UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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LIBERIA: Thousands displaced following
fighting
Fighting this week between troops loyal to President Charles Taylor and rebel forces in Bong Mine, some 80 km northeast of the capital, Monrovia, displaced at least 20,000 people, UNHCR said on Thursday.
The government said this week that it had repulsed the rebels and also beaten back "serious threats" from rebels at Klay Junction and from the Bomi provincial seat of Tubmanburg, respectively some 35 km and 60 km north of Monrovia. Fighting at Klay in early February sent tens of thousands of people fleeing, including some 6,000 who sought shelter in refugee camps established for Sierra Leoneans.
Most of those who fled the most recent clashes in Bong sought refuge in Kakata, some 70 km northeast of Monrovia. Reports from the area said many were desperately trying to get further away from the fighting, UNHCR said.
Both UN humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organisations were gearing up on Thursday to respond to the emergency situation in Kakata. The government's refugee agency, the Liberian Refugee, Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), was also carrying out a global survey on the number of persons displaced by the fighting, UNHCR reported.
Ross Mountain, UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, told a news conference in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, on Tuesday that the number of IDPs in Liberia - who, he said, "have been displaced a number of times" - was estimated at 50,000 to 60,000. The government, however, has put the figure into the hundreds of thousands. Mountain called for contributions to an UN appeal for US $17 million made this year for humanitarian assistance for Liberia.
Meanwhile in Monrovia, despite rumours of possible attacks on the capital and heightened activity by security forces, the city was reported calm, with residents going about their daily business, UNHCR said. Nevertheless, some Liberians have packed their belongings and boarded buses and taxis for Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, where many have relatives. The movement, however, remains on a small scale and concerns only those who can afford the cost of the journey, according to refugee agency officials.
LURD dissidents have been fighting in the northern and northwestern parts of Liberia since 1998 for the overthrow of the Taylor government. Since September, the group has intensified its activities in the area and Tuesday's battles signalled the expansion of the rebel attacks from Lofa and Gbarpolu Counties in the north into Bong County in the northeast, UNHCR reported.
Liberian government response to the recent increase in hostilities has included the setting up "a permanent security presence" along its northern borders with Sierra Leone and Guinea, to contain the rebels. It also said it would give priority to a national disaster relief commission set up two weeks ago to help those displaced by recent fighting.
In a regional response, leaders of the three Mano River Union (MRU) countries have agreed to hold talks next week in Morocco to discuss the new fighting in Liberia, news organisations reported on Wednesday. Liberian presidential spokesman Vaani Paasawi said that President Charles Taylor, and the heads of state of Sierra Leone and Guinea, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and Lansana Conte respectively, would meet in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, on 27 February.
Observers say the increased insecurity in Liberia poses a serious threat to peace in the MRU region. The MRU began in 1974 as a mechanism for fostering subregional integration but has achieved little in this regard.
Liberian journalists in the USA called on Taylor to lift the state of emergency, announced on 8 February, saying there was a growing suspicion that the crisis in the country was being stage managed to serve the political interests of Taylor or LURD rebels.
Meanwhile UNHCR is continuing to run previously scheduled convoys to repatriate Sierra Leonean refugees who fled a decade-long civil war in their country. On Wednesday a fourth convoy carrying 328 people reached Sierra Leone safely, bringing to 1,132 the total number of returnees who have been transported home since 12 February, the UN refugee agency said.
SIERRA LEONE: Doctors threaten to strike in Freetown
Medical doctors at state hospitals in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, threatened this week to join nurses who went on strike on 12 February over pay and working conditions, the non-governmental Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) reported.
The CGG issued a statement on Monday calling on the government "to urgently and seriously address the needs of the doctors and nurses," in line with its constitutional responsibilities "towards ensuring that there are adequate medical and health facilities for all persons in the State."
Some patients have already discharged themselves as a result of the reduced numbers of medical personnel and subsequent lack of care and either gone home or to private or military hospitals, according to the source.
