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IRIN Africa | West Africa | WEST AFRICA | WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly 294 covering 10-16 September 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

Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-WA Weekly 294 covering 10-16 September 2005

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

CONTENTS:

LIBERIA: Anti-graft plan endorsed to cheers from world donors
MAURITANIA: First wave of one-time dissidents return home in sweeping amnesty
SIERRA LEONE: Civilian war casualties urge government to provide reparations
NIGER: Over one million receiving food rations, immediate and long-term challenges loom
COTE D IVOIRE: Former president calls for Gbagbo to hand over to a transitional government
DRC-NIGERIA: Obasanjo recalls police team in DR Congo over alleged sex abuses

LIBERIA: Anti-graft plan endorsed to cheers from world donors

Liberia's transitional government has endorsed a far-reaching and controversial plan to combat graft that includes placing outsiders in key administrative positions over the next three years.

This week’s signing of the so-called Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (GEMAP), despite resistance from some Liberian leaders, was widely welcomed at a press conference held by the country’s international partners.

"The US welcomes the signing of the GEMAP and we intend to ensure that the revenue of Liberia is captured for the people of Liberia and to ensure the funds get expended correctly," said US Ambassador to Liberia, Donald Booth.

Representatives of the World Bank and European Union also welcomed the adoption of GEMAP under which all operational and financial matters of the Central Bank and five main revenue generating agencies must be co-signed by a "suitable international expert" selected by the International Monetary Fund. They were quick to make assurances, however, that the programme would not impinge the national sovereignty of Liberia.

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MAURITANIA: First wave of one-time dissidents return home in sweeping amnesty

Jubilant mobs rushed the airport and lined the streets of the Mauritanian capital to greet 30 former dissidents returning from exile, days after the country’s new military rulers called a sweeping amnesty for those imprisoned or banished by ex-President Maaouya Ould Taya.

The former opposition leaders and rebel army officers are the first of scores expected to return to Mauritania in the coming days and weeks. Among the arrivals were Mohamed Ould Cheikhna and Mohamed Ould Saleck, leading members of the “Knights of Change,” which allegedly carried out coup attempts in 2003 and 2004.

“It is very difficult to express in words the joy we feel,” Ould Saleck told IRIN at the Nouakchott airport. “I am here to participate in the reconstruction of our country.”

Full report

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SIERRA LEONE: Civilian war casualties urge government to provide reparations

Civilians who lost limbs in Sierra Leone’s atrociously brutal war are mobilising to ensure promises of aid to victims do not remain mere words on paper.

“Our hearts still bleed with tears because we are not satisfied,” one amputee told a forum which was the culmination of two months of meetings of amputees and other war victims organised by the national human rights group, Forum of Conscience.

Reparations for amputees and victims of the decade-long civil war which ended in 2002 - including free health care and monthly pensions - is one of the recommendations of Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), whose final report was presented to the government last October. Civil society and human rights groups have since been pushing for the government to act on the TRC recommendations.

Full report

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NIGER: Over one million receiving food rations, immediate and long-term challenges loom

The television cameras all but gone, aid agencies in Niger continue to tackle life-and-death needs and seek lasting solutions to a food crisis that aid workers say was already well in swing when the world rushed in to help.

While donor response to the Niger crisis was late, a spurt of contributions in July and early August allowed UN World Food Programme (WFP) to tackle a first round of emergency food distributions, with a targeted 1.8 million people deemed the most at-risk, an official at the organisation said.

One international aid group, however, says in some regions the number of acutely malnourished children is steady or even rising. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) this week reiterated its worry that free food is not getting to people who need it most urgently.

Full report

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COTE D IVOIRE: Former president calls for Gbagbo to hand over to a transitional government

Opposition leader and former president Henri Konan Bedie, fresh back in wartorn Cote d'Ivoire after a year in self-imposed exile in Paris, has called on President Laurent Gbagbo to hand over power to a transitional government if, as expected, planned elections do not take place on 30 October.

"When one has spent five years governing and when one has not been able to organise democratic elections, how can one demand [the mandate] to be prolonged?" Bedie said.

Gbagbo has said since April that should elections not take place for any reason, he will remain in his post. Under peace deals signed since January 2003, presidential elections were to have been held on 30 October - the end of the incumbent's five-year term.
But foot-dragging in preparation for the polls from all sides in Cote d'Ivoire's three-year civil conflict, means the ballot cannot take place as planned, according to UN chief Kofi Annan who told RFI the UN Security Council will review possible sanctions on Ivorian political leaders.

Full report

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DRC-NIGERIA: Obasanjo recalls police team in DR Congo over alleged sex abuses

President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government ordered the return of 120 Nigerian police officers serving in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo after some of them were accused of sexual abuses, police officials said on Monday.

Haz Iwendi, Nigerian police spokesman, said a senior police officer had gone to the Congolese capital Kinshasa to bring back the contingent and receive full details of allegations against some members of the team.

“Sexual misconduct is part of the allegations,” Iwendi told IRIN. “Though only 10 people are accused, the whole team has been ordered to come home.”

A report released in July by New York-based Human Rights Watch said corruption, torture and killing of suspects by police officials was rampant in Nigeria and largely went unpunished.

In August, Obasanjo made an unusual public acknowledgement of police atrocities, listing violations including extrajudicial killings and torture. He pledged government action to end the trend.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Children

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 Children reports:

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

SIERRA LEONE: With no prospects, youths are turning to crime and violence, 22/Dec/05

SENEGAL: Everyman’s library, 21/Dec/05

LIBERIA: UN renews ban on arms, diamonds and timber, 21/Dec/05

NIGERIA: Eight children die in attack on oil pipeline, 21/Dec/05

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