I. IMPORTANT EVENTS
Disarmament, Demobilization and Rehabilitation (DDR) Meeting

The first sub regional Disarmament, Demobilization and Rehabilitation Meeting organized by the Office of the United Nations in West Africa took place on 21 May 2004 in Dakar. Participants included representatives of the United Nations Missions in Liberia; Sierra Leone; Guinea Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire , National Commissions of DDR and development partners. Experiences were exchanged and views on the different DDR programs shared. The effects and impact of the current DDR activities on surrounding countries, the special attention needed to address women combatants and child soldiers as well as the role of mercenaries were discussed. It was recommended, to continue to collaborate across borders in order to achieve harmonization of the various programs. Participants agreed on the need to define a regional DDR strategy in order to ensure the proliferation and distribution of small arms and light weapons is appropriately addressed in the overall framework for DDR.

CEN-SAD Meeting

The Community of Sahelo Saharan States held its 6th summit from May 15 to 16 , 2004 in Mali: Gathering about half of the African continent (22 Member States) , the summit accepted 4 new members: Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Ghana and Liberia. Freedom of movement of people within ECOWAS as well as the of goods, the creation of an institute for migration studies , adoption of a security convention among and between states were issues that were discussed. In addition, a protocol on a mechanism of prevention for conflicts was signed. The question of peace in Côte d'Ivoire was raised and it was recommended to the various parties to the conflict to reflect on an internal solution .

JICA Regional Office

Mrs. Sadako Ogata (President of JICA), visited Dakar recently and announced on May 10th 2004 that a regional office of JICA (Japanese co-operation) will be opened in Dakar. The objective of the regional office is to reinforce JICA's activities in West Africa. This initiative fits well with the request of humanitarian actors to reinforce regional presence of donors in Dakar.

Seminar of RECAMP (Reinforcement of African Peacekeeping Capabilities) IV

RECAMP has organized a seminar from 24 - 28 May 2004 in in Accra. The seminar was jointly organized by the ministries for the Foreign Affairs and the Defense of France and Ghana and aimed at establishing a common analysis and reflex ion of diplomatic and military personnel. The seminar focused on managing crisis and conflict as well as preparing for peace. Reinforcing capacity of ECOWAS in that respect was a goal that will also be maintained for the common maneuvers of West African troops planned for the end of November to the end of December 2004 in Benin under the supervision of the European Union and Canada.

The African Union Council of Peace and Security

The African Union has established a Council of Peace and Security in order to address the violent conflicts on the continent. The President of the Republic of Nigeria Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo has assumed the presidency. The Council was created taking the United Nations Security Council as a model and is already operational. It has already taken measures concerning the crisis in Darfour where it intends to send observers to monitor the cease fire signed since April 8th.2004 The Council has the authority to deploy a peace mission to any member country of the African Union in the event of crimes against humanity, of genocide and war crimes. By 2010 it is envisaged to have created a 15,000 men strong force due to be stationed in their respective countries and ready for deployment on request of the council.

II. SECURITY AND POLITICAL SITUATION

GUINEE BISSAU

The new Guinean Bissau government was established on May 12, 2004 .All 24 ministers, have been nominated from the PAIGC party which won the last legislative elections. The president of the board of inquiry into the irregularities during the legislative elections of March 28th and 30th 2004 presented his resignation on May 21, 2004. He justified his resignation by the indifference of certain members' vis-à-vis to the activities of the aforementioned commission.

NIGERIA

Violent confrontations in and around Yelwa caused hundreds of deaths at the beginning on May. Two reports on the situation in Nigeria were established.

MAURITANIA

Close relations of the former candidate to the presidential elections of November 2003 Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah announced the creation of a new political party on May 18th 2004 Assawab (the" right way" in arabic) filed an application for approval to the Ministry for the Interior. Contrary to the Party of Democratic Convergence (PCD) that was created at the beginning of April, this application has been accepted by the Ministry and a provisional receipt has been issued. The receipt is valid for two months thereafter the party will be authorized to start its activities except if the ministry rejects the application.

SENEGAL

From 1st to 3rd May 2004 an inter MFDC (Movement of the Democratic Forces of Casamance) meeting was held. The various factions of the MFDC were due to consider strategies to be put in place for the return to peace. However, due to the absence of the military chiefs the issue could not be resolved.. This shows that the crisis within the MFDC continuous to prevail and hampers the efforts already undertaken for the achievement of peace.

MALI

In order to improve the response capacity to natural disasters in Mali, the Government of Mali, UNDP , the Office for Public Security as well as the local authorities collaborate in a program that aims to reinforce their capacities in disaster prevention as well as their management. UNDP will allocate 350 000 US $ for services of national and international experts, training and equipment and will work in collaboration with the Office for the Coordination of the Humane Affairs (OCHA), the International Strategy of Disaster Reduction (ISDR) , the Institute of the United Nations for Training and Research and the World Food Program.

