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BURKINA FASO: Human rights leader detained
In a clamp down on anti-government demonstrations this week security forces arrested three political opponents in Ouagadougou on Thursday, the Union Interafricaine des droits de l'homme (UIDH) said.
The union said its president, Halidou Ouedraogo, and the others were arrested in their homes early today.
The other two men detained are the secretary-general of the Confederation Generale du Travail du Burkina et vice president du Collectif, Tole Sagnon, and Norbert Tiendrebeogo, the president of the Front des Forces Sankaristes that represents a body calling itself le groupe du 14 fevrier au Collectif.
[See separate item 'BURKINA FASO: Human rights leader detained']
WESTERN SAHARA: Settlement plan stuck, Says UN envoy
The UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara, James Baker, said on Wednesday as he ended a four-day tour to the region that a territorial settlement plan over the disputed land was stuck but not dead.
"It is very much still alive but it is in the ditch," he said, in a news conference in Madrid, Spain.
Bakar, a former US secretary of state, toured Western Sahara, Morocco and Algeria to try and nudge the parties to a referendum on whether Western Sahara should become independent or be part of Morocco. Algeria backs the Polisario, a Western Saharan guerrilla force that has been fighting Morocco for independence of the former Spanish colony which Rabat annexed in 1975.
One of the major obstacles to holding the referendum is agreement on the eligibility of voters. In a report released on 18 February, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO, had in addition to 79,000 appeals from people wishing to vote, the prospect of receiving 60,000 more. In December 1999, Annan said the appeals process could delay the referendum beyond 2002 and asked Baker to consult the parties on ways of resolving their differences
GUINEA-BISSAU: Government protests aerial bombing
Guinea-Bissau protested to Senegal on Wednesday for what it said was the aerial bombing of the northern border areas of Cutima and Jumbembem between 96 km and 112 km northeast of the capital, Bissau, Lusa reported.
"The Senegalese military planes were allegedly pursuing rebels of the Movement of Casamance Democratic Forces," Lusa said.
Guinea-Bissau Defence Minister Fernando Correia Ladim told Lusa that an estimate of casualties was not yet available but that investigations into Tuesday's raid, which he termed an accident, were continuing.
However, MFDC spokesman Alexandre Djiba told IRIN on Thursday his movement had no guerrillas in the zones bombed. He did, however, acknowledge that fighting had resumed on Monday in Kolda and that the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) would meet later today to ascertain who started the shooting. The Senegalese army headquarters said that "an enemy" attacked its position at Sare Wari, in the Kolda Region on Monday.
Djiba blamed the Senegalese media for always "spreading the lie" that MFDC guerrillas raid Casamance from Guinea-Bissau.
GAMBIA: Government closes schools
Gambian authorities have ordered the immediate closure of all schools and tertiary educational institutions following two days of student riots in the Greater Banjul area and in some other parts of the country, according to local news reports.
State House, the office of the president, condemned what it said was the "irresponsible and senseless behaviour" of the demonstrators who caused "extensive damage" to private and public property.
Government said the rioting, in which 12 people were officially confirmed dead and 28 hospitalised, "was incited by GAMSU and aggravated by some bad elements and bandits".
Therefore, the government said, GAMSU (the Gambia Students Union) and anybody linked to the destruction "must bear full responsibility" and answer for the carnage.
Thousands of demonstrators burnt cars, telecommunications and other facilities in the Greater Banjul area in protest against an autopsy report on the earlier death of Ebrima Barry, a high school student. He died after allegedly being beaten by firemen in the town of Brikama, about 30 km south of Banjul. The six accused firefighters are being held in remand.
SIERRA LEONE: Army chief flown home for urgent medical care
Sierra Leone's chief of defence staff, Brigadier General Maxwell Khobe, has been flown to Nigeria for urgent medical treatment, presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai told IRIN on Thursday.
"He left Freetown on Tuesday and arrived safely in Abuja the same evening," Kaikai said. "Reports I received yesterday said he was responding relatively well to treatment but I have no information on his condition today."
Kaikai was unable to give details of Kobe's illness but the Sierra Leone News Agency reported reliable sources as saying that his condition was "very serious".
Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has designated Colonel Tom Carew acting chief of defence staff.
Khobe commanded the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, that drove Major Johnny Paul Koroma's military junta from power in February 1998 and restored Kabbah, who Koroma had toppled the previous year. After Kabbah's restoration, Kobe - an officer in the Nigerian army - was then seconded to the Sierra Leonean military as chief of defence staff.
NIGERIA: Curfew in Kaduna lifted
The Kaduna State government has lifted the curfew imposed since violent rioting erupted in February in the city of Kaduna between Muslims and Christians, state radio announced.
Radio Nigeria-Kaduna quoted a statement by the governor as saying on Wednesday that security agencies would continue city patrols to "ensure law and order". The ban on processions, demonstrations and unauthorised meetings was still in force.
The violence in Kaduna began on 21 February and lasted several days following a march organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to protest the proposed introduction of Islamic law in the state of Kaduna. The violence spread to other parts of Nigeria and hundreds of people were killed. In response to the crisis President Olusegun Obasanjo called a National Council of State meeting for the 19 northern governors on 29 February, after which they appeared to agree to return to the legal code in existence since independence in 1960.
NIGERIA: Delta State hails derivation move
Delta State governor James Ibori has welcomed President Olusegun Obasanjo's immediate approval of the 13 percent derivation principle of revenue allocation for oil producing states, 'The Guardian' reported on Thursday.
"It was a step in the right direction and restated the resolve of the leaders of the south-south zone that the payment be made effective from May 1999 when the enabling constitution became operational," Ibori said. The revenue is to be used to develop the Niger Delta.
He dismissed recent reports that the leaders of the zone should have supported the recent call for a sovereign national conference, saying that the zone believes strongly in the existing federal system.
COTE D'IVOIRE: WFP approves aid for 15,000 displaced
The World Food Programme has recently approved about US $1.6-million for an emergency operation to feed some 15,000 people originating from Burkina Faso who were forced to flee Cote d'Ivoire in November after a land dispute.
WFP aims to distribute at least 2,300 mt of food between March and November to cover the needs of the displaced population until the next harvest. At least 70 percent of them are women and children, the WFP said.
"During their flight, these people left behind all their possessions and most of them are completely destitute," Stefano Porretti, the WFP Deputy Country Director in Burkina Faso, said.
The displaced people reportedly fled neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire because of extreme insecurity and many said they were victims of vandalism. Most want to return to Cote d'Ivoire to recover their property and resume their lives there but this appears unlikely in the near future, WFP said.
Abidjan, 13 April 2000, 18:15 GMT
[ENDS]
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