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IRIN Africa | West Africa | WEST AFRICA | WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 318 covering 18-24 February 2006 | Children, Democracy, Drought2006, Early Warning, Economy, Education, Environment, Food Security, Gender issues, Health, HIV AIDS, Human Rights, Natural Disasters, Peace Security, Refugees IDPs, Other | Weekly

Saturday 4 March 2006


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IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 318 covering 18-24 February 2006

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

CONTENTS:

NIGERIA: More than 120 people killed in sectarian violence
WEST AFRICA: 12 nations band together to fight off H5N1 threat
LIBERIA: War-battered nation launches truth commission
SENEGAL: On the lookout for bird flu in world’s third biggest reserve
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-CHAD: 4,000 more Central Africans flee violence this month alone
MAURITANIA: Panel launched to track use of new oil revenues

NIGERIA: More than 120 people killed in sectarian violence

At least 123 people have been killed in five days of sectarian violence across Nigeria, after protests over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad fuelled underlying religious and ethnic tensions.

Two-thirds of the deaths in the past six days have occurred in the mainly Christian southeast city of Onitsha, where groups of armed youths took to the streets to seek revenge against Muslims in reprisal for deadly attacks on Christians last weekend in the predominantly Muslim north.

At least 80 people were slaughtered during two days of violence in Onitsha, leading Nigerian human rights group Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), said on Thursday. “We counted at least 60 dead on Tuesday, and on Wednesday no less than 20,” Emeka Umeh, who heads CLO in Anambra State, told IRIN.

In northeast Nigeria last weekend, protests over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad turned violent, claiming 18 lives in the city of Maiduguri. On Monday and Tuesday at least 25 people were killed in Muslim attacks on Christians in the northern city of Bauchi.

With Nigeria’s population of 126 million people roughly split between a predominantly Muslim north and a Christian majority south, analysts say the cartoon controversy has simply served as a spark for this latest episode of sectarian violence.

“For one there are so many bottled up animosities, but worst of all is that there are so many young people who are idle and looking for the opportunity to vent their anger,” said Okey Nwiwu, a political science teacher who says Nigeria is a tinderbox waiting to be set alight.

Full report

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WEST AFRICA: 12 nations band together to fight off H5N1 threat

Twelve West African nations have pledged to work together to fight the deadly H5N1 virus and called on the international community to back a joint emergency fund dedicated to the battle against bird flu.

In a statement issued after two days of talks in the Senegalese capital, the group of nations - two of them bordering Nigeria, the only bird-flu-hit country in Africa to date - agreed on “the need for a concerted and coordinated approach in setting up national campaigns” against the virus.

To this end they agreed to set up immediately a 12-member ministerial tracking committee and designate a group of experts who will meet by end March in the Malian capital Bamako to draw up proposals for a regional response to the threat of avian influenza. The experts are to submit their plan at an April meeting in Abuja to be organised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The signatories - Benin, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo - also proposed the creation of an emergency regional intervention fund deposited at the African Development Bank.

“We appeal to the international community to contribute to this fund,” the statement said.

Coordination is a good way forward, a European diplomat who asked not to be identified, told IRIN. “A joint effort means there is a single representative to talk to, a single structure and a financial system.”

The talks opened on Wednesday as Nigeria confirmed that the highly pathogenic strain of the virus had spread to a seventh state in Nigeria, including the capital.

Full report

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LIBERIA: War-battered nation launches truth commission

The Liberian government has officially launched a truth and reconciliation commission to probe human rights abuses over the past quarter-century in the war-wounded country.

The nine-member commission - created under the 2003 peace agreement ending Liberia’s civil war - will examine abuses from January 1979 to October 2003.

In inducting the commission on Monday, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf called the commission the people’s “hope.”

“We must make collective restitution to those victimized, rehabilitate the victimizers, while at the same time visiting some form of retribution upon those whose violations qualify as crimes against humanity.”

Sirleaf said, “This commission is our hope - to define the past on our behalf in terms that are seen and believed to be fair and balanced, and bring forth a unifying narrative on which our nation’s rebuilding and renewal processes can be more securely anchored.”

Liberia’s war was marked by brutal killings and mass rape, with rebels - many of them forcibly recruited children - committing atrocities against unarmed civilians. The war killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced over a million to flee.

Full report

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SENEGAL: On the lookout for bird flu in world’s third biggest reserve

As soon as Moussa Diouf saw the bird lying sick on the ground, the young man from a village on the edges of Senegal’s giant Djoudj bird reserve, dropped it in a plastic bag and dashed off post-haste to the main rangers’ office. Diouf was worried the bird might be carrying “the new sickness”.

