JANUARY
COTE D’IVOIRE: Linas-Marcoussis agreement signed
Four months after civil war broke out in Cote d'Ivoire, a French-brokered peace conference at Linas-Marcoussis, near Paris, culminated in the signing of a peace agreement by the country’s main political parties and three rebel groups on 24 January.
The 10-point agreement was not formally signed by the government of President Laurent Gbagbo, but the government agreed to accept and implement the settlement. It called for a ceasefire and the formation of a broad-based government of national reconciliation to implement a series of political reforms and lead Cote d'Ivoire to general elections in 2005. The government was to be headed by a "consensus" minister and ministerial posts were to be distributed among nine political parties and three allied rebel groups: the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI), the Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP) and those of the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West (MPIGO).
COTE D'IVOIRE: Angry reactions to Linas-Marcoussis agreement
The signing of the peace agreement sparked a series of violent demonstrations in the commercial capital, Abidjan. Hardline nationalists who supported the government denounced it as a sellout to the rebels. UNHCR suspended its activities in Cote d'Ivoire on January 26 as a result of the climate of the violent protests in Abidjan and the general climate of insecurity and uncertainty in the rest of the country. It resumed partial operations two days later.
FEBRUARY
COTE D'IVOIRE: Politician's death blamed on death squads
The bullet-ridden body of well-known local actor Camara Karamogo was discovered on an Abidjan street on February 2. There were widespread suspicions that Karamogo was killed by death squads linked to the presidency. The actor and opposition activist had been taken from his home the previous night by armed men in uniform travelling in three unmarked vehicles. Karamago was a member of the politburo of the Rally of Republicans (RDR) opposition party which was widely viewed as close to the rebels. His death triggered demonstrations in Abidjan.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Up to a million displaced in need of urgent aid
On 26 February the World Food Programme (WFP) appealed for US $6.6 million to provide urgent food aid to victims of conflict in Cote d'Ivoire. It estimated that over one million had been displaced and another 200,000, mostly migrant workers from neighbouring Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia and Mali, had left the country.
NIGERIA: Ethnic clashes erupt in southern oil town
At least 12 people were killed and more than 30 houses were burned in three days ethnic violence in Nigeria's southern oil town of Warri, which began on 31 January and went on to 2 February. The dispute began as a clash between rival factions of President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling People's Democratic Party over the selection of election candidates, but degenerated into fighting between the Urhobo and Itshekiri ethnic groups.
The violence took a turn for the worse in March as Ijaw militants began to clash with Itsekiris. In the heat of the battle policemen sent to quell the skirmishes engaged villagers in a shoot out that left five of them dead. The villagers later turned their attention to oil facilities owned by Shell, Total and ChevronTexaco resulting in the killing of several employees of the oil transnationals forcing the companies to shut down vulnerable facilities and evacuate their workers. For the rest of the year the fighting remained intermittent, claiming more than 200 lives.
LIBERIA: Rebels step up war against Taylor
The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement stepped up its attacks on the government of President Charles Taylor in the northwest and eastern part of the country and began to advance southwards towards the capital Monrovia. Thousands of civilians were forced out of their homes. Some crossed into Sierra Leone. Others sought refuge in Monrovia, but many were trapped in the bush. Delivery of relief aid became increasingly difficult with abduction of aid workers. Three workers of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) who were caught up in fighting in Toe Town, close to Liberia's border with Cote d'Ivoire border, were reported missing on 28 February, by the agency. They were reported dead on 7 March after their bodies were found near the town.
WESTERN SAHARA: Saharawis' plight serious but ignored, says Refugees International
Refugees International (RI) put a spotlight on the plight of 165,000 people from Western Sahara who had been refugees for 28 years in western Algeria in one of the harshest desert environments on earth. Its report titled "Forgotten People: The Sahrawis of Western Sahara," published on 11 February, said the refugees faced serious food and water shortages and 13 percent of their children were acutely malnourished.
MARCH
COTE D IVOIRE: Consensus prime minister sworn in
Seydou Elimane Diarra, a former civil servant, was sworn in as prime minister of a new government of national reconciliation on 10 March. He replaced Pascal Affi N'guessan of President Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party, who had been prime minister since October 2000. The three rebel movements failed to take up their nine portfolios in the 41-member cabinet and fighting continued along the front-line that divided the government south of Cote d'Ivoire from the rebel-held north.
