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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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IRIN-WA Weekly 296 covering 17-23 September 2005

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

CONTENTS:

NIGERIA: Militants shut oil facilities as leader appears in court
COTE D IVOIRE: UN scolds Ivorian leaders, brandishes threat of sanctions
CAMEROON: Quarter of a million people face food shortages in north
LIBERIA: UN extends peacekeeper mandate but wants plan for troop drawdown
MALI: Union sends warning with one-day strike
SENEGAL: Cholera, malaria threaten thousands after worst floods in two decades

NIGERIA: Militants shut oil facilities as leader appears in court

Militants loyal to Moujahid Dokubo-Asari said they had taken over several oil facilities in the Niger Delta on Thursday, as Nigerian officials said the militia leader would be charged with treason.

Dokubo-Asari, the head of Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) who has repeatedly clashed with the Nigerian authorities over oil issues, was arrested two days ago.

He appeared in court on Thursday where a judge ordered he be detained for a fortnight while prosecutors prepared their case.

“This is the highest form of dictatorship,” Dokubo-Asari, wearing a blue robe, told reporters before he was whisked away in a police van.

Outside the court on Thursday, Justice Minister Bayo Ojo said formal charges of unlawful assembly and treason, which carries the death penalty, would be brought against Dokubo-Asari within two weeks.

Dokubo-Asari's NDPVF had threatened on Wednesday to unleash mayhem in the Niger Delta, which accounts for nearly all of Nigeria's 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, unless their leader was released. On Thursday, his aides said oil facilities run by Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell had been captured.

Full report

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COTE D IVOIRE: UN scolds Ivorian leaders, brandishes threat of sanctions

With mediation efforts to end Cote d’Ivoire’s three-year war floundering yet again, the United Nations wagged a finger at leaders on both sides of the divide and brandished the threat of sanctions.

The uncertainty surrounding the mediation by South African President Thabo Mbeki is fuelling tension on the ground. At the same time it is highlighting rifts among African nations involved in trying to bring peace to the country that was once a regional haven of peace and prosperity.

Upping the stakes in the drive for peace, the 15-nation UN Security Council is sending one of its members, Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, to decide whether to impose sanctions on Ivorian leaders deemed to be blocking the peace process.

Vassilakis, who is head of the council’s sanctions committee, is scheduled to visit in mid-October, just days before peace-sealing elections are supposed to be held on 30 October.

In a statement late Wednesday, the UN said the ambassador’s visit had been arranged “so that the Council will be in a position to take appropriate action in response to those who pose a threat to the peace and national reconciliation process … or who are determined to be responsible for serious violations of human rights.”

According to Pierre Schori, the head of the UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire, all sides are guilty of failing to fully commit to peace.

Full report

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CAMEROON: Quarter of a million people face food shortages in north

Almost a quarter of a million people in neglected northern Cameroon are faced with serious food shortages and more than US $1 million is still needed to ensure they all get emergency rations, the UN World Food Programme said this week.

"For one month... WFP is providing an emergency ration of cereals to 237,700 people in the Far North province of Cameroon, the poorest part of the country," the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

Free food will be handed out to everyone within affected communities.

Officials put the total cost of the emergency operation at US $2 million but so far they have only 43 percent of the funds. The French government has stumped up nearly US $900,000 but another US $1.1 million is still needed.

Rains in northern Cameroon were poor last year, and food production fell about 200,000 metric tonnes, the WFP said. For people in this already-impoverished part of the country that meant their harvests only covered six months of food supplies, instead of the usual eight. And buying in more food became difficult after cereal prices went through the roof.

Full report

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LIBERIA: UN extends peacekeeper mandate but wants plan for troop drawdown

The UN Security Council has granted a six-month extension to the peacekeeping force in Liberia, snubbing a request from Secretary General Kofi Annan for a one-year renewal, and has called for a schedule for troop reductions to be mapped out by early next year.

The war-scarred West African country, struggling to rebuild after 14 years of civil war, is home to the world's most expensive UN peacekeeping operation, known as UNMIL.

Around 15,000 UN peacekeepers and 1,100 international police officers are currently stationed in Liberia, helping provide security as the country prepares for crunch elections on 11 October, the first polls since the war ended in August 2003.

On Monday the UN Security Council unanimously voted to extend UNMIL's mandate until 31 March 2006, rejecting recommendations made by Annan in a report earlier this month.

Annan had asked for year-long extension, saying that although Liberia was stable, many challenges remained. These included rehabilitating former combatants, restoring state authority to the heavily-forested country, strengthening the judicial system and restructuring the security sector.

The Security Council also asked the UN chief to provide "recommendations on a drawdown plan for UNMIL, including specific benchmarks and a tentative schedule, in his March 2006 report."

Full report

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MALI: Union sends warning with one-day strike

Mali’s largest union sent a shot across the government’s bows on Monday by making good on a promise to hold a 24-hour strike, describing it as a “warning” and vowing to press on until its demands were met.

“We got to this point because the government refused even to consider our list of grievances,” the National Union of Malian Workers’ (UNTM) secretary general Siaka Diakite told IRIN.

The strike, which by organisers’ estimates affected 90 to 95 per cent of the country, paralysed much of the administration although basic services continued in the health, energy and telecommunications sectors.

Negotiations between the government and the UNTM, which represents 80 per cent of the country’s civil servants, broke down late last week, paving the way for the stoppage that had been threatened since the beginning of the month.

Full report

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SENEGAL: Cholera, malaria threaten thousands after worst floods in two decades

A month after the worst floods in 20 years washed out the impoverished suburbs of Senegal’s capital, Ibou Barro stands on his doorstep and waves to his neighbour, wading through the still-flooded street, her skirts hitched up to the thigh.

Swarms of tadpoles mill about in the rank greenish-brown water, clogged with rotting scraps of food, that for the last four weeks has covered the streets and courtyards of Medina Gounass, one of the many overcrowded shantytowns on the outskirts of Dakar.

“If the waters don’t recede we’ll wind up drowned,” said Barro.

Like many of the suburbs to have sprouted around the Senegalese capital in recent years, Medina Gounass was built on swampy ground. So each rainy season, the low-lying basin close to the water table becomes flooded, to the surprise of newcomers among its 80,000 residents.

According to a preliminary study by city officials, an estimated 183,000 people may have sustained damage of some kind from the flooding.

In response, the Senegalese government has declared an emergency and announced a US $96.5 million plan to relocate some 60,000 flood victims and overhaul communities.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent WEST AFRICA reports:

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 317 covering 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 316 covering 4-10 February 2006, 10/Feb/06

Africa’s poorest nations fight to ward off deadly bird flu, 9/Feb/06

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 315 covering 28 January – 3 February 2006, 3/Feb/06

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 314 covering 21-27 January 2006, 27/Jan/06

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Donors pledge support for humanitarian crisis, 21/Feb/06

ANGOLA: Ready to play larger security role in Africa, 21/Feb/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 17/Feb/06

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 270 for 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 317 covering 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

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