But the head ranger smiled on opening the bag. “It’s a common sparrow which is moulting and has become vulnerable because it can’t fly very far,” said Major Ibrahima Diop, who heads a squad of 43 rangers working in the Djoudj reserve, a national showcase of 16,000 hectares of low-lying mangrove swamp.

Situated 60 kilometres north of the major Senegalese city of Saint Louis, the Djoudj reserve straddling the Mauritanian border each year from November to May plays host to some 300,000 birds seeking shelter from the European winter.

When international health authorities last October warned of the danger of migratory birds spreading the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, the Senegalese government moved to bolster surveillance in the country’s many bird parks.

Rangers working in the Djoudj reserve visited the seven villages nearby to offer pointers on bird flu and also began an information campaign on avian flu for the 20,000 people who visit the park each year to get a glimpse of its 370 species of birds, as well as hyenas, warthogs, monkeys and crocodiles.

But monitoring has been intensified since 8 February, when the first cases in Africa of H5N1 were confirmed in Nigeria.

Full report

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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC-CHAD: 4,000 more Central Africans flee violence this month alone

Men, women and children from the Central African Republic are continuing to flee into Chad daily, with at least 4,000 pouring in so far this month to escape violence that refugees say has killed 50 people in February alone, and shows no signs of subsiding, the UN refugee agency said.

“Every day refugees are arriving in Chad,” a UNHCR official in the capital N’djamena told IRIN on Wednesday. The agency is racing to relocate the 200-odd daily arrivals from the border area to camps in southern Chad, UNHCR said in a 21 February statement.

Some refugees say CAR government soldiers are attacking civilians they suspect of being linked to rebel groups. Refugees told UNHCR that at least 50 civilians have been killed in the violence since the beginning of February, the agency said. New refugees recount daily random attacks by armed bandits and rebels, as well as government soldiers in northern CAR - a region long gripped by violence and lawlessness where regional governments months ago launched joint military operations in an effort to restore stability.

“Many refugees report that they fled attacks by government forces on civilians whom CAR troops suspected of supporting various rebel groups,” UNHCR said. Refugees also recounted village raids by rebel groups who loot cattle and food as well as “forcibly recruit young men.”

The latest influx brings to about 15,000 the number of Central Africans seeking refuge in Chad since June 2005. They join some 30,000 people living in camps in southern Chad since fleeing unrest in CAR in 2003.

Full report

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MAURITANIA: Panel launched to track use of new oil revenues

On the eve of Mauritania’s oil production launch, the transitional government has installed a committee to oversee the use of revenue from oil and other natural resources to ensure it benefits the people.

“The time has come” for the average citizen to reap the benefits of the nation’s resources, the head of government said on Wednesday at an opening ceremony in the capital Nouakchott.

With Mauritania set to begin pumping oil any day, the world is watching to see whether the country will achieve what many others have pledged and failed to do - ensure that oil money reduces poverty and improves the lives of the masses.

In inaugurating the committee, Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar said: “The government is determined to take the necessary measures to prevent [the misuse of revenues as seen in other countries] and to guarantee that natural resource income contribute to economic development and the reduction of poverty.”

In addition to its newfound oil stores, Mauritania has mineral resources such as iron ore and copper, and some of the richest fishing waters in the region. But the country’s wealth historically has not meant big benefits for the general population.

The new committee is part of the government’s endorsement of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - an international mechanism for improving transparency and accountability in the use of natural resources. Analysts say the junta’s oft-stated commitment to EITI is a good sign, but that there must be national enforcement mechanisms in place for it to really count.

Since seizing power in a bloodless coup in August 2005, the junta has repeatedly vowed to bring forth a new era of openness and transparent democracy.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Children

Other recent WEST AFRICA reports:

IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 319 covering 25 February - 3 March 2006, 3/Mar/06

12 nations band together to fight off H5N1 threat, 23/Feb/06

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

Other recent Children reports:

EASTERN AFRICA: Drought affecting millions of children, says NGO, 3/Mar/06

NEPAL: Young people at increasing risk, 28/Feb/06

AFGHANISTAN: Nationwide polio vaccination drive, 28/Feb/06

ZIMBABWE: Travel costs force students to stay home, 27/Feb/06

COTE D IVOIRE: Summit talks delayed by dispute, 27/Feb/06

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