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SIERRA LEONE: Pakistan to send 4,000 troops
Pakistan is to send over 4,000 soldiers to join the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), UN deputy spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said on Thursday in New York.
"The details of their deployment, including discussions on equipment, logistics and transportation requirements, are still being worked out," he reported. The government of Nepal is also "actively considering" offering a battalion which would bring UNAMSIL close to its newly authorised strength of 17,500, Silva added.
There are currently just over 12,000 UN troops in Sierra Leone. The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on 31 March to increase UNAMSIL's troop strength and extend its mandate by six months.
SIERRA LEONE: Nearly 300,000 children receive polio vaccine
A total of 296,017 children under five years were vaccinated against polio during the second round of immunisation days in rebel-held territory in Sierra Leone, UNICEF announced in its 20-26 March situation report.
Ninety percent coverage was achieved in the 52 targeted chiefdoms in seven districts: Bombali, Kambia and Koinadugu, in northern Sierra Leone; Port Loko, northeast of Freetown; the central district of Tonkolili, and Kailahun and Kono districts in the east of the country.
During the first round in the same areas on 16 and 17 February, 289,777 children, some 87 percent of those targeted, were immunised. UNICEF, WHO, Rotary International and USAID provided financial and technical support to the Ministry of Health for the immunisation days.
Meanwhile UNICEF has provided 919 pairs of slippers, 230 sleeping mats, 270 buckets and 78 bales of used clothing and recreational kits to seven of its child-protection partners in Freetown and Kenema, some 230 km east of the capital. The items are to be distributed to children at interim care centres in the Western Area of Freetown, and the southern and eastern provinces.
GUINEA: Amnesty wants UNAMSIL to protect Guineans, refugees
Amnesty International (AI) said on Thursday that troops of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and a proposed ECOWAS force should be mandated to protect thousands of refugees and Guinean civilians fleeing fighting between Guinean troops and insurgents from Sierra Leone.
"It is time to bring this West African human rights disaster to an end," AI said.
It also wants the peacekeepers to be authorised to do strong human rights monitoring. Amnesty's appeal came after an assessment mission it sent recently to southern Guinea found "overwhelming evidence of violence from ... many directions".
Refugees interviewed recounted experiences of torture and rape, and reported disappearances. Amnesty said nine refugees arrested in Forecariah in September 2000 - when the insurgency started - had disappeared. In a more recent incident, Guinean troops rounded up refugees purportedly for identity checks but held them in "appalling conditions" in a local prison, Amnesty reported.
However, most of the complaints were of atrocities committed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Amnesty documented the killing, raping and abduction of Guinean men, women and children by the RUF during its incursions in mid-December 2000 in southern Guinea.
LIBERIA: Thousands flee fighting
Thousands of civilians have been fleeing heavy fighting between government troops and insurgents in upper Lofa County, northern Liberia, Defence Minister Daniel Chea told reporters on Wednesday. He said the civilians were heading south to lower Lofa.
Chea described the fighting - in Foya and Kolahun - as serious but denied claims that the insurgents, who call themselves Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, had seized control of a vast swathe of territory. Chea said government troops still controlled the provincial towns of Voinjama, Vahun and Zorzor. He blamed the cross-border attacks on Guinea, which has made similar charges against Liberia.
BURKINA FASO: Commission created to counter arms flow
Burkina Faso's government has created a commission to control the proliferation of light weapons and oversee implementation of the international ban on anti-personnel mines, PANA reported on Thursday.
It quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying that the body would come under the office of the prime minister. The commission was created following the decision by African countries, at a January meeting in Bamako, to act against the circulation of light and small weapons.
In December 2000, Burkina Faso decided to set up a body to monitor weapons imports amid persistent allegations that it was a source of weapons for anti-government forces in Sierra Leone and Angola. The UN has since accused Ouagadougou of violating the embargo on trade in arms and diamonds with the two rebel forces.
NIGER: Mental health programme needed
Niger's government says the country needs a nationwide programme to provide better mental health care for its 12 million people, PANA reported Health Minister Assoumane Adamou as saying on Thursday, World Health Day.
Health authorities are worried by a recent survey which showed that 69 of 468 homes had at least one mentally ill member, a prevalence rate of 14.7 percent, PANA reported.
The study, it added, showed that 110,000 people were experiencing serious mental illnesses and another 200,000 had less serious problems. Adoumou said on Wednesday that patients and their relatives often hid mental illness because of the social stigma attached to it.
Abidjan, 6 April 2001; 15:30 GMT
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