MALI /NIGER

Members of the Salafist Group GSPC in the North of Mali and Niger have stopped their activities following concerted efforts of the Algerian authorities to secure the southern region.. The government of Mali has already received support in the form of training and logistics from the American military. Mali has now requested more support from France in order to combat against terrorism.

Invasion of Locusts

More than 100 000 acres are infested by locusts in the "Aïr Massif" in the North of Niger. This invasion constitutes a potential risk for the South of the country which is the agricultural zone of Niger. The Government of Niger has undertaken a number of measures during the past 8 months to eradicate the locusts. A monitoring center has been set up at Agadez in the North of the country Morocco declared itself ready to support Niger to limit this invasion.

Exploitation of the children

A network of traffic of children has been dismantled in Bobo Dioulasso and Faramna in Burkina Faso. About thirty children from 8 to 17 years old were prepared to be exported illegally to Mali where they were to be hired by the day on farms. The traffickers were stopped by the police force at the time when they tried to infiltrate the children into Mali.

In the first week of May UNICEF has published a report revealing that sexual exploitation of children in Gambia has increased.

Medical Risks

Cholera: 21 deaths have been reported from Mali over a two week period and an overall caseload of 93 that occurred approximately 350 km north of Bamako, in the village of TLA. The causes of this epidemic seem to be identified and measures have been taken by Malian authorities to control the epidemic. In the west of Niger, in the border area of Tillabéry in Mali, cholera has also occurred and 5 people out of 117 cases have been killed.

Meningitis: The Ministry for the Health of Burkina Faso has reported the outbreak of meningitis cerebro-spinale that has killed 816 people out of 4558 cases listed for the period of January 1st to 14th May, 2004. In March, an official assessment has been undertaken and the total number of deaths has been identified with 403 out of 2060 cases. The two districts, most affected are Diebougou and Nanoro in the west of the country. A monitoring system has been set up by the government and vaccination campaigns in the affected areas have been undertaken..

Yellow fever: The Government of Burkina Faso announced on May 13rd that there were 25 suspect cases of yellow fever in Bobo Dioulasso and Gaoua which are a cities close to the border with Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Among these suspect cases, 4 were confirmed. The authorities are very concerned as one proven case of yellow fever is already considered as an epidemic. The 4 confirmed cases were identified in Bobo Dioulasso which is the second largest city of Burkina with about 400 000 inhabitants. WHO has recommended that the vaccine against yellow fever be added to the package of vaccine intended to immunize children.

III. COORDINATION

The humanitarian coordinating meeting took place on May 11,2004 The contingency plans of Côte d'Ivoire and the sub region were discussed. For the questions relating to protection, it was announced that an expert in charge of protection will join the OCHA RSO team for a two week period and will focus on determining the priorities of a regional protection strategy In order to prevent and to better manage humanitarian crises in the sub region, humanitarian affairs officers will be recruited locally in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana to ensure appropriate liaison with the RSO, improved analysis and early warning as well as contingency planning.

IV. MOBILIZATION OF THE RESOURCES

Appealing	Original Requirements	Revised Requirements	Pledges	Contributions	Total	Unmet Requirements	% Covered
FAO	738,700	564,450	0	0	0	564,450	0.0%
IOM	1,310,000	1,060,000	0	0	0	1,060,000	0.0%
OCHA	1,323,239	1,278,299	259,783	655,856	915,639	362,660	71.6%
OHCHR	200,000	200,000	0	0	0	200,000	0.0%
UNFPA	662,500	327,339	0	0	0	327,339	0.0%
UNICEF	2,080,625	1,625,137	649,457	0	649,457	975,680	40.0%
WFP	113,387,545	102,885,812	0	45,744,702	45,744,702	57,141,110	44.5%
WHO	1,057,700	480,049	0	0	0	480,049	0.0%
GRAND TOTAL	120,760,309	108,421,086	909,240	46,400,558	47,309,798	61,111,288	43.6%

V. CALENDER OF EVENTS

Date	Event	Venue	Agency	Contact details
June 1st -3rd	Consultative Workshop WFP 2005-2006	Abidjan	WFP
June 3rd- 4th	Seminar on the Cooperation for prevention and security in West Africa	Dakar	African Commission of Human Rights
June 17th	Humanitarian Coordination Meeting and Protection Group Meeting	FICR Dakar	UN Agencies, NGOs, International Organisations, Donors	Lissa@irin.ci
June 21th -29th	Visit of the Security Council Delegation	WA	UNOWA