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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 314 covering 21-27 January 2006

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

CONTENTS:

COTE D'IVOIRE: UN staff being evacuated as sanctions loom
COTE D'IVOIRE: Using the media to orchestrate violence
NIGERIA: Oil-rich Niger Delta faces “shocking” new wave of violence
CHAD: AU balks at Habre extradition, asks African jurists to study case
CHAD: UN scales back in east after local officials kidnapped
CAMEROON: New anti-corruption drive leaves many sceptical

COTE D’IVOIRE: UN staff being evacuated as sanctions loom

Nearly 400 UN staff are to be evacuated from Cote d’Ivoire by the weekend as consensus mounts within the UN Security Council on slapping sanctions against Ivorian leaders seen as whipping up violence and blocking peace efforts, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

African leaders generally have approved the idea of targeted sanctions against such individuals, although South Africa, a key mediator in the Ivorian peace process, has expressed some reticence, a diplomat said.

The sanctions committee is to meet on Monday morning, a UN source said.

Meanwhile almost 400 of the some 2,000 staff working for the UN and UN humanitarian agencies in Cote d’Ivoire are being temporarily relocated to Banjul, Gambia and Dakar, Senegal, with departures through Saturday, a diplomatic source said.

In New York, UN special envoy for Cote d’Ivoire Pierre Schori told reporters late on Thursday that the evacuations were “a temporary measure.”

“We have been under attack,” he said, referring to the anti-UN riots last week that saw the country’s economic capital Abidjan grind to a standstill for four days as youths loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo, known as the Young Patriots, went on the rampage demanding that 10,000 UN and French peacekeepers quit the country.

Full report

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COTE D’IVOIRE: Using the media to orchestrate violence

As the United Nations this week considered slapping sanctions on Cote d’Ivoire leaders undermining peace efforts, Eugene Djue, leader of the “Patriots’ Union for the Total Liberation of Cote d’Ivoire”, this week warned this could be a trigger for war.

To get their supporters out into the streets last week, youth leaders aired hate messages on radio and state TV, a favoured medium for whipping up political sentiment in Cote d’Ivoire since the country descended into civil war after a failed coup in September 2002.

The battle for control of the airwaves has been at the centre of the struggle for power in Cote d’Ivoire, with factions notably seeking a hold over state radio and television broadcaster Radiodiffusion Television Ivorienne (RTI).

Several people died in last week’s protests, hundreds of UN peacekeepers were forced to beat a retreat, UN offices, compounds and vehicles were torched and ransacked, and there has been severe disruption to humanitarian aid to more than three million people.

Reacting to this first wave of violence ever targeted at a UN peacekeeping mission in West Africa, the Security Council last week demanded “the immediate end of this violence and of all hate messages in the media, in particular the attacks against the United Nations.”

Full report

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NIGERIA: Oil-rich Niger Delta faces “shocking” new wave of violence

Foreign oil companies accustomed to high tension in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta are being forced to grapple with a new level of violence one industry official called “shocking.”

In the past two decades, the multinational corporations producing Nigeria’s oil in the impoverished southern region have grown used to disruptions caused by protests or sabotage by locals who feel dispossessed of their oil wealth by the central government.

But in the past 14 days Nigeria has been confronted by something different: militants vowing to cripple oil exports and kidnappers with political demands. One new militant group has said it has now resolved to take control of the region’s oil resources by force.

Armed groups frequently take oil workers hostage, but up to now have usually freed them after payment of a ransom.

But gunmen who seized four foreign oil workers from the offshore EA oil platform run by Royal Dutch Shell more than two weeks ago are insisting on the release of regional militants and political leaders detained by the Nigerian government.

Full report

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CHAD: AU balks at Habre extradition, asks African jurists to study case

The African Union for now has sidestepped a decision on the legal fate of ex-Chadian leader Hissene Habre, opting to create a panel of African jurists to advise on bringing him to trial for alleged political killings and torture.

But human rights campaigners anxious to see him placed on trial believe his extradition to Belgium in line with a September 2005 court request remains the best solution to see justice done.

At its summit in the Sudan capital Khartoum, the AU passed a resolution calling for a panel of "eminent African jurists" to rule on how and where he should be tried. The committee is to report back at the next AU meeting in the Gambian capital, Banjul, in July.

While Habre lawyers say extradition is no longer an option since last year’s Senegalese ruling, HRW was quick to point out this week that the Belgian arrest warrant and extradition request still stand, and that African leaders have not ruled out a handover.

Reed Brody said judging Habre in Africa, as many African leaders have urged, would pose a huge challenge. “Creating an ad hoc African tribunal to try Habre would entail enormous political will, years of delay and costs of at least US $100 million.”

Full report

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CHAD: UN scales back in east after local officials kidnapped

Nearly 200 aid workers pulled out of two humanitarian bases in eastern Chad at the weekend after unknown armed men kidnapped government officials and two aid groups had jeeps stolen, the UN refugee agency said.

The armed men stormed a meeting in the town of Guereda as UN officials were giving local authorities an update on the 200,000 Sudanese refugees currently sheltering in 12 camps in Chad. They abducted five people including the top government official of Guereda and the head of the local branch of the military police.

Aid officials said there would be a 20-percent reduction in humanitarian staff in the area, with 90 people from the UN and other aid agencies being evacuated from Guereda, and a further 80 from nearby Iriba. All have relocated to the regional headquarters in Abeche.

On top of the kidnapping, two international NGOs have had vehicles stolen recently, one of which was later spotted across the border in Sudan. Robberies have also occurred in the area.

Full report

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CAMEROON: New anti-corruption drive leaves many sceptical

The Cameroon government has launched a nationwide campaign to wipe out corruption, but citizens and diplomats are watching this latest of several endeavours with a dubious eye.

President Paul Biya’s government launched the anti-corruption drive on 18 January, two weeks after sacking two magistrates accused of graft - the first such move in Biya’s 23 years in power. The wave of anti-corruption fervour began as the Cameroon leader rang in the New Year denouncing the scourge and vowing to do away with it.

Weeks later the National Anti-Corruption Observatory launched a nationwide information and awareness campaign against graft. The drive is aimed at educating civil society on tackling corruption through roundtable discussions, debates and conferences.

But Cameroon has had an anti-corruption body in place for eight years and this is not the first such national campaign in the country of 15 million. Civil society and diplomats remain sceptical. “The fight against corruption in Cameroon, if it is to be sincere and effective, must not be limited to merely an awareness campaign,” the prominent newspaper Mutations said the day of the launch.

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

China tours region to boost strategic ties, 20/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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