said in a statement.

A territorial dispute has raged in Western Sahara for nearly 30 years, since former colonial power Spain withdrew from this sliver of desert land in 1976. Morocco moved in to fill the void, incurring the wrath of the Polisario who staked their own claim and vowed to fight for independence.

The prisoners released on Thursday were among more than 2,000 captured in the 16-year armed guerrilla campaign the Polisario waged against the Moroccan forces, which came to an end with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.

Full report

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MALI: No famine, but a perennial problem of poverty

Mali is not in a state of famine, aid workers say. Instead, like many countries in the region, Mali suffers from deep rooted poverty that means children die every year of hunger and only long-term development and investment will end the cycle.

Years of successive drought and a vicious plague of locusts in 2004, left crops and vegetation stripped bare. As a result, food stores across the Sahel region are empty, herds of animals have died and millions are hungry.

Though aid workers say this year is worse than usual, the sad fact is that mothers lose their children to hunger every year in countries like Mali.

"It's not just this year, it is always a difficult year," explained Patricia Hoorelbeke, who is heading up Action Contre la Faim missions in Mali and Niger. "Even in a normal year there are problems of food insecurity and child malnutrition to a severe level - it's that that's serious."

Mali is one of the poorest of the world's countries. According to the World Bank, total annual national income divided amongst the whole population leaves the average Malian only US $290 each. That's over 40 percent less than the sub-Saharan African average.

Even in an average year, one in four Malian children aged between six months and five years, are malnourished to some degree, the World Bank data shows.

Full report

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SENEGAL: Migration to Italy changes landscape, fortunes, lives

With five children, a luxurious home and a husband in Italy she rarely sees, Mai Dieng is like thousands of women in her region of northern Senegal.

She knows little to nothing of her husband’s life abroad.

“Doesn’t he tell you when he comes back?” a curious neighbour asks. Dieng laughs, patting her body to suggest what happens when her husband returns home.

Dieng lives in Kebemer which lies on the main road north about 155 km from the capital Dakar. Here in this sleepy town, almost every household boasts a relative living in Italy.

“This town lives to the rhythm of emigration,” said Mansour Tall, a consultant for UN Habitat which recently sponsored a study with the Senegalese Ministry of Housing.

“In some villages in the Louga region (which includes Kebemer) emigrants’ money transfers represent 90 percent of household income,” Tall explained.

Contributions from Senegalese living abroad are a pillar of the West African country’s economy. The regional central bank estimated that private money transfers to Senegal were 195 billion CFA francs (about US $3.66 million) in 2003 - nearly a quarter of that year's budget.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

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 reports:

RWANDA: Body found in Brussels canal confirmed that of ex-minister's, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

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

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 262 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

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