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IRIN Update 1066 of events in West Africa

UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
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COTE D'IVOIRE: ICRC helps IDPs in central district

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has given cleaning materials, soap and blankets to 1,400 people of Malian origin displaced by ethnic violence from the area around Lake Kossou, in central Côte d'Ivoire.

The displaced are now in five camps in the city of Bouaké, ICRC said on Thursday in the latest issue of its weekly bulletin, ICRC News 37. The emergency supplies were distributed following a needs assessment that the ICRC carried out from 12 to 15 September in cooperation with the Ivorian Red Cross.

The ethnic violence flared up in August between indigenes and people of Malian origin, who have lived as fishermen on the shores of Lake Kossou for over a generation. ICRC said thousands of people of Malian origin were forced to seek refuge in several nearby cities. Most were accommodated by relatives or friends, but those living in the camps in Bouaké "are particularly vulnerable and they are living in very bad sanitary conditions", ICRC delegate Claude Champagne said.

A number of the displaced have opted to return to Mali, while others hope they will be able to resume their activities in Côte d'Ivoire, ICRC said.

SIERRA LEONE: Tripartite meeting agrees to extend disarmament

The latest meeting of Sierra Leone's Joint Committee on Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration agreed to extend disarmament in the northern district of Koinadugu and start the process in two new areas of the country, UNAMSIL reported on Wednesday.

Tuesday's tripartite meeting, involving the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Sierra Leone's government and UNAMSIL (UN Mission in Sierra Leone), was to have taken place over two weeks ago but was postponed due to an RUF boycott.

Following a discussion on the low turnout of combatants in Koinadugu the parties agreed to extend disarmament there by two weeks. They said officials of the RUF, the pro-government Civil Defence Forces and UNAMSIL would carry out a resensitisation of combatants in the district on 20 September. The meeting also agreed that disarmament, preceded by a sensitisation programme, would begin on 24 September in the southern districts of Bombali and Bo.

The tripartite meeting also examined other aspects of the peace process and issues related to national recovery and stabilisation. It reviewed a range of political issues, including the transformation of the RUF into a political party, the question of a national consultative conference, the extension of government authority and freedom of movement of people and goods throughout the country, UNAMSIL reported.

The next meeting is due to take place in Freetown on 11 October, the UN said.

SIERRA LEONE: Political parties want electoral commission dissolved

A body representing some of Sierra Leone's registered political parties has announced its dissatisfaction with the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and said it must be dissolved before elections take place next year. The All Political Parties Association (APPA) said at a news conference on Wednesday that it had no confidence in the composition of NEC. It added that it should be reconstituted in the interest of fair play, transparency and the need for credible elections, the BBC reported.

LIBERIA: House endorses decision to help US fight terrorism

Liberia's legislature on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution supporting moves by the administration of President Charles Taylor to help Washington fight terrorism, the pro-government Radio Liberia International reported. The resolution gives Liberia's government a mandate to engage the country's security network in global efforts to combat the terrorists who attacked America and others all over the world. The legislators pledged full support to the government for "whatever step it would take in combating terrorism".

SENEGAL: President urges creation of African anti-terrorism pact

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade on Wednesday proposed the creation of an African pact against terrorism, Radio France International (RFI) reported. Speaking on RFI, he said the move would help the continent "to team up with the world coalition against this evil". Wade, who was passing through Paris, added: "This African pact against terrorism will be an element in the world pact against terrorism, in which European and NATO countries have engaged themselves."

The African pact would work in coordination with the other organisations "in providing information or taking actions", according to Wade. "A second element is the commitment of each African state not to indulge in terrorist acts or terrorist groups; not to accept on its territory individuals or groups with terrorist intentions; and finally to accept every African or international inspection of its territory if there are indications that terrorist activities are being prepared there," he said.

NIGERIA: Consulate compiles list of missing Nigerians

Nigeria is compiling a list of its nationals in New York, particularly those who worked at the World Trade Centre (WTC) and who are so far unaccounted for, in an effort to determine how many Nigerians died in the 11 September terrorist attacks in the US city, and their identities. The country's consul general in New York, Taofiq Oseni, said the consulate had opened a list so that Nigerians whose relatives worked at the WTC could give such information, 'The Guardian' daily newspaper reported on Thursday. Oseni said, however, that the response "was not encouraging".

On the other hand, people had been calling the consulate from Nigeria to ask about their relatives, the Lagos daily reported. "We are working with New York city authorities and the police. We are expected to provide the list of Nigerians we get in the city and they will in turn confirm the names of those affected," the paper quoted him as saying. Oseni also planned to meet leaders of Nigerian community groups in and around New York to ask for their help, 'The Guardian' said.

NIGERIA: Red Cross aids victims of communal fighting

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in conjunction with the Nigerian Red Cross began distributing relief supplies on Tuesday to some 15,000 people "who are now in safety" after being displaced by fighting between Christians and Muslims in Jos, central Nigeria.

The displaced persons lost everything in the fighting, which erupted on 7 September. They received blankets, sleeping mats, plastic sheeting, buckets, soap and cooking utensils, the committee said in Thursday's issue of ICRC News.

ICRC said it had initially responded to the crisis by sending enough emergency medical supplies to treat some 2,000 injured people. "A delegate went to the scene to provide logistical support for the work in progress, assess security conditions and, above all, draw up a plan to meet any needs that had not been covered by action already taken by the authorities or other humanitarian organisations," ICRC said. "By the end of last week, several thousand people had returned to their homes while those whose homes had been destroyed stayed wherever they could.

"Many others left for other parts of the country," ICRC added. It quoted sources close to the government as reporting 500 dead. "The Red Cross counted 928 people injured," it added. "Hundreds of vehicles were set alight and some neighbourhoods were completely destroyed."

NIGERIA: Bill on child trafficking and labour

More than 200 victims of traffickers of women and children have been sent back to Nigeria from various countries within one month, according to reports received by a presidential committee set up to fight the trafficking of human beings. This was disclosed this week by the chairman of the committee, Minister of State for Justice Musa Elayo Abdullahi, according to 'The Guardian' daily.

President Olusegun Obasanjo established the committee on 23 August when the president of the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF), presented 33 victims of human trafficking to him. The foundation is headed by the wife of Nigeria's vice president.

Abdullahi said the Presidential Committee on Human Trafficking and Child Labour had received reports of 262 additional Nigerian victims of human traffickers repatriated between 21 August and 15 September from countries such as Algeria, Benin, Niger, Saudi Arabia and Spain.

The minister was speaking during a visit he paid to the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives to discuss a bill on the establishment of a national agency that would deal with the trafficking of persons and child labour, 'The Guardian' reported. The Deputy speaker is sponsoring the bill on WOTCLEF's behalf.

AFRICA: Meeting on water resources opens

A two-day meeting on water resources in Africa opened on Thursday in Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital, Abidjan, according to the African Development Bank (ADB), which is hosting and coordinating the event.

The meeting is discussing the rapid development of Africa's water resources within the framework of integrated management of such resources, the ADB said in a news release. The development of water resources should be viewed as part of an overall poverty reduction strategy providing water to meet the basic requirements for a healthy society and environment, food security, energy production and other socio-economic development needs, it added. Programmes and initiatives of other development partners including those of the Economic Commission for Africa and other UN bodies, the European Union, the World Water Council and the government of The Netherlands, will also be discussed.

Participants include representatives of the ADB and regional and non-regional development partners in the water sector.

Abidjan, 20 September 2001; 18:15 GMT

[ENDS]

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