Freetown, Sierra Leone (PANA) - Sierra Leone has obtained 2 million Euros from the European Union (EU) to finance the emergency rehabilitation of power supply lines in Freetown.
The funds will be made available under an agreement signed by Economic Planning and Development Minister Mohamed Basiru Daramy and the head of the EU delegation in Sierra Leone, Jeremy Tunnacliff.

According to a press release issued here, the funds will be used to rehabilitate power supplies to areas in the Sierra Leone capital which were disconnected during the 10-year civil war, which started in 1991.

ABIDJAN, 24 December (IRIN) - The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) has completed the first phase its troop withdrawal from Sierra Leone, a UNAMSIL official confirmed to IRIN on Tuesday.
According to the official just 600 members of the military force had returned home by last week in a withdrawal process that started in October.

"The next phase will be effected in January," the source said, adding that the pullout was a gradual process "which follows a schedule".

In September, the UN security Council

INFLUX FROM COTE D'IVOIRE INTO GUINEA
This is a summary of the humanitarian situation at the border between Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire.

Figures to date

According to Guinean Government records, some 28,000 Guinean nationals were registered by Guinean border authorities at official border points arriving from Cote d'Ivoire between 27 September and 18 December, including;

• 24,000 persons entered at border points in the Lola Prefecture;
  
  
• 2,380 in the Beyla Prefecture;
  
  
• 1,098 in the Mandiana Prefecture;
  
  

Since January 2002 when President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah officially declared Sierra Leone's brutal eleven year civil war over, numerous efforts have been made to consolidate the peace. The 14 May election in which the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group participated and was politically defeated, was, even if flawed, a significant step forward. The country seems internally secure for the first time in over a decade, despite looming trouble across the border due to fighting between Liberian government forces and the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) insurgents.

This report includes:
(A) Africa Hunger Alert Campaign

(B) Southern Africa Region: (1) Regional Overview, (2) Lesotho, (3) Malawi, (4) Mozambique, (5) Swaziland, (6) Zambia, (7) Zimbabwe, (8) Angola

(C) Eastern and Central Africa Region: (1) Eritrea, (2) Ethiopia, (3) Burundi, (4) Kenya

(D) West Africa Region: (1) Cote D'Ivoire, (2) Sierra Leone

(E) Asia Region: (1) DPR of Korea

(F) West and Central Asia Region: (1) Afghanistan, (2) Pakistan

(G) Eastern Europe Region: (1) Northern Caucasus

(H) Latin America and Caribbean Region:

ABIDJAN, 17 December (IRIN) - Judges appointed to a special court to try war crimes in Sierra Leone have appointed two of their number to preside over key chambers, the United Nations and Sierra Leone's government announced on Monday.
Geoffrey Robertson of the United Kingdom and Bankole Thompson of Sierra Leone will now head the Appeal Chamber and the Trial Chamber respectively of the Special Court for War Crimes in Sierra Leone.

According to the UN, the Special Court marks a break from similar tribunals (Rwanda and Yugoslavia), on which

PR 02/129
Rome, 17 December 2002 - Some 40 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are threatened by severe food shortages and a major humanitarian crisis is deepening in southern Africa, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

This bleak warning came in a report released by the UN food agency in Rome. It said the food situation is most serious in southern Africa, where 16.7 million people need emergency food assistance to survive until the next harvest in April 2003.

Food Supply Situation and Crop Prospects

NOW IT'S TIME TO COME UP WITH SOLUTIONS
New York City - Non-governmental organisations campaigning against the use of child soldiers today welcomed the UN Secretary-General's new report but called for follow up action on the UN list naming those parties using children in conflicts.

"We welcome the Secretary-General's naming of those parties recruiting and using child soldiers and see this

SG/A/825, AFR/532
The Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone have today announced that the judges of the Appeals and Trial Chambers of the Special Court have each elected a presiding judge. This is in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Agreement on the Establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone, signed in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 16 January 2002.

The judges of the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court have elected Geoffrey Robertson, QC as presiding judge of that Chamber. Pursuant to the Agreement, he is also the President