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IRIN Africa | West Africa | WEST AFRICA | WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 306 covering 26 November to 2 December 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 21 February 2006


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IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 306 covering 26 November to 2 December 2005

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

CONTENTS:

GABON: Landslide win for Africa’s longest serving president
COTE D IVOIRE: Deadlock could rumble on, and on – analysts
CHAD-SENEGAL: Habre to remain in Senegal pending decision by African Union
LIBERIA: President-elect begins four nation peace tour
NIGER: Government demands closer consultation from aid agencies
NIGERIA-SUDAN: Fresh Darfur talks kick off with show of rebel unity
CHAD: President Deby lobs fresh ‘destabilisation’ charges at Sudan

GABON: Landslide win for Africa’s longest serving president

Omar Bongo, president of Gabon since 1967, has won a landslide victory at the polls, securing a further seven years at the helm of the small oil-producing nation.

Already Africa’s longest serving president after 38 years in office, Bongo garnered almost 80 percent of the vote in Sunday’s presidential ballot, according to official results announced on national television late Tuesday.

Bongo swept up 79.21 percent of votes cast, leaving his closest rival, Pierre Mamboundou, trailing with 13.57 percent.

“And so, Omar Ondimba Bongo has been re-elected,” declared Interior Minister Clotaire-Christian Ivala.

Mamboundou and third place candidate, Zacharie Myboto, claimed massive fraud, but the 30-odd international observers who monitored the poll signed off broad approval.

“The vote passed off well, all in all,” said Cheikh Gueye, a Senegalese election observer for the International Organisation for French-speaking countries (OIF). He noted however that polling stations in some regions opened late due to the delayed arrival of ballot boxes or officials.

According to results from the National Electoral Commission, turnout was 63.29 percent, or 351,000 of the 555,000 eligible voters in the country of 1.5 million people.

But a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated that no more than 30 or 35 percent of voters participated in Bongo’s third re-election since the adoption of multi-party politics in 1990.

Bongo worked hard and spared no expense in his campaign to secure re-election.

Full report

[GABON: Police clash with protesters in wake of Bongo re-election]

[Top of the Page]

COTE D IVOIRE: Deadlock could rumble on, and on - analysts

Six weeks after a lapsed UN deadline, two African heavyweight leaders fly in to divided Cote d’Ivoire at the weekend to make a fresh try at finding a prime minister acceptable to all sides in the conflict. But analysts are increasingly pessimistic of a quick fix.

After a failed mediation attempt just 10 days ago, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President and African Union Chairman Olusegun Obasanjo are due back on Sunday to attempt to wrest an agreement on a new prime minister to shepherd the war-torn nation to disarmament and elections before a UN deadline of October 2006.

“I am pessimistic about a resolution in Cote d’Ivoire within the next 12 months unless something cataclysmic happens outside the country that changes the balance,” said Richard Reeves, Associate Fellow of the Africa Programme, Chatham House. “Even then, the situation would be likely to get worse before getting better.”

The appointment of the new head of government is the latest bone of contention between rebels holding the north of the country and President Laurent Gbagbo, who controls the fertile cocoa-growing south.

Under a UN Security Council plan hatched some weeks ago, Gbagbo, whose mandate ended 31 October, is supposed to hand over much of his powers to a new prime minister.

But the world’s top cocoa producer has been the scene of a series of botched peace deals over the past three years.

Full report

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CHAD-SENEGAL: Habre to remain in Senegal pending decision by African Union

Hissene Habre, the former Chadian leader wanted for crimes against humanity, will be allowed to remain in Senegal until the African Union rules on his judicial fate early next year, Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio said on Sunday.

Moving to end two weeks of judicial high drama as well as lively domestic debate over Habre's fate, the minister said Senegal opposed impunity but believed it was the responsibility of the African continent to issue a collective ruling on demands that Habre be brought to account for his alleged crimes.

"It is up to the African Union leaders to recommend the jurisdiction competent to judge this matter," Gadio told reporters. "President [Abdoulaye] Wade has said this is an African matter, not strictly Senegalese."