In a statement this week the government said that following a review of the entire health service, conducted by the UN, an interim adjustment to nurses' and doctors' pay and scale, which was to be effective in January 2002, would be reflected in their salary at the end of February, including back pay for January.
The three state hospitals affected by the health workers' action are the Connaught Hospital, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH), the biggest maternity unit in the country, and PCMH children's hospital.
SIERRA LEONE: Social, economic reintegration of ex-fighters a priority
The social and economic reintegration of former fighters is now one of the most important challenges for the Sierra Leonean government and all key partners in the current phase of post-disarmament, the head of the national body which gives support to former fighters said in a recent presentation to international donors.
The expansion and delivery of short to medium term reintegration opportunities is now possible following the completion of disarmament and demobilisation in early January, Francis Kai-Kai, Executive Secretary of the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR) said on 8 February. Between May 2001 and January 2002, 47,766 combatants, including ex-rebels of the Revolutionary United Front and pro-government Civil Defence Forces, were disarmed. Of these, some 4,370 were child soldiers.
To aid their reintegration into the community, NCDDR currently offers former fighters opportunities in areas including agriculture, vocational training and small enterprise development, formal education, apprenticeship schemes and public works.
Funding is "a critical factor in the implementation of the DDR programme," Kai-Kai said. Taking into account current funding pledges, there is still a shortfall of some US $13.5 million, he added.
The NCDDR programme was established in 1998 to support a strategy for peace and to help consolidate the political process.
TOGO: Efforts continue to stem political crisis
Togo's President Gnassingbe Eyadema and the country's five main opposition parties held discussions on Wednesday to resolve the political stalemate in the country and revive negotiations that would lead to the holding of legislative elections on 10 March.
Eyadema told the parties that he was committed to having the elections organised as soon as possible. The opposition responded by setting the release of opposition leader, Yaovi Agboyibo, in prison since August 2001, as their sole condition for participating, the Republic of Togo, a pro-government news website reported.
Eyadema told the parties that because of the separation of powers, he could not intervene in the matter but he was willing to grant Agboyibo a presidential pardon if he asked for it, the news site reported.
Wednesday's meeting took place against the backdrop of a deteriorating political crisis which is threatening next month's polls meant to replace the 1999 legislative elections boycotted by the opposition parties on grounds that presidential polls held in June 1998 were rigged. The Lome Framework Agreement, born out of efforts by Togo's political class, the European Union, France, Germany and La Francophonie, aims to resolve the crisis.
The four-year political rift grew bleaker earlier this month when parliament adopted a new electoral code, a move which was widely criticised by facilitators of the inter-Togolese dialogue, the opposition, and the international community.
WESTERN SAHARA: Annan outlines new options
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has outlined four options for consideration by the UN Security Council in an effort to break the impasse over the stalled peace process in Western Sahara, the UN reported on Wednesday.
First, that the UN resume trying to implement a 1988 settlement plan, even without the agreement of the two parties in conflict over Western Sahara's future status. The second option would have his Personal Envoy, James Baker III, try to revise a draft Framework Agreement, again without necessarily gaining the agreement of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front).
The third option would be to mandate Baker to discuss a possible division of the territory with the interested parties, while the fourth would see the Security Council end the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), due to the lack of progress, the UN reported.
Annan proposed that MINURSO's mandate be extended for two months until 30 April to allow the Council time to consider these options.
One of the roles of MINURSO, established in 1991, is to maintain peace between Morocco and the Polisario Front. Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain pulled out. The Polisario Front is fighting for independence for the former Spanish colony. The latest UN peace proposal, drafted in June 2001 by Baker, was rejected by the Polisario.
Disagreement between Morocco and the Polisario on who is eligible to vote has frustrated UN plans to hold a referendum on self-determination for the territory.
NIGERIA: Police recover UXO, blast victims buried
Police in Nigeria recovered 1,350 unexploded mortar shells and other ordnance that had been scattered in Lagos following explosions caused by a fire on 27 January at a munitions dump. The search was continuing, Samuel Balogun, spokesman of the police bomb disposal unit, said on Wednesday.