SIERRA LEONE
The UN-backed Special Court, set up to try those who bore the greatest responsibility for war crimes committed during the 1991-2002 civil war, announced its first indictments of seven people on 10 March. Those charged included Foday Sankoh, the imprisoned leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel movement, his military commander, Sam Bockarie and Sam Hinga Norman, Interior Minister in the elected government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who had previously headed the Civil Defence Force (CDF) pro-government militia movement.
APRIL
COTE D'IVOIRE
Nine rebel ministers finally took up their posts in Diarra's 41-member coalition cabinet on 15 April.
LIBERIA: New rebel group emerges as major force
A new rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (M0DEL), emerged as a serious force in southeastern Liberia, where it attacked the port town of Greenville on 26 April. MODEL was comprised mainly of fighters of the Krahn tribe of the late president Samuel Doe, who was killed in September 1990 during the early stages of Liberia's civil war. Diplomats said it was supported by the government of Cote d'Ivoire
NIGERIA: Obasanjo declared winner in vote marred by fraud
President Olusegun Obasanjo was declared winner for a second four-year term of office in controversial elections on 22 April. Both international and local observers said they saw evidence of widespread fraud, including voter intimidation, ballot box stuffing and alteration of results throughout the country in the 19 April poll. Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party also won a majority in elections for the federal parliament on 12 April and emerged as the largest force in subsequent elections for the governors and legislative assemblies of Nigeria's 36 states.
MAY
COTE D IVOIRE: Government and rebels sign lasting ceasefire
The government and rebels signed a ceasefire on 3 May that put an end to fighting along most of the frontline, but clashes continued in the troubled west near the Liberian border. Many of the attacks on villages there were blamed on Liberian militias fighting for both sides in the conflict.
LIBERIA
Sam Bockarie, the former RUF military commander in Sierra Leone, who had be become a mercenary warlord for president Taylor in Liberia and had fought alongside rebels in western Cote d'Ivoire, was reported killed on 6 May. Taylor said Bockarie was killed while trying to re-enter Liberia from Cote d'Ivoire. Diplomats in Monrovia said he was executed on Taylor's orders in the Liberian capital.
Rebels continued advancing against government forces in Liberia. MODEL captured the port town of Harper near the Ivorian border on the weekend of 17-18 May.
JUNE
LIBERIA: Peace talks begin in Ghana
President Taylor flew to Ghana on 4 June to attend the opening of peace talks with the LURD and MODEL rebel movement, arranged by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). While Taylor was in Accra, the Special Court in Sierra Leone revealed an indictment against him for war crimes for his role in backing the RUF during Sierra Leone's civil war. Taylor was allowed to return home by the Ghanaian authorities. Two days later LURD began the first of three assaults to try and capture Monrovia.
France evacuated between 500-1000 foreigners - mainly Europeans, Americans and Ivorian nationals - from Monrovia on 9 June. UN international staff were also evacuated this time. They were transferred by military helicopters to a French warship which was expected to land them in Abidjan in neigbouring Ivory Coast on 11 June.
The Liberian government on 13 June estimated that at least 300 people were killed during several days of heavy fighting with rebels who launched an attack on the capital, Monrovia. They included civilians, soldiers and rebels.
The government, LURD, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), signed a ceasefire agreement in the Ghanaian capital Accra on 17 June. This specified that a transitional government would be agreed upon within 30 days from which Taylor would be excluded.
The two-day-old ceasefire between the government and rebels in Liberia appeared to be holding on 19 June, prompting relief agencies to resume the distribution of aid to thousands of displaced people in Monrovia which by then was estimated at 100,000 people.
But the truce broke down within hours, Taylor withdrew an offer to resign and LURD mounted a fresh assault on Monrovia on June 23.
On 24 June, aid workers reported that 23 people were reported dead in the displaced people's camps around Monrovia because of disease and hunger. By 30 June, health workers had removed 215 dead bodies from the streets, especially in the western suburbs which saw the worst of the fighting.
NIGERIA: Pipeline fire kills 125
Some 125 people died in a fire which engulfed hundreds of them when they scooped petrol from a burst pipeline in southeast Nigeria, the Red Cross said on 23 June. More than 200 people were injured in the blaze, many of them suffered severe burns. The pipeline transporting fuel from refineries in the coastal city of Port Harcourt to parts of central and northern Nigeria, was ruptured by thieves at Onicha-Amaiyi village, 40 km south of Umuahia, the Abia State capital, more than two weeks before the incident. It caught fire on 19 June while scores of people were scooping up the petrol.
MAURITANIA: Bloody coup attempt fails to overthrow President Ould Taya
Rebel army units launched an unsuccessful coup attempt against President Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya on 8 June, during which the insurgents shelled the presidential palace with tanks. At least 29 people had died, including five civilians, during the fighting. Forces loyal to Ould Taya regained control two days later and 129 military personnel were subsequently arrested and charged with involvement in the uprising.
