SIERRA LEONE: Civilians hacked to death as rebels begin peace talks
As preparations for talks among Sierra Leone rebel leaders got underway in Lome, Togo this week, it was reported that rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) movement had "hacked to death" 100 civilians in Songo, 40 km from the capital, Freetown.
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukulade, spokesman for the West African peacekeeping force ECOMOG, said after a visit to the town on Wednesday that it was deserted. He told IRIN that although he could not immediately confirm the casualty report , civilian corpses - some in a badly composed state - were strewn along the road into the town.
He said ECOMOG had asked NGOs and the Freetown government to clean up and provide shelter for the thousands of people who might return to the town.
Concern for humanitarian flights
Diplomats in Sierra Leone were concerned that RUF rebels now had the means to threaten UN helicopters. They said that the rebels, armed with heavy and medium calibre machine guns, had improved their training and were now able to use more sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry "with the help of foreign assistance".
Other attacks
In other attacks, the missionary news agency, MISNA, reported RUF rebels had attacked Kassiri and Kychom on Tuesday, burning homes and forcing residents to flee inland or by sea. The two adjacent residential areas are in Kambia District.
At least two people killed and eight wounded on Monday night when RUF rebels attacked Mollahm near Forecariah in neighbouring Guinea some 20 km from the western Sierra Leone border. First rebel delegation in Lome for talks
RUF delegates prepare for talks
Meanwhile, RUF delegates started arriving in the Togolese capital Lome during the weeks for talks aimed at negotiating peace with the country's democratically elected government.
They were to meet their leader, Foday Sankoh. He was sentenced to death for treason last year and released from his Freetown prison for the UN-sponsored talks. In a statement this week, he said he was "ready to negotiate for peace". He expected his colleagues in Lome from bases in the Sierra Leone at the weekend.
International contract group
An international Contact Group on Sierra Leone meeting in New York this week suggested that the government of Sierra Leone and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) maintain a twin-track policy of negotiations and force to push for a return peace.
In a concluding statement at the end of a day-long meeting, the group's chairman, British Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Tony Lloyd told representatives of 22 countries and other agencies that the Sierra Leone government should pursue dialogue with the RUF "as a matter of priority".
He called on Freetown to explain the benefits of this policy to the public. He also said the government should maintain respect for human rights, international humanitarian law and promptly investigate reported violations of these standards.
The meeting asked that ECOMOG remain in Sierra Leone with the help of the international community until the country's own military could ensure security.
Britain, the former colonial power in Sierra Leone, has promised an additional 270,000 pounds (US $432,000) to the 10 million pounds (US $16 million dollars) already pledged or disbursed to the security sector.
NIGERIA: President elect pledges ECOMOG support
In Nigeria this week, President-elect Olusegun Obasanjo said ECOMOG troops would remain in Sierra Leone until security was restored.
Obasanjo whose nation is the mainstay of the West African peacekeeping force, said "one could not give a date" for their withdrawal, which depended on circumstances. During his presidential campaign he promised voters he would withdraw troops from Sierra Leone as soon as possible.
Obasanjo is to be inaugurated on 29 May.
Obasanjo hints at broad-based government
Obasanjo, meanwhile indicated his intention to form a broad based
government taking in both "friends and opponents". However, he has not yet said who might join his first cabinet when civilians start to run the country for the first time in more than 15 years.
Civil service job cuts
Nigeria's military government embarked on a clearout this week of the civil service which newspapers said could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs before the return to democracy next month.
According to reports quoting officials in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, a directive was issued to the heads of parastatals and federal ministries to forward a list of staff due for retirement.
The officials said an estimated 800,000 jobs could go, allowing the state to meet promised pay rises. The situation has recently become more serious since the country's leader, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, approved a rise in the minimum wage to civil servants.
Last week, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) called a strike in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states after military administrators refused to pay the minimum wage saying they could not meet the demands without massive redundancies.
This week, workers in Lagos State issued an ultimatum that they too would join the strike at the weekend unless the authorities agree to pay the naira 3,500 (US $37) minimum wage.
Niger Delta oil activists killed
In other developments this week, newspapers reported that two ethnic Ijaw activists had been killed on Monday as they tried to stop repairs to oil installations in Ikibiri, some 90 km west of Port Harcourt.
Witnesses said the two attacked a team working on a pipeline valve with "guns and machetes". Attacks on oil installations and flow stations by local communities wanting a share in the region's oil wealth have severely disrupted oil production in the Niger Delta.
Diarrhoea the leading killer
Diarrhoea has become the leading killer in Nigeria, accounting for 25.4 percent of all deaths, according to a new study supported by WHO.