Habre, who has lived in exile in Senegal for 15 years, was detained on 15 November nearly two months after a Belgian extradition request on charges of political killings and torture dating back to his term in office from 1982 to 1990.

Full report

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LIBERIA: President-elect begins four nation peace tour

Seeking to shore up stability in the divided West Africa region, president-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf on Tuesday launched a week-long tour of Liberia’s neighbours to discuss peace.

“The visit is part of regular consultations that the president-elect is embarking upon between herself and West African leaders -- especially our neighbouring countries -- that is geared toward sustaining peace in Liberia and the region at large,” said Morris Dukuly, Sirleaf’s spokesperson.

Sirleaf, who won elections this month, started her tour in neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire and will go onto neighbours Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Africa’s first female president will also call in on Nigeria - an important regional ally and one of the largest contributors of troops to the 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping operation in Liberia.

Nigeria is also sheltering former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who is wanted for war crimes in Sierra Leone.

On the future of Taylor, Sirleaf said on arrival in Cote d’Ivoire on Tuesday: “Allow me to have consultations with West African leaders, whom I am visiting, to take guidance from them before we take a position on that.”

Full report

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NIGER: Government demands closer consultation from aid agencies

Talks this week among Niger and aid organisations on the response to the country’s food crisis are taking place amid demands by the government that the humanitarian community respect its sovereignty.

Niger’s government has slammed members of the aid community for what it says is a failure to consult it on food aid policies and funding in the massive effort to relieve this year’s widespread food shortages, which the UN estimated affected one in four of Niger’s 12 million people.

“What is most unacceptable is this unfortunate tendency to flout the government’s role by certain donors - fortunately not all - who think they can place more trust in international aid groups and NGOs than in the government to save Nigerien lives,” Prime Minister Amadou Hama said on Wednesday at the talks in the capital, Niamey.

“In our eyes this is a denial of the credibility of our democracy and even of our country’s sovereignty,” he said.

Full report

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NIGERIA-SUDAN: Fresh Darfur talks kick off with show of rebel unity

Talks to end the almost three-year conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region kicked off late Tuesday with rebels proclaiming a joint will for progress and the international community pleading for a breakthrough.

“The moment of truth for all Sudanese gathered in this room has arrived,” said Salim Ahmed Salim, chief mediator of the African Union (AU), opening a seventh round of talks between the Khartoum government and the two Darfur rebel groups - the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

“It should now be clear to all that there cannot be a military solution to the crisis,” Salim added.

Speaking on behalf of the two rebel groups for the first time in such talks, Ahmed Tugod Lissan, JEM’s chief negotiator, said:

“We have come with full determination and will to find a lasting solution.”

The last round, in October, made only modest progress, Salim said at the time. But that round of talks was clouded by internal divisions within the SLM/A that this time appear to have been patched up.

Full report

[NIGERIA-SUDAN: Mediators hope for “decisive round” of Darfur peace talks]

[Top of the Page]

CHAD: President Deby lobs fresh ‘destabilisation’ charges at Sudan

Sudan continues to provide arms and logistical support to Chadian rebels, despite several appeals by the Chadian government, President Idriss Deby said on Monday.

“We have proof. The Sudanese government has armed [rebels], put vehicles at their disposal, given them logistics and communications materials,” Deby told Radio France Internationale.

“The Sudanese government is complicit.”

Deby said a group of Chadian rebels is based inside Sudan, about 200 kilometres from the border.

“We have officially requested of the Sudanese government the right [to pursue the rebels]. The government refused.”

Deby, an army officer turned president, has long faced dissension within his armed forces.

In October he overhauled his presidential guard days after an undetermined number of soldiers deserted their posts in the capital, N’djamena, and fled to the volatile east. And earlier this month Deby reshuffled officers in top military posts.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Children

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 Children reports:

IRAQ: Thousands of families still displaced after flooding, 21/Feb/06

SOUTH AFRICA: Govt adopts more focused approach to help orphans, 21/Feb/06

YEMEN: Two killed in flash floods, 21/Feb/06

YEMEN: Measles vaccination campaign launched to prevent children’s deaths, 21/Feb/06

TAJIKISTAN: UN appeal for 2006 launched, 16/Feb/06

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