JULY
LIBERIA
Second and third LURD onslaughts against Monrovia. LURD captured the port on Monrovia on 19 July, MODEL captured Buchanan on 28 July.
COTE D IVOIRE: President approves amnesty law for rebels
President Laurent Gbagbo on 4 July approved a draft amnesty law for rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire and urged parliament to pass it quickly. Gbagbo made the announcement at a ceremony where government and rebel military leaders signed a joint declaration that formally ended a state of military war in the country. Amnesty law finally came into effect on 6 August and should have cleared the way for the rebels to begin a delayed process of demobilisation and disarmament.
GABON: Constitutional reform allows Bongo to rule indefinitely
In July, Gabon's parliament approved amendments to the constitution that would allow President Omar Bongo, in power for the past 36 years, to seek re-election indefinitely. The abolition of the two-term limit for the head of state was opposed by several small opposition parties, which dubbed the move a "constitutional coup" aimed at keeping Bongo in power for life.
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Coup in island state with big oil reserves
An army major backed by a small opposition party seized power in a pre-dawn coup in the African island state of Sao Tome and Principe on 16 July, while President Fradique de Menezes was visiting Nigeria. However, after a week of talks with African mediators, and heavy pressure from Nigeria, which is developing offshore oil resources jointly with Sao Tome in the area where their territorial waters overlap, the army returned to its barracks. De Menezes flew back to Sao Tome to resume power accompanied by Nigeria's President Obasanjo.
CHAD: First oil for export pumped down pipeline to coast of Cameroon
Landlocked Chad, one of the world's poorest countries joined the ranks of the world's oil exporters following a US $3.7 billion investment to develop oilfields in the south of the country. A consortium led by US oil giant ExxonMobil began pumping oil down a 1,100 km pipeline to the coast of Cameroon on 14 July. The Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project is expected to generate an annual income of US $80 million for Chad and $20 million for Cameroon over the next 25 years.
SIERRA LEONE: Sankoh dies before facing trial for war crimes
Foday Sankoh, the former leader of the RUF rebel movement, died on 30 July in custody while awaiting trial for crimes committed during the country's decade-long civil war. He was 66. With both Sankoh and both Bockarie dead, the two main leaders of the rebel movement are no longer available to face justice. This prompted some in Sierra Leone to question the continued relevance of the Special Court, which has so far indicted 15 people.
AUGUST
LIBERIA: Peacekeepers arrive, rebels agree to withdraw from Monrovia
The first Nigerian troops arrived in Liberia on 4 August as the vanguard of a West African-led peacekeeping force sent to enforce a ceasefire between the government, LURD and MODEL. The ceasefire was signed on 17 June but only began to take effect after the peacekeepers' arrival.
LIBERIA: Taylor leaves power and goes into exile
On 11 August, president Taylor resigned and went into exile in Nigeria, finally bowing to international pressure and rebel military advances. The remnants of his government signed a peace agreement with LURD and MODEL on 18 August that provided for an immediate ceasefire and the formation of a broad-based transitional government to lead the country to fresh elections in 2005. UN international personnel began returning to Monrovia during that week.
MALI: Hostages released
Fourteen European tourists, who were kidnapped by Islamic militants in southern Algeria and held hostage for over five months, were released in Mali on 18 August following successful negotiations with a Malian government mediator. The tourists were part of a larger group of 32 European tourists who were kidnapped while touring the desert in February and March. Seventeen were released in May. One died in captivity.
SENEGAL/MAURITANIA: Torrential rains cause death and flooding
Torrential rains caused severe flooding in Senegal and southeastern Mauritania in August, cutting roads, washing out crops and drowning livestock. Seven people died in Senegal, where many mud-built houses collapsed. Three deaths were also reported in Mauritania. Officials in both countries expressed fears that the extremely wet conditions, that followed 2002's drought, could lead to swarms of locusts forming in both countries.
NIGERIA/BENIN: Border closed to curb banditry and smuggling
Nigeria closed its western border with Benin on 10 August to demand that the government in Cotonou take tougher action against rampant smuggling and banditry along the 700 km-long frontier. Nigeria reopened the border six days later after Benin's President Matthieu Kerekou, at a summit meeting with President Obasanjo in the border town of Badagri, agreed to cooperate more actively.