WHO information officer Austine Oghide told IRIN that the study presented at the weekend by officials at the National Conference on Primary Healthcare, showed diarrhoea claimed more lives in Nigeria than the next major killer, malaria, which accounts for 21.4 percent of deaths.
Other major causes of mortality in Nigeria included measles accounting for 8.7 percent of deaths, acute respiratory infections claiming 8 percent and maternal causes at 5.6 percent. Road and work related accidents it said claimed 9.9 percent of deaths.
NIGER: Wanke pledges November election
Niger's new military leader, Major Daouda Mallam Wanke, has pledged to hold elections for a civilian government and a new president in November.
Wanke who heads a new ruling body of army officers called the National Reconciliation Council (NRC), made the announcement in a radio and television broadcast on Monday in which he said a new president would be sworn in after the elections on 31 December.
In the broadcast, Wanke, again insisted that the death of his predecessor Ibrahim Bare Mainassara had been "accidental". Wanke seized power after Mainassara was gunned down on 9 April by members of a presidential guard unit which Wanke himself commanded.
New cabinet
He also appointed a 20-member transitional cabinet with most portfolios going to civilians, two of them women. Only two army officers were appointed as the ministers of defence and interior.
After major donors in Europe and Japan announced a "review" of aid to the impoverished West African nation, Wanke said he hoped the nternational community would "judge us through what we will be doing".
Military candidates barred from standing in elections
On Thursday, Wanke issued a decree barring serving or retired military personnel from submitting their names as candidates in the upcoming elections. He said the ban would also apply to himself and the 13 other officers in the (NRC).
IRIN West Africa has published a full list of the cabinet, in which a woman, Aichatou Mindaoudou, was named foreign minister.
GUINEA BISSAU: A new humanitarian report
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Guinea Bissau has reported that at least four people injured landmine accidents and by unexploded ordnance (UXOs) since the beginning of the month.
In a detailed breakdown of humanitarian progress since Brigadier Ansumane Mane, the leader of an army rebellion, and President Joao Bernardo Vieira signed a peace treaty at the end of the year, it said the border area near the separatist Senegalese province of Casamance remained the most tense area of the country.
It said most residents who had fled the capital Bissau during fighting between the government and army rebels last year had now returned home.
But the airport and banking facilities remained closed thus impeding the resumption of normal economic activity and hampering relief operations.
Donor funding
"Due to a limited response to the last UN Inter-Agency Consolidated Appeal, there is an urgent need for donor funding to implement humanitarian programmes, especially in the agriculture, food and health sectors," the OCHA report said.
On a visit to Portugal, France, Sweden and Italy, the country's new premier, Francisco Fadul, said his country would need money and investment from Europe to help it rebuild. He said his caretaker government was preparing an assessment of the country's needs for donors.
TOGO: Government warns press on "false" reporting
The Togolese government broadcast a warning to journalists this week that they should "abide" by the national press code or face the legal consequences.
"It has come to the notice of the government that for some time now, some sections of the independent press have been spreading false reports illustrated by photomontage and defamatory and insulting articles on peaceful citizens, national and international officials, as well as established institutions," it said.
The broadcast cited the case of a front-page report in a local newspaper carrying a picture of opposition activists alleged to have been tortured by the National Gendarmerie. "Subsequent investigations have proven the picture to be mere montage," it said.
Reporter detained
Analysts said they believed the case in question involved a weekly newspaper, 'The New Times'. The Associated Press reported that a reporter at the newspaper, Romain Attiso Kudjodji, had been detained in the capital Lome on Monday and that the police had accused him of fabricating the torture story. The article published last Friday described how a man posting opposition political leaflets in the city had both arms broken in a police beating.
News reports said two other journalists, Elias Hounkanly and Edoh
Amewouho, had been held since last August for a report which allegedly defamed the first lady, Badagnaki Eyadema.
WEST AFRICA: France urges economic discipline
French Economy and Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Khan urged African members of the franc zone this week to tighten the financial discipline of their economies.
Opening a meeting of the 14-nation CFA zone in Dakar, he said governments needed urgently to slash their budget deficits and reduce outstanding debts. The CFA monetary system is backed by the French treasury.
Donor Aid
Portugal said it would grant Cape Verde US $20 million in low-interest loans for transport and industrial infrastructure.
Portugal also announced US $324,000 as the first package of an aid programme for police services in Sao Tome y Principe.
The European Union (EU) announced a US $5 million reconstruction package for Guinea Bissau.
The Agence francaise de developpement (AFD) said it had authorised a series of aid packages amounting to the equivalent of US $90 million. The money would be allocated to projects in Benin, Cameroon,. Central African Republic, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal and Tunisia.
Abidjan, 23 April 1999 12:00 GMT
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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