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CHAD: UNHCR completes repatriation
UNHCR has repatriated the last 2,000 Chadian refugees who had lived in the camp of Bobou in the Central African Republic (CAR). The refugees were driven in convoys to the southern town of Gore, across the border from CAR, where they were each given three-month rations of rice, sugar, salt and oil.
They were among 14,000 people who had fled Chad in the wake of political upheavals under Chad's former ruler Hissene Habre. Their repatriation on 14-23 January concluded a process that started in 1995 following an agreement between Chad, CAR and the UN agency. UNHCR said that many of the refugees had lived in the camp for more than 15 years.
NIGERIA: Court dismisses suit against Sharia
A high court in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara has dismissed a suit filed by three Christians challenging the legality of the state government's decision to adopt strict Islamic law, 'The Guardian' daily reported on Friday.
In dismissing the suit filed by Yunana Shibkau, Dr. Emman Shehu and Evangelist D. Ishaya, Justice Kulu Aliyu of the High Court in the state capital, Gusau, ruled that it was "an abuse of [the] judicial process", the paper said. Another reason he gave for dismissing the case was that the plaintiffs had already filed a similar suit in another Zamfara court.
Zamfara adopted the Sharia last year. While officials say the law applies only to Muslims, Christians in the state have alleged that their constitutional rights are being violated by the application of the code.
NIGERIA: Militants vow to remain at seized oil facilities
Ijaw militants who seized three oil pumping facilities owned by Royal/Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta have vowed to continue their action until their demands for jobs and amenities for their communities are met, a local newspaper reported on Friday.
'The Guardian', a Lagos daily, reported that negotiations between Shell and the militants, who have occupied the facilities since Saturday, had broken down.
The daily reported that President Olusegun Obasanjo's government had sent troops into the area with instructions not to engage the militants while a peaceful solution was being sought to the stand-off.
Youths from impoverished communities in the Delta, the country's main oil-producing area, have often disrupted oil production to draw attention to the lack of amenities, widespread unemployment and environmental degradation which their people have suffered for decades.
NIGERIA: Over 6,000 dead in road crashes
A total of 6,797 people died and more than 20,000 were injured in 12,000 road accidents recorded in Nigeria in 2000, the French news agency, AFP, reported on Thursday quoting official figures released by the Federal Road Safety Corps.
Last year's deaths were 14.28 percent more than the 5,921 recorded in 1999, while the number of the injured rose by 14.1 percent from 18,001 in 1999 to 20,555.
According to the report, heavy traffic on poorly maintained roads, in addition to dangerous driving, accounted for the high accident rates.
NIGER: Tourists survive attack by bandits
A group of US and Austrian tourists who survived an attack by Malian-based Tuareg bandits in the Air mountains of northern Niger have arrived safely in the capital, Niamey, humanitarian sources quoted state radio as reporting on Friday.
The radio reported that the army had been sent in pursuit of the attackers, whose exact strength was unknown. AFP, quoting an unnamed military source, reported them to be around 20. They attacked tourists in the northern town of Iferoune, stealing four of their all-terrain vehicles and 45 million francs CFA (about US $64,000) in cash.
The country director of the Adventist Development Relief Agency, Dioi Cruz, told IRIN that the same group of Malian Tuaregs, who operate in the Air mountains, were thought to have attacked the Paris-Dakar motor rally last year. Their activity - like that of bandits in northern Mali - revolves around attacking tourists and aid workers, and stealing their all-terrain vehicles.
CAPE VERDE: New PAICV government sworn in
A new government took over in Cape Verde on Thursday with the swearing in of Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves, whose Partido Africano da Independencia de Cabo Verde (PAICV) won parliamentary elections in January, the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported.
In his acceptance speech, Neves, whose party led the West African archipelago to independence in 1975 and was in opposition for 10 years before the recent elections, promised "to work with the people", Lusa said.
President Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro said the new cabinet would run the country until the new parliament is convened. In the meantime, campaigns continue for a presidential election to be held on 11 February.
TOGO: UNDP supports good governance with US $2.6 m
Togo will get US $2.6 million from the United Nations Development Programme to restore its administrative capability and rebuild relations with the international community, UNDP reported on Thursday.
Under the three-year project UNDP will rehabilitate the national statistical office, shore up the national audit office to improve oversight and, it said, "strengthen management of economic and social development programmes".
The initiative also aims to reduce Togo's international isolation by re-establishing relations with major development partners such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The UNDP says this could be achieved by rehabilitating government departments directly involved in development policies, planning and macro-economic management.
Additional measures, UNDP said, required government's presence at all local levels, oversight of public finance and the creation of a poverty and sustainable human development observatory. The package will also support the first national census since 1981.
Togo ranks 145th on the UNDP Human Development Index. Most budgetary and development aid for institutional support for the government was suspended in 1993 because of a charged political environment.
BURKINA FASO: UNICEF to fund poverty-alleviation programme
UNICEF is to provide 27 billion CFA francs (about US $40 million) for a five-year poverty-alleviation programme in Burkina Faso under an agreement signed on Thursday with the Burkinabe government, UNICEF said in a communique. The programme is aimed, among other things, at improving the living conditions of children and women and promoting their rights.
COTE D'IVOIRE: France resumes aid
France has resumed aid to Cote d'Ivoire after a 14-month suspension in reaction to a coup on 24 December 1999, the French Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
France will provide at least US $7 million for health, agriculture and education. French officials will be attached to these ministries to oversee the use of the funds. France said it had made this gesture to help its former colony regain its "stability and democracy".
COTE D'IVOIRE: Nigerians secure
Nigeria has said its citizens in Cote d'Ivoire are safe despite the reported wave of anti-foreigner sentiments in the country, according to a foreign ministry spokesman. Several West African communities have been victimized by locals following a series of events, especially the failed coup d'etat of 7-8 January, in which the government alleged foreigners were implicated.
Abidjan, 2 February 2001; 18:15 GMT
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