SEPTEMBER
GUINEA-BISSAU: President Yala ousted in bloodless coup
President Kumba Yala was deposed by the army in a bloodless coup on 14 September, after delaying parliamentary elections in this small West African state for nearly a year and leaving civil servants and soldiers unpaid for several months. Yala’s style of governance became increasingly erratic, plunging the country into an economic and political abyss. About two weeks after the coup, the military junta swore in businessman Henrique Rosa to lead an interim civilian administration. This has been charged with organised fresh parliamentary elections on 28 March 2004 and presidential elections a year later.
COTE D'IVOIRE Rebels withdraw from government
The rebel forces in Cote d'Ivoire ordered their nine ministers in the government of national reconciliation to withdraw from the cabinet on 23 September in protest at President Gbagbo's failure to implement the Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement in full. The rebels also froze plans to disarm and allow government administrators to return to the north of the country. Tension rose, but the ceasefire held firm.
OCTOBER
LIBERIA: New leader sworn-in
Gyude Bryant was sworn in as the head of a new transitional government in Liberia on 14 October. Bryant, a 54-year-old businessman and veteran campaigner for democracy, was appointed by the Liberian peace conference in August to guide the country to fresh elections in October 2005.
COTE D IVOIRE: French journalist shot dead by policeman
Jean Helene, the correspondent of Radio France Internationale (RFI) in the country, was shot dead by a policeman on the night of 21 October while he was waiting outside police headquarters in Abidjan to interview 11 political detainees who were about to be released. President Gbagbo sacked the chief of police shortly afterwards. A policeman was arrested and charged with murder for the unprovoked shooting of Helene at point blank range.
NOVEMBER
COTE D IVOIRE: Village attacks raise tension in cocoa region
Several hundred Malians, Burkinabe and settlers from other parts of Cote d'Ivoire were forced to flee their homes in the cocoa-growing region of Gagnoa, 300 km west of the commercial capital, Abidjan, after land ownership disputes triggered a series of clashes with the villagers of the local Bete tribe to which President Gbagbo belongs. The violence has been particularly extreme in the village of Mahinadopa, in the Ouragahio region, where around 500 Malians reportedly fled as their shacks and houses went up in flames.
MAURITANIA: President re-elected
President Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania was re-elected for a further six years with 66.7 percent of the 7 November vote, but the results were denounced by the main opposition candidates as rigged. His main challenger, Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, was arrested two days after the election and charged with plotting a coup. Ould Haidalla and 13 others arrested with him, were eventually released on 28 December after Ould Haidalla was given five-year suspended prison sentence.
DECEMBER
BENIN: 139 die as heavily loaded plane crashes on take-off
Only 22 people survived the crash of a heavily loaded jet, which was believed to be carrying 161 people, when it crashed into the sea on take-off from Cotonou on a flight to Beirut on 25 December. The Guinea-registered Boeing 727-200 was carrying 151 passengers and 10 crew when it left Cotonou for Beirut on 25 December. Most of the passengers were members of the influential Lebanese business community in West Africa. Fifteen Bangladeshi soldiers serving with the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone perished in the crash.
GUINEA: Conte re-elected president in poll boycotted by opposition
President Lansana Conte, who is now too ill to walk, was re-elected for a further seven year term in a presidential election boycotted by mainstream opposition parties on 21 December. The opposition said less than 15 percent of the electorate bothered to cast their vote, but the government claimed an 86 percent turnout and a 95.6 percent vote in favour of the authoritarian head of state.
LIBERIA: UN disarmament programme suspended till late January
The United Nations launched a campaign to disarm an estimated 40,000 former combatants in Liberia on 7 December, but was forced to suspend the poorly prepared exercise 10 days later after former government soldiers rioted in Monrovia to demand cash for handing in their weapons. Nine people died in the disturbances, which eventually persuaded the UN peacekeepers to pay $75 for each gun handed in. The single disarmament camp on the outskirts of the capital was then overwhelmed by fighters queuing to get cash for their weapons. The programme was suspended until 20 January and was subsequently delayed again until February.
LIBERIA UN peacekeepers start to deploy in the interior
The arrival of several thousand more troops in late December enabled the UN peacekeeping force in Liberia to start deploying units in the rebel-held interior of the country at the end of December. The first deployment was to the LURD-held town of Kley Junction on 27 December. UN troops moved into the port city of Buchanan, controlled by MODEL, on 31 December
COTE D IVOIRE: Rebels return to government
Rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire announced on 22 December they had agreed to return to the government of national reconciliation after a three-month boycott after the international community applied pressure on President Gbagbo to rapidly implement political reforms called for by the Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement. Rebel ministers attended their first cabinet meeting for more than three months on 6 January 2004.