A team of U.S. and British bomb disposal experts have been in Nigeria over the past two weeks helping their Nigerian counterparts in the recovery and detonation of unexploded munitions.
The unclaimed bodies of 120 victims were given a mass burial on Saturday on the bank of a canal in which most of the over 1,000 victims died while fleeing exploding bombs and shrapnel.
Not all victims of the disaster have been accounted for and the UN Children's Fund, Nigerian Red Cross and Lagos State government are running tracing programmes to reunite missing persons with their families. A Red Cross spokesman said recently that, according to their records, about 100 people were still missing, although some may have been found by their families without reporting back to the organisation, he added.
President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered an inquiry into the circumstances that led to the disaster, which occurred at the Ikeja Military Cantonment. He has promised to make public the results of the probe.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Main politicians issue joint declaration
Cote d'Ivoire's four main political leaders on Tuesday issued a joint statement based on a recent meeting to iron out the country's socio-political problems.
The final communiqué reviewed and adopted recommendations from last year's national reconciliation forum and included additional points from the 22-23 January meeting in the Ivorian capital, Yamoussoukro. Last month's meeting was convened by President Laurent Gbagbo and attended by former president Henri Konan Bedie, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara and one-time military leader General Robert Guei.
One of the key recommendations from the reconciliation forum, held from 9 October to 18 December 2001, included a proposal that Ouattara be granted a certificate of nationality. His three counterparts, the communique said, asked him to apply for the certificate.
In September 2000, the Supreme Court barred Ouattara from taking part in presidential and parliamentary elections on nationality grounds. Over 300 people, mainly Ouattara supporters died during subsequent election related violence in October and December 2000.
The communique also declared a ban on coup d'etats and other undemocratic means of obtaining power, a reference to the 24 December 1999 coup that ousted Bedie and brought Guei to power. Other proposals adopted included creating a national body to address land-related conflicts, and setting up a government of national unity.
SENEGAL: Response to appeal good, but more needed
The national and international response to Senegal's appeal for aid to victims of cold weather in the north four weeks ago, has been favourable but needs to be sustained to rebuild affected areas and lives, according to Boubacar Traore, head of the national committee in charge of the relief effort.
Since the appeal was launched on 17 January, donations have come from countries including Algeria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Libya and the United States.
On Friday, the UN World Food Programme ended a 500 mt rice distribution programme to about 10,000 families in the districts of Saint-Louis and Louga, the two areas in northern Senegal which were most affected.
Between 9 and 11 January, heavy rains and cold temperatures resulted in the deaths of 28 people. About 179,000 more were affected when heavy rain washed away houses, businesses, livestock and crops.
WEST AFRICA: Niger Basin countries plan judicious use of water
The nine member countries of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) met in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on 16-17 February to examine ways to ensure that the waters of River Niger and its tributaries are used in an ecologically balanced way.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo proposed at Saturday's opening session of the meeting that member states suspend all capital projects that affect the Niger and its tributaries until studies had been carried out to determine that such projects would be in the interest of all countries concerned.
Four member states, Benin, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, were represented by their presidents, while Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea sent other senior officials. President Alpha Konare of Mali is the current chairman of the Abuja-based organisation.
AFRICA: Conference pledges to help conflict-affected civilians
A three-day conference, which attracted African parliamentarians, law experts and others, ended on Wednesday in Niger with participants pledging to alleviate the burden of civilians during times of conflict, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported.
In the final declaration, the participants acknowledged the negative impact that armed conflicts and other forms of violence have had on the continent. They listed good governance, rule of law and respect for human rights as the "best prevention" for the protection of civilians, particularly vulnerable groups such as women, children and elderly. According to the ICRC, the seminar also encouraged parliamentarians to promote international law, particularly by signing international treaties and pushing for their adoption within their respective national legislatures.
Held in Niger's capital, Niamey, participants included Angola, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda. The seminar was organised in collaboration with the African Interparliamentary Union, Canada, Norway and Switzerland.
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